Hernandez Overreactions

 

Since nothing new and exciting has happened over the past week that has dramatically shifted to race in the offseason championship standings, I figure we’ll take this time to talk about the (first) murder trial of former  Florida Gator Aaron Hernandez.  Mr. Hernandez entered the NFL in the 2010 season and although he fell down the draft far more than most “weed guys” do (potential 1^st round talent selected in the 4^th), he performed well for his new team and quickly became one of the rising stars in the league and seemed to have put his marijuana smoking days behind him.  Then came a car ride home from a South Florida strip club in February of 2013…Somewhere along the ride, Hernandez’s right hand man- Alexander Bradley ended up left for dead in a dark industrial park with a gunshot wound in his head.  Bradley was discovered by a couple of workers and taken to the hospital where his life was saved.  No one was ever charged with the shooting, but Bradley has sued Hernandez for $100,000 for shooting him in the face.  When this news came out, it was largely ignored by Hernandez’ growing legions of fans because why would someone with so much to lose do something so dumb.  And if he was indeed guilty of such a crime, why would Bradley only ask for $100K?  Seems like a cash grab to me…

Next came the evening of June 16^th, 2013.  Hernandez allegedly picked up his fiancée’s sister’s boyfriend (not to be confused with his father’s best friend’s former roommate) for a night of moderately priced cocktails and PCP laced blunt smoking in and around a seedy “nightclub” in Providence (the term nightclub is used as loosely as possible here.  The establishment in question is gross and its owner once told me that it wasn’t worth my time to come by for a drink because he doesn’t even go there).  After this evening of fruity shots and poor tipping, prosecutors allege that Hernandez and two of his cronies drove Lloyd to a dark and deserted industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez’ own home and put several bullets in Lloyd, who was not as fortunate as the aforementioned Bradley and didn’t survive.  A few days later, Hernandez was charged with the murder.

Heading into the trial, many of us who live in the area didn’t think the prosecution had much of a case (even if we were assured of the dirty Gator’s guilt); the investigators in Attleboro hadn’t investigated a murder in years and seemed to be bumbling it from the word go.  Then the trial started up and we’ve learned that that the investigators in question may have been playing coy, they seem to have built a strong case and a mountain of circumstantial evidence.  Although the murder weapon has not turned up (probably because Aaron’s fiancée just can’t remember where she threw that bag…), Aaron’s odds of walking free after this case are getting longer and longer by the day.

The most interesting witness in the trial to date has no doubt been Hernandez’ former employer Robert Kraft, Mr. Kraft took the stand yesterday and although he was battling a severe head cold and what appeared to be early onset dementia, he was able to recount his version of what happened in the weight room on that fateful day when Aaron was followed all the way up Route 1 to the team’s training facility.

That’s about it, this guy is going to live out his days in prison.  If he somehow wiggles out of this one, let’s not forget that he’s got a double murder trial coming up in Boston, a city that does actually investigate murders and has a far better case than the folks in Attleboro do.