He was once a star member of the New England Patriots, but tomorrow, Aaron Hernandez goes on trial for murder.
Jury selection gets underway Friday morning in Fall River, Massachusetts, not far from North Attleboro, where the former tight end took up residence after moving from his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut.
Hernandez is on trial for the 2013 murder of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd. He has also been charged in a 2012 double murder in Boston. That trial is expected to start at the end of the year.
The first group of potential jurors will gather at the courthouse at 9 a.m. Friday, marking the start of a highly anticipated case that has garnered attention both in Massachusetts and across the country.
Back in Bristol, interest has piqued. Hernandez was a hometown hero during his standout days at Bristol Central High School. In a 2006 NBC Connecticut profile, a teenage Hernandez showed off the athletic prowess that would eventually secure him a scholarship to the University of Florida, then lead him to the New England Patriots.
“His reputation was very well respected. He was a great athlete. He was captain of the teams he was on,” explained Bristol Mayor Ken Cockayne. “He came from a very respected family, mother and father both working – actually, both in the school systems, working.”
Others who knew him on a personal level spoke similarly of Hernandez, explaining that the charges cast a dark shadow on the legacy he left behind.
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“Things around here haven’t been the same, I guess you could say,” said Bristol resident Dustin Cianci. “People looked up to him, for the most part.”
Adam Dellabianca, who grew up with Hernandez, said the man he knew was “a good guy” and a “role model for the kids.”
“But, like I said, people change,” Dellabianca said.
With the start of Hernandez’s first murder trial just hours away, the city of 62,000 is bracing for some negative publicity.
“We have a lot of great things in our city,” said Cockayne. “One person does not define a city.”
Cockayne said above all, his thoughts are with the Lloyd family, and the city is already moving forward after the initial shock of the allegations against Hernandez.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in both the death of Lloyd and the 2012 double homicide.
