National Football League

Attorneys want to know if Hernandez's fiancee has deal with prosecutors

Published Jan. 15, 2015 7:04 p.m. ET

foxsports

FALL RIVER, Mass. – Aaron Hernandez’s attorneys want to know whether his fiancée has a deal with prosecutors, and they filed a motion Thursday seeking an answer.

The motion to disclose “promises, rewards and inducements” comes more than week after the fiancée of the former New England Patriots tight end spent an hour behind closed doors with prosecutors and a judge to discuss a petition to grant her immunity from prosecution.

That order has not been signed, but it could be a signal that she has an agreement with prosecutors to testify at Hernandez’s upcoming murder trial in the June 17, 2013, killing of Odin Lloyd. His attorneys want to know whether she has been promised any favors in her pending perjury trial – or in any other way.

Jury selection is under way for Hernandez, who has been indicted on a single count of first-degree murder and two weapons charges in Lloyd’s death.

The question of Shayanna Jenkins’ cooperation has hung over the upcoming murder trial for the former football star. Jenkins, whom prosecutors have accused of secreting the murder weapon out of the home she and Hernandez shared and then ditching it, would lose her right against self-incrimination if the judge signed the immunity order. That means she would face the prospect of a contempt charge and a jail term if she refused to answer questions.

The petition seeking immunity for Jenkins is sealed. It’s possible that if Jenkins and prosecutors have reached an agreement to secure her testimony – a typical development when immunity petitions are filed – they are working out final language. It’s also possible the prosecution sought immunity over Jenkins’ objections, which is done in a small number of cases.

If what prosecutors have alleged is true – that she ditched the Glock pistol used to kill Lloyd – and she were to testify truthfully about it, it would be a major development.

Prosecutors have long alleged that Jenkins, acting on Hernandez’s orders, secreted the gun out of the home they shared, drove to an undisclosed location and got rid of it. Jenkins was indicted on a perjury charge, accused of lying to a grand jury 29 times about her knowledge of evidence in the case – including the gun – and her conversations with Hernandez, with whom she has a 2-year-old daughter.

Jenkins, 23, still lives in Hernandez’s North Attleboro mansion with their child.

The perjury case against her has not been resolved, although it is possible the charges could be dropped at some point as part of an immunity deal.

Prosecutors have alleged that the murder occurred after Hernandez summoned two associates from his hometown of Bristol, Conn., to his North Attleboro, Mass., home late the night of June 16, 2013, and simultaneously made plans to meet with Lloyd, who was dating Shayanna Jenkins’ sister. Hernandez then allegedly drove the other two men, Carlos Ortiz and Ernes 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.

Under a Massachusetts law known as “joint venture,” prosecutors do not have to prove Hernandez fired the fatal shots to convict him of murder – they merely need to convince the jury that he knowingly played a role in Lloyd’s death.

From the beginning, the effort to locate the murder weapon has been a source of frustration for investigators, who know from shell casings found at the scene that the pistol that fired the fatal shots was a Glock.

According to court documents, images from Hernandez’s home surveillance system show him holding what is alleged to be a black handgun minutes after Lloyd was killed.

Prosecutors previously asserted that Jenkins repeatedly misled the grand jury about her actions the day after the murder, contending that she could not recall details.

According to previously released court documents, Hernandez sent a text message to Jenkins the day after Lloyd was killed.

It read: “Go in back of the screen in movie room when u get home an there is the box avielle likes to play with in the tub jus in case u were looking for it!!!! Member how u ruined that big tv lmao WAS JUST THINKIN bout that lol wink wink love u TTYL ..... K”.

Prosecutors have asserted that was a coded message directing Jenkins to get rid of the gun.

A short time later, prosecutors have alleged, Jenkins took a heavy object – such as a gun lock box – out of the home inside a trash bag, put it in the trunk of her sister’s car and drove away. She was gone a little more than a half-hour, and when she returned the trash bag and the object inside it were no longer in the car, according to court documents.

According to court documents, her sister, Shaneah Jenkins, was later told by one of her uncles that Hernandez called Shayanna Jenkins, that she handed the phone to him and others and that Hernandez wanted “weapons taken out of the house.” The uncle would also tell Shaneah Jenkins that the weapons were ditched in “the woods.”

Investigators later found a .22-caliber Jiminez pistol a short distance from Hernandez’s home that court papers describe as looking as though it was tossed from a car.

The area where Hernandez’s home is located is adjacent to areas that are forested.

Prosecutors have also alleged that Jenkins lied when she told the grand jury she did not know what happened to a white sweatshirt belonging to Hernandez. Previously released court documents have said Hernandez was wearing a “very light-colored or white hooded sweatshirt” at the time Lloyd was killed.

An immunity order has already been signed by Judge E. Susan Garsh for Hernandez’s cousin, Jennifer Mercado. It is not clear what her testimony might cover. Her sister, Tanya Singleton, was earlier convicted of contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury and was sentenced to home confinement. Singleton also faces an unresolved charge of accessory after the fact to murder, accused of helping Wallace flee to Florida after Lloyd’s murder.

Hernandez has separately been indicted on 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 alleged that Hernandez 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 trial in the Lloyd case. No new trial date has been set.