Aaron Hernandez -- Guilty of 1st degree murder

The commonwealth doesn't have to prove that Hernandez pulled the trigger in order to prove first-degree murder in this case. All the commonwealth has to prove is that he entered into a joint venture with his co-defendants to kill Odin Lloyd and that the killing was either premeditated or done with extreme atrocity or cruelty.

There is significant evidence in this case that Hernandez was involved to a degree that is beyond that of aiding and abetting - before or after-the-fact. Hernandez drove the vehicle to and from the kill site. He owned a firearm of the same make and model that was used to kill Lloyd. He was seen in security video carrying a firearm of similar size and description to the type that was used to kill Lloyd. A representative of Glock testified that the gun Hernandez is seen carrying appeared to be a Glock .45. While the murder weapon was never recovered, a .22 owned by Hernandez was found at the scene. He had his girlfriend dispose of evidence from his house.

 

What's your gut feeling, Frantic - did he pull the trigger? I understand that it may not be all that significant, but did he? I suspect that may be why he's been telling people he didn't do it, and why he mouthed to the jury, "You're wrong." It's possible this is how he's rationalizing it. Wish I knew for sure. I hate not knowing.

 

I waffle on it, and it's hard not to consider the information that wasn't allowed to go in front of the jury - the pending double homicides, the shooting in Florida and the serious assault on a bouncer. He certainly seems capable of having been the trigger man. But I agree with your assessment that he may be rationalizing his innocence because someone else actually did the killing, and he doesn't grasp, or doesn't want to grasp, that he didn't have to actually pull the trigger to be guilty of murder.

I find it very hard to believe that he did not know what was going to happen when he drove them out there.

I doubt we'll ever know. I'm sure the co-defendants will both try to pin it on him in their trials.

 

Pull the trigger or not is irrelevant not merely legally, but logically. Think of the group dynamic, big celebrity plus nowhere hangers-on. It had to be his idea in the first place.

 

Or it was his idea to put a scare into Lloyd, and his buddies went too far, perhaps to please him, they thought.

 

If it was that, he'd have made some statement to that effect during the arrest-indictment process.

 

Ray Lewis didn't.

Granted, he wasn't on trial for his life.

 

Lewis was guilty of lying to investigators during that process. That's what he pled to anyway.

 

Did he make any statements at al during that process?

Or did he shut the fuck up, like a defendant should, even an innocent one?

 

As the old saying goes, the only story you don't have to memorize is the truth.

So consider all the ways Hernandez tried to cover his tracks, and how he would have had to do it again. That dumbass isn't going to be able to square up every lie in plausible fashion under that kind of pressure.

 

He went to Stanford!

Oh, wait, that wasn't him.