Ex-NFL player Hernandez found guilty of murder

Former National Football League (NFL) star Aaron Hernandez was found guilty on Wednesday of first-degree murder in a deadly late-night shooting. The 25-year-old has been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old landscaper and amateur weekend football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancée. The former football pro was also found guilty on firearm and ammunition charges.

Prosecutors said Hernandez and two accomplices, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, drove with Lloyd to an industrial park in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, where Lloyd was shot multiple times and left for dead. Hernandez was immediately under suspicion when police found the key to a car the NFL player had rented in Lloyd's pocket. Prosecutors called more than 130 witnesses in an effort to prove Hernandez pulled the trigger, though under the law it was not necessary to prove who fired the shots to convict him.

Hernandez faces further legal trouble. He is awaiting trial on murder charges for gunning down two men over a spilled drink at a nightclub.

Hernandez was a tight end drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft. During his three-year spell with the Patriots, Hernandez wracked up 1,956 yards, scoring 18 touchdowns. When Hernandez was arrested by on June 26, 2013, he had a 37.7-million-euro ($40m) contract with the Patriots but was released by the team hours after he was taken into custody.

jh/msh (AP, AFP)