FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — The jury in the murder trial of former New England Patriots star tight end Aaron Hernandez reached a verdict Wednesday.
Hernandez is charged with killing Odin Lloyd in June 2013. Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee. He was shot six times in an industrial park near Hernandez’s home.
A court officer announced Wednesday morning that the 12-person jury had reached a verdict after deliberating since April 7. The verdict is due to be announced shortly.
Lawyers and spectators assembled in the courtroom before the jury was brought in. Fiancee Shayanna Jenkins and his mother, Terri Hernandez, are in the front row. On the other side of the aisle, Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward, and other family members waited anxiously. Shaneah Jenkins, Lloyd’s girlfriend and Shayanna’s sister, cried.
Hernandez’s lawyer acknowledged during closing arguments that he was there when Lloyd was killed. But he pinned the shooting on Hernandez’s two friends, saying his client was a 23-year-old kid who didn’t know what to do.
Prosecutors said Hernandez planned the killing, then helped cover it up.
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