National Football League

Police find Hernandez evidence

Published Jul. 2, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

THE NEWS

A police search of a secret "flop house" rented by former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez turned up boxes of ammunition and clothing police believe could be evidence in the murder case against him, according to court documents.

Police say they learned about the apartment from Carlos Ortiz, a friend of Hernandez's whom prosecutors say was with the ex-player the night he allegedly arranged the shooting of Odin Lloyd.

They then searched the $1,200-a-month apartment in Franklin on June 26, according to search warrant records at Wrentham District Court. Among the findings were a white hooded sweatshirt and a cranberry-colored cap in a bedroom, the documents said.

Surveillance video showed Hernandez wearing a similar sweatshirt the night Lloyd was killed on June 17, the records say.

He was wearing the cap in a picture shown on a local news station taken outside a nightclub June 14, the Friday before the killing, the documents said. Prosecutors say Hernandez was upset at Lloyd for talking to certain people at the nightclub.

"The white sweatshirt could be used ... to assist in linking Hernandez to the scene of the crime," wrote Trooper Michael Bates, in an affidavit in support of one of the search warrants.

"The baseball hat could help provide the whereabouts of Hernandez on the Friday night before the homicide," Bates wrote.

Lloyd's body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez's North Attleborough home. Prosecutors say Hernandez, Ortiz and another man drove there with Lloyd that night, though they haven't said who shot Lloyd.

Hernandez's attorneys say the evidence against him is circumstantial and that he's eager to clear his name.

The search also turned up several boxes of ammunition, including .22-, .45- and 7.62-caliber ammunition.

— The Associated Press

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

•A Hernandez relative has been killed in a car accident, according to the Hartford Courant. Thaddeus Singleton III, 33, died early Sunday when he crashed a car registered to his father-in-law, Andres Valderrama, who is also Hernandez's uncle, according to the Courant. The report said multiple law enforcement agencies were interested in speaking to Singleton in connection to the investigation into the murder of Lloyd. Police told the Courant that an investigation into the crash revealed the fact Singleton was married to Tanya Valderrama, Hernandez's cousin.

•Boston police have asked authorities in the Connecticut hometown of Hernandez for their help with an investigation into a double homicide connected to the former NFL star, police said. The request from Boston police in the July 2012 double homicide was based on evidence developed through the investigation of Lloyd's slaying, Bristol Police Lt. Kevin Morrell said. He said police were asked to search the same home in Bristol for both investigations, and a vehicle was seized at the address on Friday.

•Hernandez has been connected to still more incidents involving guns, although none have resulted in criminal charges against him. A man who claims Hernandez shot him in the face in February after an argument at a Florida strip club filed a civil lawsuit days before police arrested Hernandez. Plaintiff Alexander Bradley claims in the civil action that Hernandez shot him with a handgun, causing him to lose his right eye. But after someone found the Connecticut man bleeding in an alley behind a Palm Beach County store after hearing a gunshot, he told police he didn't know who shot him and gave only a vague description of possible assailants. Authorities have also linked Hernandez to a May 18 fight outside a bar in Providence, R.I., that involved a gun.

•The county jail's Gang Intelligence Unit in Dartmouth, where Hernandez is being held, has completed its initial assessment, which included an inspection of multiple tattoos on Hernandez's arms and torso, for signs of past or current gang affiliations. Hernandez has denied any gang ties, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said.

•Hernandez has been moved to a new cell and has three hours a day outside of it, but remains separated from the general prison population.

•A Massachusetts prosecutor asked for the public's help in finding a car mirror that may be connected to the murder case against Hernandez. Police are seeking the driver's side rearview mirror from a dark gray Nissan Altima that Bristol District Attorney Samuel Sutter said may be anywhere between Odin Lloyd's home in Boston and Hernandez's home in North Attleboro. It is about 30 miles between the locations, largely along Interstate 95, although Sutter said the mirror may be in a "wooded or secluded area" along the route.

•FOX 25 says that Ernest Wallace, who was arrested and faces a charge of accessory after the fact in the murder of the Lloyd, has waived extradition and will return to Massachusetts. Prosecutors have claimed the Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, who has been charged with carrying an unlicensed firearm, were in the car with Hernandez and Lloyd on the night of Lloyd's murder.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.