Ex-NFL Star Aaron Hernandez Back in Court
Published at | Updated at
Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(BOSTON) — Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez will be in court Monday in connection with the first-degree murder charges that have kept him behind bars since his arrest for the alleged execution-style slaying of a Boston man in June.
Hernandez, 23, is slated to appear at a hearing at the Fall River Justice Center where his defense attorneys are expected to argue that prosecutors have violated a gag order put in place by the court. Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter has denied the defense claims.
The ex-NFL standout is charged with the murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd. Lloyd was found shot dead in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez’s North Attleborough, Mass., mansion. Hernandez has denied the charges.
Investigators say Hernandez shot and killed Lloyd because the victim had been seen talking to people “he had a problem with” at a nightclub. Two associates of the former football player, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, are also charged with being accessories to the alleged murder.
They’ve pleaded not guilty.
A Massachusetts judge last week put a lien on the Hernandez home, estimated at $1.25 million, after the family of Odin Lloyd filed a wrongful death civil suit against him. The suit alleges that Hernandez “maliciously, willfully, wantonly, recklessly or by gross negligence caused Odin Lloyd to suffer personal injuries that directly resulted in his death.” That suit seeks unspecified damages.
Separately, Hernandez is still considered a suspect by Suffolk County prosecutors in a July 2012 triple shooting in Boston’s South End that left two men dead and the third wounded. Investigators are presenting evidence to a grand jury in connection with that shooting, according to prosecutors.
His lawyers have not commented on that investigation.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio