National Football League

Prosecutors establishing timeline in Aaron Hernandez murder trial

Published Feb. 20, 2015 10:46 a.m. ET

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FALL RIVER, Mass. -- Roughly 90 minutes before Odin Lloyd was gunned down, Aaron Hernandez stopped at a filling station to gas up a rented Nissan Altima, then bought a package of bubble gum and a cigar.

The filling station was along a state road that has easy access to the highway leading from Hernandez's home in North Attleboro, Mass., to Boston -- and testimony from a clerk working there was used by prosecutors in the former NFL star's murder trial Friday in the ongoing effort to lay out a timeline for the jury.

Jwan Farhan described Hernandez pulling into the Blue Hills Express station shortly after 2 a.m. -- just after closing time. But the clerk had already kept the business open and was watching a customer fill up on a different pump.

"I was waiting for the guy in No. 14 -- when he's done, I turn the light off," Farhan, a native of Syria, testified.

At that point, Hernandez arrived in a silver Nissan Altima, he said.

Farhan also described Hernandez and a companion coming into the station and attempting to buy Bubble Yum Cotton Candy flavor gum and a cigar. But the clerk had already shut down the system, and he could not take a credit card. Instead, he accepted $2 in cash for the items -- which had a total price of $2.28 -- and Hernandez left.

Hernandez, the former star tight end of the New England Patriots, faces one count of murder and two firearms charges in the slaying of Lloyd, who was gunned down in a secluded field used to store dirt, asphalt and gravel. Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-professional football player, was dating Shaneah Jenkins, sister of Hernandez's fiancée.

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 Wallace Jr., to the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, picked up Lloyd and returned to North Attleboro.

According to court documents, Hernandez allegedly drove into the field at 3:23 a.m. on June 17, 2013. There, Lloyd was shot multiple times moments later, according to prosecutors.

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.

The timing of Hernandez's movements in the time before and after the killing could be crucial.

According to court documents, investigators have affixed the time of the killing as 3:27 a.m.

Farhan's testimony helped prosecutors establish that Hernandez was between his home and Lloyd's home at 2 a.m.

But on cross examination, defense attorney Michael Fee elicited testimony that Hernandez used his credit card -- swiping it at the pump -- to pay for the gasoline, did not pull his hood up over his head when he went into the station and was not acting strangely.

"He was normal," Farhan said.

The implication for the jury was clear: Why would someone on his way to commit a murder use his own credit card and risk being recognized by a story clerk.

Farhan was one of two witnesses called early Friday to help establish the time sequence prosecutors allege.

Before him, an official with the company that manages the toll collections on the Massachusetts turnpike testified that Hernandez drove through a booth at 2:53 a.m. without stopping.

The toll booth is located west of Boston at an interchange where a motorist can exit onto a highway heading toward the murder scene.

Testimony is scheduled to last through the day Friday and continue next week.

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 originally was 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.

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