National Football League

Aaron Hernandez jury selection continues as trial start date nears

Published Jan. 21, 2015 2:16 p.m. ET

foxsports

FALL RIVER, Mass. – The tedious process of picking a jury to hear murder case against former NFL star Aaron Hernandez moved through its eighth day Wednesday with more than two prospective panel members dismissed for every one who survived a one-on-one interview with the judge.

At of the end of the day, Judge E. Susan Garsh had ruled that 38 possible jury members were “indifferent,” meaning they had no biases or conflicts that she believed would render them unable to be fair and impartial.

Another 98 potential jurors had been dismissed in the process known as voir dire -- with the judge in the area to the side of her normal perch, surrounded by three prosecutors, three defense attorneys, Hernandez, a court reporter and security officers. The conversations are being carried on quietly, and white noise is being pumped into the courtroom, so it is not clear what questions the judge is asking – or what new ones are being suggested by attorneys on one side or the other.

Ultimately, 18 jurors – six of whom will later be identified as alternates – will be chosen to hear the murder and weapons charges facing Hernandez, the former star tight end of the New England Patriots who has been behind bars for 19 months in the killing of Odin Lloyd.

Because each side has the right to excuse as many as 18 jurors without giving a reason, Judge Garsh has said she plans to identify roughly 50 “indifferent” potential jurors, then ask the attorneys for an estimate of how many they plan to dismiss. If both sides intend to use all 18 of their challenges, she will have to continue the process until she has identified 18 potential jurors.

Hernandez faces one count of first-degree murder and two weapons charges in the June 17, 2013, killing of Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-professional football player. Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins.

Prosecutors have alleged that Hernandez summoned two associates from his hometown of Bristol, Conn., to his Massachusetts home late the night of June 16, 2013, and simultaneously made plans to meet with Lloyd. Hernandez then allegedly drove the other two men, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace Jr., to the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, picked up Lloyd, and returned to North Attleboro.

According to court documents, Hernandez allegedly drove into a secluded area in an industrial park that is surrounded by woods and mounds of asphalt, gravel and dirt. There, Lloyd was shot multiple times.

Although prosecutors have not said who they believe fired the fatal shots, they have asserted that Hernandez "orchestrated" the killing. Ortiz and Wallace have also been indicted on murder charges but will be tried separately. The prosecution does not plan to call either as a witness in the trial.

Garsh estimated late Wednesday that voir dire is expected to continue into Friday and that the earliest she expects to hear the peremptory challenges from prosecutors and defense attorneys is Monday.

But none of that is assured – there have been long periods in which the judge has not identified a single indifferent juror. Before lunch Wednesday, for example, she excused 12 prospective jurors in a row.

The trial itself is expected to last six to 10 weeks.

Hernandez has also been indicted on a separate multiple murder and assault charges in a July 16, 2012, shooting in South Boston that left two men dead and another wounded.

In the Boston killings, prosecutors have said Hernandez purportedly became enraged after a man bumped him on a nightclub dance floor, spilling his drink, and failed to apologize. They alleged that Hernandez later followed the man and his friends as they drove away from the club, then pulled up next to their car at a stoplight and opened fire with a .38-caliber revolver, killing Daniel De Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, and wounding another man.

That trial was originally scheduled to begin May 28, but the judge there indicated recently he would push it back given the anticipated length of the current trial. No new date has been set.