Carlos Ortiz, an accused accomplice of Aaron Hernandez in the murder of Odin Lloy, has changed his story and is now saying Hernandez was the only person who got out of the car before he overheard gunshots on the night Odin Lloyd was killed.
The Boston Herald reports prosecutors admitted during a recent bail hearing for co-defendant Ernest Wallace that Ortiz has flipped-flopped and no longer claims both men exited the vehicle after they stopped in an industrial park where Lloyd's bullet-riddled body was later discovered.
The newspaper adds that Ortiz still maintains Wallace later told him that Hernandez admitted to him that he shot Lloyd, a claim that has always struck attorneys for Hernandez as being somewhat odd given his initial claim that Wallace exited the vehicle along with the former New England Patriots tight end.
Still, largely based on testimony provided by Ortiz, a Bristol County judge ruled Wallace's bond on accessory charges would remain at $500,000 during his bond hearing last week. Hernandez, meanwhile, remains jailed without bail and relegated to solitary confinement at the Bristol County jail.
In the wake of Ortiz's growing inconsistencies, lawyers for Wallace had sought to have his bail reduced to $10,000. The Herald reports attorney David Meir also told the court a white towel Ortiz can be seen wearing around his neck on surveillance video was found within 5 feet of Lloyd's body, even though Ortiz insists he never exited the vehicle.
Hernandez's lawyers have long maintained much of the evidence against their client is circumstantial and will not hold up during a jury trial that is expected to take place sometime in late 2014.
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