FALL RIVER, Mass. — A lawyer for Aaron Hernandez has told a judge he’s concerned one of the jurors who convicted the former New England Patriots star tight end of murder may have been “untruthful” during jury selection.
In redacted court documents released Monday, lawyer James Sultan says an anonymous tipster first called him April 16, a day after the 12-person jury convicted Hernandez of first-degree murder in the 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd in North Attleboro. Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The name of the juror and the caller is redacted throughout the documents, as are details of what the caller said and what was said during the jury selection process before the trial.
In the papers, Sultan told the judge the female tipster would not give him her last name and called him several times from a blocked number.
During those conversations, one lasting as long as 25 minutes, Sultan said she told him that she recognized the juror from TV and that the juror had been present for a discussion about a Boston double murder case that Hernandez also is charged in. Mention of those killings was barred at trial. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty.
He also said the anonymous caller told him that she heard someone else say the juror had wanted to be seated on the Hernandez panel.
“She told me she does not want (redacted) into trouble, but it is on her conscience that she knows some information which may be important,” Sultan wrote.
Sultan says if the juror had disclosed knowing about the Boston case during jury selection or had shown an interest in being on the jury, Hernandez’s defense team would have asked that the juror be excused.
Sultan has asked the judge to authorize a subpoena to trace the calls.
Thumbnail photo via Brian Snyder/Associated Press
