Bomb Threat Temporarily Delays Aaron Hernandez Trial

A bomb threat halted the courthouse in which Aaron Hernandez is on trial for the murder of Odin Lloyd back in 2013.

The threat caused an evacuation of the entire Fall River Justice Center building but the trial was resumed around 2pm. There is no connection between Hernandez and the called in threat. This isn’t the first interruption of his trial, either. Twice Judge Susan Garsh had to “excuse” jurors. The first time around she let go of more than 10, inexplicably, just a few days before the trial began, ultimately pushing back the start date. The second time it was a juror who had lied about how many Patriots games she had attended and for telling outsiders her opinion on prosecuting Hernandez. And as readers know, this case has been quite an eye-rolling one with the random interruptions, findings and all.

From what we know there is still no murder weapon. They’ve even brought in a Nike shoe expert to testify since a size 13 (Hernandez’s shoe size, btw) Jordan Retro 11 (low top) footprint was found at the crime scene. (Police later discovered an empty Jordan Retro 11 shoe box in his home.) But, Judge Garsh has now allowed specific jail calls via Hernandez to be played in the courtroom that can be used as evidence against the former tight-end. The juiciest are a couple conversations between him and his cousin, Tanya Singleton. In a conversation dated July 12, 2013, he is heard saying “Obviously don’t say nothing.” “I’m not saying nothing,” she replies. In a later conversation recorded just eleven days later, Hernandez is heard saying that he is setting up a trust fund for Singleton’s two sons; one for $75,000 and the other for $100k. He said both could “grow to several hundred thousand dollars in time,” reports ESPN.com. It’s looking like it could be a hush money attempt but luckily for Hernandez, the trust funds were never set up. So that may fall to the wayside for the prosecutors.

And as you probably guessed, this is not Singleton’s first time being mentioned during this trial. Sadly she is dealing with terminal cancer, but has already spent seven months in jail for refusal to testify before a grand jury surrounding the Odin Lloyd murder. She also pleaded not guilty to assisting Ernest Wallace, one of two co-defendants, take off to Georgia following the murder. Her sister, Jennifer Mercado, on the other hand, was ordered by the court to testify and did. Her testimony concluded that both Wallace and Carlos Ortiz (the other co-defendant) smoked PCP describing their behavior to be “crazy, jittery and erratic.” Mercado also said that a video of the two from a home surveillance tape showed the men acting jittery hours before the killing but then said they didn’t seem erratic or crazy. (One of three isn’t so bad, I guess.) Both Wallace and Ortiz, are being tried separately.

Fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, hasn’t shown her face in court in three weeks and technically, since she’s been granted immunity, can’t plead the fifth anymore if she takes the stand. If she continues to refuse to testify, she’ll be held in contempt of court at least until the trial is over.

At this point the prosecuting and defense teams have to feel like they take a step forward to be knocked back two steps, though, both are said to be confident with their chances in winning the case.

Sources Cited:

Bomb threat at Hernandez trial: Associated Press, ESPN.com

Aaron Hernandez, an Enigma on Trial: Peter King, The MMQB.com