FALL RIVER, Mass. — The judge overseeing Aaron Hernandez’s murder trial on Friday denied a request by his defense team to bar police surveillance video that shows the former New England Patriots player using a lawyer’s phone to call one of his co-defendants the day after the killing.
The video was taken in the parking lot of the North Attleboro police station June 18, 2013, the day after Odin Lloyd was killed.
Prosecutors say it shows Hernandez sitting in the car and dismantling his phone, then being given a new phone by his lawyer, Robert Jones.
Prosecutors say Hernandez is seen using the phone and calling co-defendant Ernest Wallace. Wallace and Carlos Ortiz have pleaded not guilty to the killing, which prosecutors say Hernandez orchestrated.
Hernandez’s lawyer, James Sultan, argued that Hernandez and his lawyer had the reasonable expectation of privacy. Prosecutor William McCauley said they didn’t and that the video showed “a deliberate attempt to engage in conduct to assist Mr. Wallace.”
Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh said Friday that the jury will not be told where the phone came from, just that it didn’t belong to Hernandez.
Also Friday, North Attleboro police detective Daniel Arrighi testified about going to Hernandez’s house the night of June 17, a few hours after Lloyd’s body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez’s home. Arrighi said he and a state trooper repeatedly knocked and rang the bell, and no one answered even though he saw lights on inside.
Arrighi walked around the home, then went to Hernandez’s next-door neighbor, Joe Judge, who was then an assistant coach for the Patriots. Judge called the team’s director of security, Arrighi said. A little while later, Hernandez came out of the home.
They questioned him about a Chevy Suburban he had rented, and Hernandez told them Lloyd had it, Arrighi said. They also asked when he last saw Lloyd, and Hernandez told them it was June 16.
Hernandez then got agitated, according to Arrighi, and said, “What’s with all the questions?” before heading back to the house. Just before going inside, Arrighi testified, Hernandez said to them, “You guys aren’t coming in here.”
A little while later, the detective testified, Hernandez came back out and told them he would go to the police station to talk.
Thumbnail photo via Aram Boghosian/Associated Press, Pool Photo
