Murder of Odin Lloyd

Odin Leonardo John Lloyd (November 14, 1985 – June 17, 2013) was a semi-professional American football player in the New England Football League who was murdered by Aaron Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, on June 17, 2013. Lloyd's death made international headlines following Hernandez's association with the investigation as a suspect. Lloyd had been a linebacker for a New England Football League (NEFL) semi-professional football team, the Boston Bandits, since 2007.

Hernandez was arrested on June 26, 2013, and charged with the murder. Ninety minutes after his arrest, Hernandez was released by the Patriots. Police also arrested two other men in connection with Lloyd's death: Carlos Ortiz on June 27, 2013, and Ernest Wallace on June 28, 2013. Prosecutors say both men were with Hernandez when they drove to the location of the murder. On August 22, 2013, Hernandez was indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Nearly eight months later, Ortiz and Wallace were also indicted for the murder.

On April 15, 2015, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder, as well as five weapon charges, which required a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. On May 12, 2016, Wallace was acquitted of first-degree murder of Lloyd, but was convicted of being an accessory after the fact of the crime; he was sentenced to serve four and a half to seven years in prison. On June 27, 2016, Ortiz changed his 'not guilty' plea and pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped the murder charge against Ortiz. He was also sentenced to serve four and a half to seven years in prison.

On April 14, 2017, Hernandez was acquitted on two separate murder charges for the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. Five days later, on April 19, 2017, at 3:05 am, Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell by correctional officers after apparently hanging himself with a bedsheet. By killing himself before the appeal of his case could be completed, Hernandez's murder conviction was vacated, technically returning him to a state of innocent until proven guilty. The court's decision to vacate was appealed by the prosecutors and the Lloyd family's attorneys. In March 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned the entire doctrine of abatement ab initio, thus reinstating his original murder conviction.