AARON HERNANDEZ’S MURDER TRIAL TESTIMONY
- Steven Topazio wrote this February 25, 2015 at 1:53 am
Prosecutors today sought to use testimony of former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez’s housekeeper in his murder trial to bolster their assertion that Hernandez’s fiancée Shayanna Jenkins, took steps to hide the missing murder weapon. Hernandez’s fiancée has been charged as an accessory to murder for her suspected involvement in assisting Hernandez after he allegedly killed Lloyd.
Carla Barbosa, a housekeeper who cleaned Aaron Hernandez’s North Attleboro home three times, testified that she saw Hernandez’s fiancée holding a trash bag on June 18, 2013, the day after Odin Lloyd’s murder. Barbosa further testified that she saw Jenkins holding the trash bag tightly and then put it in the trunk of a red car. Barbosa claimed that Jenkins then asked her to move her car so she could leave.
Hernandez, 25, is on trial in the killing of Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s then-fiancée at the time of his death. There have been questions where the slaying occurred, although the victim’s body was later found at an industrial plant. Aaron Hernandez and two accomplices, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, are accused of allegedly shooting Odin Lloyd multiple times. Lloyd was a linebacker for a semi-professional football team; the Boston Bandits. The gun used in the Lloyd’s 2013 murder was never recovered.
Hernandez faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. Through the testimony of the housekeeper, the prosecution is suggesting that Hernandez’s fiancée disposed of the murder weapon that killed Lloyd. Although Hernandez’s defense elicited testimony from Barbosa that she didn’t know what was in the trash bag and that the trash bag could of in fact contained only trash, the prosecution will argue that this type of circumstantial evidence relies on the inference that the murder weapon was in the trash bag to connect it to their conclusion that the murder weapon was disposed of by Hernandez’s fiancée. Proving Lloyd’s murder in the absence of the murder weapon is possible but makes the conviction harder to prove because it forces the prosecutor to rely on circumstantial evidence as opposed to direct evidence.
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human. First degree murder is a crime that is defined by statute as “committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life…”
Generally the crime of first degree murder requires a premeditated state of mind which distinguishes first degree murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter). Malice aforethought has been defined as the deliberate and premeditated (prior intent) killing of another motivated by ill will.
Boston Criminal Attorney Steven J. Topazio
Steven Topazio has been a criminal defense attorney for over 29 years and represents the wrongfully accused throughout Boston and Massachusetts. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, 10.0 Superb by AVVO, a Top 100 Trial Attorney and holds membership in the invite-only American Society of Legal Advocates.
If you have been charged with a crime, contact Attorney Steven J Topazio. He believes everyone is entitled to the Best Defense and is prepared to investigate every aspect of the allegations and circumstances of your case in order to build an aggressive defense.
