Attorneys for jailed former NFL star Aaron Hernandez still feel they can raise enough doubt in both of the first-degree murder cases he now faces to eventually have him freed.
The 24-year-old former New England Patriots tight end has now been held without bail and confined to solitary confinement at the Bristol County Jail for nearly a year on charges he executed one-time associate Odin Lloyd late last June because he feared he might reveal information he knew about other violent crimes Hernandez is alleged to have been involved in.
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Prosecutors have hinted they have video images showing shooting victim Odin Lloyd riding with Hernandez on the night he was killed and cell phone records that show the men in constant contact that evening. Still, FoxNews.com reports Hernandez's lawyers are hanging their hat on the fact that the other two defendants have lengthy arrest records, and at least one of them has reportedly changed his story about what happened that night on several occassions.
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Carlos Ortiz, whom prosecutors were once rumored to be eyeing as a potential witness against Hernandez, has since been charged with murder himself, along with fellow Hernandez associate Ernest Wallace Jr.
More recently, Hernandez was charged with the 2012 drive-by double slaying of two men outside a downtown Boston nightclub that some legal experts have already described as an even stronger case against the former Florida star.
Daniel de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, both died in a hail of bullets that mid-July night that also ended with another friend seriously wounded. During his arraignment last month, prosecutors alleged the altercation was sparked after one of the victims accidentally spilled a drink on Hernandez and failed to apologize.
Still, Fox.com reports some of the theories publicly expressed by investigators and the stories told by some witnesses don't match up. For example, court documents from one witness argue surveillance evidence shows Hernandez and a man later identified as Alexander Bradley Jr. driving up alongside the victim's vehicle and opening fire, yet the man who survived the attack told authorities the shots were fired from the backseat of the car.
"The fact there's a person in the victim's car who says there was a passenger in the rear of Hernandez's vehicle firing the gun is incredibly helpful evidence to the defense," said Boston based criminal attorney Stephen Weymouth.
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