Fall River, MA – Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was indicted Thursday by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Odin Lloyd.
Along with the murder indictment, he was also indicted on five weapons charges. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Hernandez is being charged with the killing of Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player from the Boston area who was dating the sister of Hernandez's girlfriend.
Hernandez appeared in Attleboro District Court on Thursday to hear the court announce the indictment. The case will be dismissed from District Court after Hernandez has been arraigned in Superior Court on the indictment, Judge Stephen Ostrach said. He set a further hearing in his court for Aug. 30 and ordered Hernandez to continue being held without bail.
Prosecutors say Hernandez and two other men, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, drove with Lloyd to a North Attleboro industrial park, where Lloyd was shot multiple times and left for dead. A jogger found Lloyd's body on June 17.
Hernandez was mad at Lloyd for what happened a few days earlier, when Lloyd talked to people Hernandez had problems with at a Boston nightclub.
Wallace has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact, while Ortiz has pleaded not guilty to illegally carrying a firearm. Both are being held in jail without bail.
According to court records filed in South Florida, Ortiz told authorities that Wallace called Hernandez the shooter.
Authorities currently don't have the murder weapon, which they believe was a .45-caliber Glock pistol.
Hernandez is also under investigation for allegedly participating in a 2012 double homicide in Boston.
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