Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was formally indicted by a grand jury in the murder of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd on Thursday. The indictment, which was reported by CBS Boston and confirmed by Fall River Superior Court, came on the same day that Hernandez was due back in an Attleboro courtroom for a probable cause hearing.
Rather than laying out the evidence investigators have collected against Hernandez to make the case that he should remain in jail without bail, Bristol County prosecutors instead officially arraigned Hernandez. Last month, a judge granted a delay after prosecutors requested more time to present evidence against the 23-year-old to a grand jury. Without an indictment, Hernandez’s attorneys would have argued for his release on Thursday.
The official indictment follows a report from earlier this week that indicated the gun that was used in a 2012 double murder was found in Hernandez’s hometown of Bristol, Conn. It was reportedly uncovered in the car of a 19-year-old woman who has been arrested three times in the past year and was involved in a car crash in June. Prosecutors have been trying to make a case against Hernandez in the 2012 murders.
