Aaron Hernandez, the ex-New England Patriots star tight end who stands accused of orchestrating the murder of Odin Lloyd, and pulling the trigger in his shooting death, will be back in court again today at 9:00 a.m. Follow Day 16 of the court proceedings free here.

The defense for Hernandez is struggling with increasing amounts of circumstantial evidence even though a murder weapon has never been retrieved. During Day 15 of the trial, testimony involving a shell casing found in a car rented by Hernandez may be damning.

State police testified during the trial that a shell casing found in a Nissan Altima rented by Hernandez matched five shell casings found at the scene of Lloyd’s murder. The casings were determined by Sgt. Stephen Walsh to have all been fired from the same .45 Glock pistol; Lloyd’s gunshot wounds were consistent with a .45 caliber gun.

A rental car business employee found the shell casing underneath the seat of the Altima Hernandez rented, which he had returned the same day Lloyd was murdered.

Walsh admitted that his findings are not ironclad, and the lack of the actual murder weapon still looms large. He did say, however, that there was a “reasonable degree of ballistic certainty” that all the casings came from the same gun.

Hernandez’s lawyers fought back, accusing Walsh of not going far enough to ensure that the casings came from the same place. The defense said Walsh failed to contact Glock, and neglected to go deep enough in comparing bullets. The defense also noted that Glock barrels don’t have “identifiable markings” which makes linking specific firearms to ballistics evidence difficult.

[SI.com]