compiled by Patrick H. Moore
At first glance, it seemed like a bad day for Aaron Hernandez. His million dollar lawyers were going to mop up the floor with the small-town prosecutors and their inept witnesses at the Probable Cause hearing on Thursday but they never got the chance to because the State brought along an indictment. Presto! No Probable Cause hearing. But not to fear, says Kevin Manahan in USA Today. A. Hernandez has a huge ace-in-the-hole. His homeboys (aka State witnesses) aren’t exactly making the Hernandez team quake in their boots:
“Defense counsel was looking forward to testing the Commonwealth’s evidence, something that has not been done to date,” Hernandez attorney Michael Fee said. “We were looking forward to cross-examining witnesses and their credibility.”
Manahan points out that despite all the circumstantial evidence – all those surveillance cameras that stalked the Hernandez crew, all the text messages and phone calls and DNA that point the long finger at the former tight end, prosecutors still don’t have the murder weapon or an eye witness. And without those particular elements they need their witnesses to be strong — compelling, which says Manahan, is hardly the case:
Carlos Ortiz
Carlos Ortiz is a petty criminal, the kind of guy who likes to slap around his girlfriends and stiff them for child support. Long history of heavy narcotics use — cocaine, marijuana and PCP. Manahan writes:
Hernandez’s team of million-dollar attorneys will be playing rock-scissors-paper for months to win the chance to cross-examine Ortiz sometime in 2015.
Ortiz does have a good lawyer, described as the Perry Mason of Public Defenders, but even the best lawyer can only do so much when his client is being grilled by someone equally good. We all know that these guys can rarely get their stories straight, or rather cannot tell the story the same way twice. Hernandez could do much worse than having Ortiz as the State’s key witness.
Ernest Wallace
Ernest Wallace was also indicted Thursday for being an accessory after the fact. He’s a career criminal but has never done a long prison sentence. The seven years he’s looking at probably won’t be enough to get Wallace to flip on the guy who has been his meal ticket – and likely is paying for his high-priced defense lawyer. Hernandez, after all, brought Wallace to New England, put him up in a condo, took him clubbing, rented cars for him and slipped him cash.
Manahan writes:
It was Wallace’s dream job – muscle for an NFL star.
So, he isn’t going to be any help to prosecutors.
Tanya Cummings-Singleton
Tanya Cummings-Singleton is A. Hernandez’ cousin. She doesn’t want to be Witness of the Month, either. The prosecutors gave her immunity and she still won’t talk, according to the district attorney. When they offered her a deal, she allegedly told investigators to take a leap into a Bristol lake (where they didn’t find the gun either). At least up to this point, her loyalty to her cousin is unassailable.
Shayanna Jenkins
Shayanna Jenkins is Hernandez’s fiancée and the mother of his child. Prosecutors say she’s been lying right from the start, telling them she went to bed early that night and didn’t know where Hernandez went or with whom. But yet, the investigators claim, there she is big as life on the surveillance video, welcoming Wallace and Ortiz when they came to the house to pick up Hernandez and take Lloyd for his last ride.
Prosecutors also believe she ditched the murder weapon (the infamous .45 caliber Glock that doesn’t seem to be anywherer) and a .22 caliber weapon that was recovered near Hernandez’s home and appeared to be “recently discarded.” Ortiz and Wallace were seen on surveillance footage carrying a similar gun, which Ortiz called a “deuce deuce” when talking to the police.
Odin Lloyd and Alexander Bradley
And the there are the buddies/victims: Lloyd, though not a bad guy, may not turn out to be all that sympathetic. Shayanna Jenkins labeled him a drug dealer from the minute the cops brought his death up. The defense might put his reputation on trial.
Alexander Bradley, another former friend, claims Hernandez shot him in the eye in Florida during an argument in a car after the two had partied at a strip club. Bradley’s a convicted drug dealer who initially told police he didn’t know who shot him, then said it was two men, black and Hispanic.
Although Bradley has filed a lawsuit, he could easily end up as more legal road kill for Hernandez’s kick-ass attorneys.
So you can bad mouth Hernandez all you like — and the guy certainly appears to have it coming — but when it comes to partners in crime, he sure knows how to pick ‘em.
And, in the end, that might just be what saves him.
Click here for earlier posts on the Aaron Hernandez case:
Aaron Hernandez’ Fiancee Believed to Have Dumped Odin Lloyd Murder Weapon: The Plot Thickens
Aaron Hernandez Bombshell: Filmed with Murder Weapon by His Own Surveillance Cameras
Aaron Hernandez Serial Killer Case Strengthens as Grand Jury Hears Evidence of 2012 Double Murder
Eat Your Heart Out Aaron Hernandez: D.A. Will Cut Deal to Deliver You Up on a Platter
Aaron Hernandez Arrested for Murder: Bill Belichick Drops Him Like a Hot Potato
Eat Your Heart Out, Bill Belichick: Patriots Tight End Aaron Hernandez Wanted in Murder Probe