FALL RIVER — Aaron Hernandez, once touted as a potential Hall of Fame football player, is due in a Bristol County Superior Court today as the murder case that could result with him living and dying behind the bars of a Massachusetts state prison as a convicted killer formally begins.
The former New England Patriots tight end is scheduled to be arraigned today on a charge of first degree murder for allegedly orchestrating the killing of Odin L. Lloyd, a 27-year-old Dorchester man who was found shot to death in a North Attleborough industrial park June 17.
In prior court proceedings, Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter’s office has alleged that the 24-year-old Hernandez grew distrustful of Lloyd and summoned two friends from his childhood home of Bristol, Conn., to Massachusetts.
According to prosecutors, Hernandez and the two men, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, collected Lloyd from his Dorchester home and drove together to the industrial park where Lloyd was shot five times with a .45-caliber pistol.
Hernandez alone, however, has been charged with murder. Wallace, 41, is under indictment for acting as an accessory after the fact to Lloyd’s killing, a charge he has denied in earlier court proceedings.
Ortiz is currently only facing district court gun possession charges and has been cited in court records as providing prosecutors with an description of Lloyd’s killing.
Michael Fee, the lead attorney for the millionaire Hernandez, recently denounced the case against his client was heavily flawed, and lacked evidence to warrant charging him, let alone convicting him of a crime that would leave him behind bars for life without the possibility of parole.
“Based on the evidence that we’re aware of today, we do not believe the Commonwealth has significant evidence to carry the burden of proof,†Fee said last month. “There has been an incredible rush to judgment in this case. It’s been based on innuendo, misrepresentation of fact.â€
Anticipating both heavy interest, court administrators have set aside 24 seats in the courtroom for the public and the same number for reporters. Eight seats each are reserved for Lloyd’s family and relatives of Hernandez.
If convicted of first degree murder, Hernandez would face a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole. His trial would be automatically reviewed by the Supreme Judicial Court.
Wesley Lowery can be reached at wesley.lowery@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @WesleyLowery.
