ATTLEBORO, Mass. – Carlos Ortiz appeared in court Tuesday, and in the span of approximately three minutes, he agreed to remain in jail without bail and was whisked back to lockup.
Little did the media and onlookers know at the time, but the skinny, curly-haired 27-year-old from Bristol, Conn., previously seen weeping before a Connecticut judge, apparently is shaping up as the prosecution’s star witness in the murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.
In documents filed in Florida and obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press, Ortiz told police that Ernest Wallace said Hernandez admitted firing the shots that killed Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semipro football player and Hernandez’s associate. The documents, according to the AP, also revealed that police found that a vehicle wanted in a double homicide in Boston in 2012 was rented in Hernandez’s name.
The Florida documents were used to justify searches of the Miramar, Fla., home of Wallace, who prosecutors said was the fourth man in the car that night.
According to the documents obtained by the AP, Ortiz gave the following account of Lloyd’s death: Ortiz told police that, after the three men picked up Lloyd at his home in Boston, they all headed toward Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough, Mass. Ortiz said Hernandez had been upset that Lloyd had been “chilling” with people Hernandez didn’t like, but the two men shook hands and seemed to put the disagreement behind them.
Ortiz said the car soon stopped, and the other three men got out to urinate. Ortiz said he heard gunshots before Hernandez and Wallace got back into the car without Lloyd, and the vehicle sped away.
Hernandez, being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty to murder and five weapons charges. Ortiz remains in jail, charged with illegal possession of a firearm. Wallace also is being held without bail, charged with being an accessory after the fact.
Prosecutors said Hernandez “orchestrated” the killing but have resisted saying he is the shooter.
“All we’ve done is charge is Aaron Hernandez with murder,” Bristol County (Mass.) District Attorney Samuel Sutter said Monday. “As far as the specifics about who was the shooter and who might have been a joint venturer, it’s too early to say. The investigation is ongoing.”
Messages left for Hernandez’s attorney, Michael Fee, and Ortiz’s attorney, John Connors, were not returned Tuesday.
In 156 pages of documents unsealed by a Massachusetts judge Tuesday and obtained by USA TODAY Sports, prosecutors revealed Ortiz admitted he was with Hernandez on the night Lloyd was killed. In those documents, police said Ortiz was the tipster who told investigators about Hernandez’s “flop house” apartment in Franklin, Conn.
Ortiz said he inadvertently left his cellphone at the apartment, and police, using a search warrant, located the phone in sofa cushions. Also found at the apartment during searches were several boxes of ammunition, police said. In a Hummer, which belonged to Hernandez and was parked at the apartment complex, police said they found a loaded .45 caliber Glock magazine in the console.
Earlier in the day, Connors had solved one of the case’s mysteries by saying that Hernandez’s older brother, D.J., was the link between Aaron Hernandez and his client. Ortiz and D.J. Hernandez — both 27 — played basketball together when they were high school freshmen in Bristol, Conn.
D.J. Hernandez currently is a tight ends coach for the University of Iowa.
When Ortiz was arrested June 28, he and D.J. Hernandez and Ortiz were Facebook friends, and Cesar Sanchez, who said he was a friend of Ortiz’s, told USA TODAY Sports that Ortiz said “he went to the mansion to hang out” with Aaron Hernandez often. He was referring to Hernandez’s residence in North Attleborough.
On Tuesday, with Connors at his side, Ortiz agreed to be held without bail until Aug. 14, when he will appear in court again.
Connors said, for now, Ortiz agreed to be held without bail for two reasons: He’s indigent and “couldn’t make bail if it were even $10,000 or $20,000” and because Connors needs time to obtain court documents. A judge Tuesday approved Connors’ motion for discovery on several items, including search warrants and affidavits, including the documents released Tuesday.
When asked if his client was talking to prosecutors, Connors said, “He’s talking to me.”
The Massachusetts documents showed that Hernandez was a suspect from the start of the investigation into the June 17 homicide, with police alarmed by his apparent lack of concern for a dead friend.
The quick work by investigators, detailed in the paperwork, enabled police to obtain search warrants for Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough, the apartment in Franklin, several vehicles and his locker in the New England Patriots’ locker room at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
In the documents released in Attleboro, Mass. police said when they arrived at Hernandez’s home at 10:30 p.m. ET on June 17, a half-mile from the crime scene, to notify him of the death of Lloyd and to ask about a car Hernandez had rented for his buddy, Hernandez immediately became defensive.
Police said Lloyd was shot in the early morning hours of June 17, and his body was found by a jogger at approximately 5:30 p.m. that day.
When asked when he had last seen Lloyd, Hernandez admitted he had been “up his way” the previous night. But Hernandez quickly became agitated and told police they would need to speak with his attorney. He went back into his house, slammed and locked the door, police said. Minutes later, he unlocked the door and approached police with his lawyer’s business card, police said in the documents.
When told “this is a death investigation,” Hernandez didn’t ask whose death. In the documents, police observed, “Mr. Hernandez’s demeanor did not indicate any concern for the death of any person.”
After contacting his lawyer, Hernandez later agreed to speak with police and went to the North Attleborough police station to be interviewed.
Much of the information contained in the Attleboro documents was presented by prosecutors at Hernandez’s arraignment. But there were some nuggets previously undisclosed:
In a search of Hernandez’s home, police removed a safe that contained a scale and a plate – common drug dealer paraphernalia.
Hernandez’s fiancée Shayanna Jenkins told police that Lloyd used marijuana and was a marijuana dealer, police said. Jenkins told police that Lloyd’s phone constantly was ringing, and he constantly was talking in “lingo” that led her to believe the conversations were about marijuana sales.
Police were able to determine the likely time of death from a witness who said he was sitting in his car approximately 200 yards from the crime scene. While on his regular break – between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. – on his overnight shift, he said he heard three gunshots and a car door slamming.
Surveillance video shows three men, believed to be Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace, leave Hernandez’s home in a silver Nissan Altima around 1:09 a.m. June 17. Before leaving, one man appears to hand Hernandez “a white rope-like item” from the trunk, police said. The car returns to Hernandez’s home at 3:26 a.m., police said.
Police said surveillance video from a camera at a home across the street from Lloyd’s house on Fayston Street in Boston determined that Lloyd got into the car with Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace at 2:33 a.m. Three surveillance cameras at businesses near the crime scene also were used by investigators in tracking the car and creating a timeline.
Massachusetts State Police ballistic experts determined that the five .45 caliber casings found near Lloyd’s body and the casing found in a car rented by Hernandez were fired from the same unknown .45 caliber handgun.
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