Ernest Wallace, the third suspect in the murder of Odin L. Lloyd, remains at large this morning while Boston police continue to investigate Aaron Hernandez in connection with a double murder in Boston in July 2012 by searching the former New England Patriots player’s North Attleborough home.
Hernandez, the former star tight end for the Patriots, is currently being held without bail at the Bristol County Jail after pleading not guilty this week to charges that he orchestrated the execution-style murder of Lloyd on June 17 in a North Attleborough industrial park.
Hernandez was accompanied by two other men during what Bristol County prosecutors have described as a ruthless killing of a helpless Lloyd, who raised his arm to shield himself from the five .45 caliber bullets that were fired into his body.
In addition to Hernandez and Wallace, authorities have said in court papers that Carlos Ortiz, 27, of Bristol, Conn., is seen on surveillance video entering Hernandez’s North Attleborough home around 3:30 a.m. on June 17 armed with a handgun.
Ernest Wallace (Bristol District Attorney)
According to Connecticut officials, Ortiz was taken into custody earlier this week and has agreed to return to Massachusetts. He is due to appear in a Bristol, Conn., courtroom today to complete the extradition process before being brought to Massachusetts by State Police.
If Ortiz arrives in Massachusetts today, he could be arraigned in Attleboro District Court today on one count of carrying a firearm without a license. He has not been charged with murdering Lloyd, whom Hernandez knew because they were dating sisters.
Earlier this morning, Boston police became the third police agency since June 17 to search Hernandez’s sprawling home on Ronald C. Meyer Drive. State Police and North Attleborough police searched his home at least twice before Hernandez was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly killing Lloyd.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Boston police were looking for evidence that could connect Hernandez to the killings of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado, friends who grew up in Cape Verde, who were slain in a fusillade of bullets on July 16, 2012, in the South End as they drove home from a Boston nightclub.
Abreu, who was driving a BMW sedan, stopped at a light on Shawmut Avenue at Herald Street when a silver or gray sport utility vehicle with Rhode Island plates pulled alongside. Someone from the SUV opened fire, killing Abreu, 29, and Furtado, 28. Another passenger was wounded. Two others fled the car unharmed.
The killings were a mystery until the murder of Lloyd, according to two law enforcement sources briefed on the Boston murders. Hernandez, according to Bristol prosecutors, hatched a plan to kill Lloyd after he was seen talking with some people he had “troubles with,†at a Boston nightclub on June 14, and later summoned two allies with a text saying “you can’t trust anyone.’’
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley declined to comment on specifics of the investigation, but he said that the case, once cold, has become more “robust†recently.
Furtado was a tour guide in Cape Verde, his family said. He arrived in Dorchester five months before he was killed. Abreu grew up in Cape Verde, where he worked as a police officer. He arrived in Dorchester around 2008.
Police also searched a Franklin condominium this week as part of the Lloyd investigation and recovered .45 caliber bullets similar to the ones used to kill Lloyd, authorities said.
Brian Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @globeballou. John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe.
