Culture

Juiciest Details from the Aaron Hernandez Search Warrant Dump

Police unsealed the search warrant documents in the Aaron Hernandez murder investigation Tuesday afternoon, filling in new details about the investigation—such as they still haven't found the murder weapon—and police pursuit of the former New England Patriots tight end.

By Connor Simpson
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Police unsealed the search warrant documents in the Aaron Hernandez murder investigation Tuesday afternoon, filling in new details about the investigation—such as they still haven't found the murder weapon—and police pursuit of the former New England Patriots tight end.

Hernandez is charged with killing Odin Lloyd, an associate, whose body was found near the former  Patriot's home on June 17, with the help of two other friends. The evidence known to the public was already pretty damning. There's the ominous text messages Lloyd sent his sister alerting her to who he was with on the night of the murder. There's bubblegum and shell casing found under the seat of a rental car that Hernandez returned the morning after the murder. And then, of course, the video evidence of Hernandez walking around his house carrying a handgun on the night of alleged killing. Lloyd allegedly angered Hernandez the night before when the two were at a nightclub together. So the story goes, Lloyd spoke with the wrong people, angering Hernandez, who has a history of violence.

One very interesting detail out of the document dump police unleashed on us today comes from the Hartford Courtant's official report: "Despite multiple searches of Hernandez's home, an apartment, and cars, authorities have said they have not found the gun used in the shooting," Dave Altmari and Jenny Wilson report. They still don't have the murder weapon.

But, otherwise, things continued to look very bad for Hernandez as details of the warrants started to trickle out. WPRI's Tim White reports the first search warrant came the day after Llyod's body was found. "They were on him early," White says. When police were stationed outside his house, Hernandez approached them to see what was up. After Hernandez realized they were quite curious about his activities, he grew agitated: "When officers told Hernandez they were conducting a death investigation, Hernandez slammed the door and locked it behind him," the warrant reads, per the Boston Globe's Wesley Lowery. And, at one point, Hernandez's girlfriend said Lloyd was a drug dealer:

Aaron Hernandez's girlfriend told police that Odin Lloyd "smoked marijuana and that he was also a marijuana dealer."

— Kevin Armstrong (@KevinGArmstrong) July 9, 2013

And then there's this:

Once inside, police found a whole lot of iPads during the first search of Hernandez's North Attleborough home:

The second search was much more fruitful, turning up a box of .22 caliber bullets and a scale used to weigh drugs hidden inside a safe:

Over the course of the search of the Hernandez home, the Boston Herald reports, police also used a gunshot residue kit on a mattress at Hernandez's house. Police also found a "FEG Hungarian rifle" in a gym bag stashed in the back of a car in his garage.

Again, thanks to Altmari, we know more about the night Hernandez and Lloyd were at the club that apparently set the former Patriots tight end off. "Hernandez and Lloyd were at Rumor nightclub that Friday night. Worker there told police Hernandez had a handgun visible from his waistband," the warrant says. "Hernandez and Lloyd got so drunk on the Friday night before murder they never made it back into Hernandez's house slept outside instead."

Per the Boston Globe's Brian Ballou, this is the text-message exchange between Hernandez and Lloyd on the night of his death:

Per the Hartford Courant's Altmari, police were able to deduce which number belonged to Hernandez after they found a number with a 203 area code in Lloyd's phone. Hernandez was at the police station and, once they dialed the number, his phone rang.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.