Report: Investigators find evidence in Hernandez's secret apartment
By David Steele
Sporting News A secret apartment maintained by Aaron Hernandez near his suburban Boston home contained boxes of ammunition and a sweatshirt that resembles the one authorities believe he wore the night Odin Lloyd was murdered, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
The search warrant affidavit for the apartment cited cocaine, according to a Boston Herald report.
The search by state police took place in late June at an apartment in Franklin, Mass., about 12 miles from Hernandez’s house in North Attleboro, according to documents filed at Wrentham District Court, the Globe reported. The Herald reported that the two-bedroom apartment rents for $1,200 a month.
Carlos Ortiz, who is also jailed in connection with Lloyd’s slaying, reportedly gave police information that led to the search of the apartment. According to an affidavit quoted by the Globe, Ortiz told police on June 25, the day before Hernandez was arrested at his North Attleboro home, that Hernandez had another residence “that not many people know about.” The affidavit referred to the apartment as a “flophouse.”
Ortiz also told police that the night after the Lloyd shooting, he and Hernandez stopped by the apartment and Ortiz apparently left his cell phone there. Police mentioned the phone in its warrant, according to the Herald, but did not find it.
The sweatshirt found at the apartment, an affidavit on file read, “is consistent in color and type with the sweatshirt that Hernandez is observed to be wearing on surveillance cameras the night of the homicide.”
Police also found 11 boxes of ammunition in all, including five boxes of .45-caliber ammunition, which is the caliber used to kill Lloyd, as well as rifle ammunition and one box of .22-caliber ammunition, the report said.
In addition, police found a hat Hernandez may have worn on a night out with Lloyd at a Boston nightclub several days before the murder, a valet parking ticket from a hotel within walking distance of the nightclub, and checks from the Patriots (who released him the day he was arrested) and Puma (the shoe company that dropped him as an endorser soon afterward).
The Herald report said the state police requested a warrant to search anyone at Hernandez’s apartment, stating “the nature of the sale of Cocaine is such that the participants are constantly changing, Cocaine is commonly packaged in small plastic bags which are easily and likely concealed on one’s person(s).”
However, no drugs are listed in the court papers from after the search of the apartment.
“We cannot comment on this ongoing investigation at this time,” Bristol District Attorney’s Office spokesman Gregg Miliote told the Herald in a statement. “More information will likely come out during future arraignments hearings.”
Hernandez has a probable cause hearing scheduled for July 24. He remains at Bristol County Jail on murder and gun charges.
Besides the Odin killing, Hernandez has been linked to the investigation of a double homicide in Boston.
Police in Bristol, Conn. said Tuesday that, based on evidence developed through the investigation of Lloyd's slaying, Boston police asked for their help in their probe of the 2012 murders. Police have since searched a house in Bristol and seized a vehicle from that address.
Boston police have declined to comment on whether Hernandez is being looked at as a possible suspect in that case.
