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At This Hour

Aaron Hernandez Found Guilty. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 15, 2015 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00] OLIVIA THIBOU, SISTER OF OLIN LLOYD: When my nephew was born in March, first thing I did was picked up my phone to call my brother and tell him he had a nephew and even now, I text him to let him know he had another nephew. He'll never get to meet them. Every day I look at my son and my daughter and my son will never know the uncle that my daughter got to meet. Like I said, it just feels like a bad dream. I talked to my sister and every day, eve day she tells me that she loves me because I'll never get to tell my brother that. I won't ever see him again. I have to go to his grave site to look at his tombstone to tell him that I love him. I'm grateful always for the man that Odin was because he was a man with pride. He was a hard working man. And as everything starts to unfold about him, I sat in this courtroom some days and I watched online every day I wasn't here and I smiled because Odin was a great man. All these things overshadow the fact that he got up and he worked every morning. He rode his bike ten miles. I would never do that. He did because he wanted to earn his. He wanted to make sure that what he got, he worked for. Odin was a great man. I hate that I have to sit here and talk about him like this. I hate that he's not here. It's a great day today. It's a painful day because we still have to relive the fact that we're here for him. I see his picture on the news. I see my mom's tears. My family. I can't console them like Odin would. The day we got the call that something happened to him, I just kept saying this is not him. This is not him. We grew up in a neighborhood that wasn't the best and he's avoided all these things. He's avoided -- he was never in a gang. He never picked up guns. And this is how he died? But Odin was a good man. I wish that everyone had the opportunity to meet him. And today on behalf of my sister and myself, to thank everyone who has worked on this case. To thank everyone who has reached out to us, who has prayed for us. I thank everyone in this court for their hard work and their time they put into this case. I thank you for today. I thank God that we are here and smiling in some way. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: The last person I'd like to address the court is his cousin, Marsha Marcus.

MARSHA MARCUS, COUSIN OF ODIN LLOYD: Good morning, Your Honor. Two years, three months, it's the hardest time of my life, watching my aunt having to come into this courtroom every day and hear and see horrible things that happened to her first born son, the backbone of her family. It gave me so much joy to see her strength. She doesn't know how strong she really is. I sat here every day and thought she shouldn't be going through this. The family shouldn't be going through this. I don't know what tomorrow holds. I know that Odin won't be with us in body. There will be weddings. Graduations. There will be holidays. There will be more children born and Odin won't be there either. We keep him in our hearts. He's forever in our thoughts. When my cousin passed away, Odin found a way to make us all laugh at a time that was so hard. Odin said I don't know why you worry. She doesn't have to pay taxes. She doesn't have to pay rent. She's OK where she's at. In the words of Odin Lloyd, as long as I have life, I will smile. Legends never die. Thank you.

[11:35:45] UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: Your Honor, I think it's clear from the statements of the family members Odin Lloyd was well loved. You saw that family sitting in the front row every day and they were here because they believed in the process that brings us to today. The jury having found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, for having committed an extremely cruel and atrocious killing, you heard the evidence that supported that verdict. It was brutal and it was senseless. So we would ask based on the finding of the verdict by this jury that the defendant be sentenced to the state prison for term of his natural life without any chance of parole. Thank you.

SUSAN GARSH, FULTON COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: And on the many two sentences, the charges of --

UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: On possession of the firearm, four or five years concurrent with the life sentence without parole and on possession of ammunition, to one year house of correction.

GARSH: Thank you.

Does counsel wish to speak?

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Your Honor, we don't have anything to add. Obviously, the court needs to impose the statutory penalty on count one and we leave the remaining counts to the court's discretion.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're waiting for Judge Susan Garsh, who should hand down the sentence any moment now, the verdict guilty of first-degree murder. It's a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Let's listen

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- you are charged with the crime of murder. The jury returning a verdict of murder in the first degree. And in consideration of the crime for which you now stand committed, you are sentenced by order of the court as follows. You are committed to the Cedar Junction for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole. Where you were charged with unlawful possession of a firearm after the jury finding you guilty and court in consideration of the crime for which you now stand convicted, you are punished by imprisonment for a term of not less than two and a half years to not more than three years committed concurrent with the life sentence imposed on count A. On the charge of unlawful possession of ammunition, after being convicted by the jury, you now stand convicted. And in consideration for the offense of which you are convicted, you are sentenced to the house of correction for a period of one year deemed served. Sir, you have the right to have your case reviewed by the supreme

judicial court pursuant to General Laws, chapter 22E Section 3. You are required to provide a sample of your DNA to be included with the statewide DAN data base. You are assessed a witness victim fee of $90 and you'll get credit for time spent in confinement pending disposition of this case by agreement of the parties. Time credit will start on the date of his arrest, which is --

[11:40:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: June 26th, 2013.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- June 26th, 2013. At this point, sir, you stand committed and you're in the custody of the court officers pending execution of your sentence at the state prison.

GARSH: Before he's removed, hold on one second. With respect to the remaining charges, does it make sense to first see what date you're getting in Boston and then deal with the dates here? There are other charges in this case that were not tried as part of this case and in addition the two unrelated charges.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Yes, Your Honor. It makes sense.

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Yes, Your Honor. We'll agree to wait to see what happens in Boston if that's all right with the court.

GARSH: Do you want to wait?

UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: That's agreeable, Your Honor.

GARSH: Thank you.

BERMAN: Aaron Hernandez leaving the courtroom just sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. We heard just before that victim impact statements from his mother, sister, cousins, uncle. Emotional statements. His mother saying, "Odin was my only son. Odin was the backbone of the family. The day he died, I felt my heart stop beating."

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: "I wanted to go in that hole with him," she said on the day she was burying her son. Very emotional, very emotional moment in the courtroom especially when you take it in context of Odin Lloyd being killed June 17th, 2013, at the age of 27. They've been sitting in this as his sister said this bad nightmare she thought, this bad dream she was hoping she would wake up from since 2013. You see the emotional bubbling up from there. And now Aaron Hernandez is now in prison for the term of his natural life as they said in the courtroom without the possibility of parole.

BERMAN: They called it the hardest two years of their lives, that family, as they watched this case go on.

We're joined by our team of legal analysts and reporters.

And, Jean Casarez, you've been covering this case here. The victim impact statements from a legal standpoint unnecessary here. The sentence was mandatory given the jury verdict. Just because they are legally unnecessary doesn't mean they are unimportant in a case like this.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. Victims bill of rights, victims have rights. Part of that are victim impact statements. They form part of the record of this case. So they are very important legally. When we look at this, the defense is going to appeal this verdict. And that's why we just have gotten news from the Suffolk County district attorney's office. He's charged with two counts of first- degree murder from July of 2012 --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Unrelated to this case.

CASAREZ: Unrelated to this case.

BOLDUAN: This was a separate double homicide that he's been charged in that he was going to face after this. Go on.

Go on, Jean.

CASAREZ: Correct. What we just learned -- they came out saying the trial date set of May 28th has now been canceled. Other date has not been set but they do believe that a new date will be announced in the coming days. So this is an important prosecution. You say he's already in here for life because of this case. There are appeals and you never know when a verdict can be overturned. This prosecution I'm sure will be going forward.

BOLDUAN: Paul, does this verdict, the verdict that we just heard, sentencing we just heard, does that play into this next case, this double homicide he'll be up against?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It does in several ways. First, he's unlikely to testify in his second case because he could be asked about this homicide in the context of that case. And actually, you know, the second two killings that he's charged with does have some relationship to this case and played a big part because everybody was saying you can't convict him on circumstantial evidence because there is no motive. Originally, prosecutors wanted to introduce evidence of the double homicide in Boston speculating, I think, that Odin Lloyd knew about it and was talking too much about it and that possibly that's one of the reasons why he got rid of Odin Lloyd. The judge in this case, as Susan Garsh, said that's too prejudicial. Link to those other cases is minimal. She was afraid she would be reversed on appeal and she made the correct decision.

CASAREZ: The jury did get to see and hear a text message he spent to his fiance saying I showed Odin the spot but they were never allowed to know what that meant.

BERMAN: I want to bring in Mark O'Mara here, criminal defense attorney.

Mark, Aaron Hernandez's attorneys will appeal. Guilty of first-degree murder. What grounds do they have for appeal? What avenues do you think the defense will take? [11:45:16] MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They will ask the

appellate court to review any evidentiary rulings the court made. As Paul said, had they allowed information in of the other double homicide, that would have been a focus for appeal. This judge did a good job throughout the entirety of the trial of keeping it very close of doing a good job of being very conservative in the rulings and decisions made and I think very few reasons for appeal. There will be generic ones. It's circumstantial evidence. There's not enough evidence to support a conviction. There will be some of the objections that were overruled and the defense will argue should have been sustained. I see nothing in the overall case where I say that judge has now made an appellate issue out of this point. I think she did a good job keeping it very conservative in her rulings.

BOLDUAN: Mel Robbins is here as well with us.

Mel, when you are talking -- we're looking at the picture of when the verdict was read right now. When you also -- we just heard from that woman, Ursula Ward, when she was offering her victim impact statement. I was struck that through the impact statements that were read by all of them, so important to hear from them. They are the only voice of Odin Lloyd left. No one made direct reference to Aaron Hernandez. One reference by his sister who said this is a great day but also a painful day. There was no direct reference to the man now charged and convicted in his murder. Are they instructed to not directly reference the man sitting right behind them in the room, the man convicted of killing their son, their brother, their nephew?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's an excellent question. Actually looking at the guidelines that the state of Massachusetts points out, the only thing that you are instructed not to do is go over the details of the case. But otherwise you're prompted with questions in the law under Massachusetts that have guidelines. How has this impacted you? Has it impacted you emotionally? Has it impacted you physically? Who was the victim of this crime? How has it impacted them? What would you like the sentence to be? Obviously nobody spoke about the sentence but the guidelines are that you can basically and are encouraged to either speak freely or write a statement. You can read the statement. You have a victim advocate that is there to help you prepare these statements. I had two thoughts as we were listening to them that struck me. One, I was very surprised we didn't hear from Odin Lloyd's girlfriend who has played such a prominent role in the courtroom. Obviously she has known Aaron Hernandez since high school. They all went to high school together. She and her sister. I'm surprised we didn't hear from her. One of the things that struck me is we had spent nine weeks focused on Aaron Hernandez. We spent 130 witnesses. 400 exhibits. All focused on Aaron Hernandez. We've focused on his fall of grace and honestly, it was really wonderful as horrible as it is that Odin Lloyd is not with us, it was wonderful to finally focus back on him and to hear his family talk about what a remarkable guy he was. Stories about him riding ten miles every day from Dorchester to Norwood to his job and stories about the fact that he valued hard work. Those to me felt like a way to jab back at Aaron Hernandez. Odin Lloyd was clearly a guy who put family first, who put faith first, who was not running with gangs, who rode his bike ten miles each way to work. He worked so hard for everything that he had. When his sister started crying saying he lived his life like this and to think it ended this way and got all broke up and the other thing that I really found to be a profound moment is after his mom, Odin Lloyd's mom spoke so eloquently about her son, she said something that you don't often hear. I forgive the people that did this to my son. And she ended with a statement about her faith. And about the fact that she knew she would see her son again. And what's so powerful about victim impact statements is that it reminds us that there were lives that were lost here. We focus so much on the defendants in these cases that this was a moment where we could focus on Odin Lloyd and what mattered to him and what mattered to his family and faith was a huge thing for this family and it came through loud and clear and in the end, the justice system, the law, the facts, and their faith won in this.

[11:50:04] BERMAN: The uncle said he remembers Odin Lloyd's smile. The sister remembers the flip-flops he wore 12 years straight without taking them off.

Susan Candiotti has been covering the case from the beginning. She was in the courtroom as the verdict was read. She was in the courtroom for the sentencing in those powerful victim impact statements.

Susan, give us a sense of what it was like?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When just before the verdict was read, and the jurors walked in, that's something you always look for, their reaction. Are they looking at the defendant? And in this case, the jury, none of the jurors, looked at Aaron Hernandez as they walked inside the courtroom. That was a sign to me that this was not going to go well for him. You could hear a pin drop in the room and it certainly was the highest moment of drama during this entire trial. On one side of the courtroom you had the victim's family, let's not forget them and mention them first, Odin Lloyd's mother, his uncle, his girlfriend, his relatives who have been there each and every day literally holding on to each other as they waited to hear the verdict. And on the other side of the courtroom, Aaron Hernandez's mother and fiancee clutching each other as well. Their bodies twitching as they waited to hear the verdict. Aaron Hernandez, as he walked in, his legs are in shackles. He stood with his lawyers as he wait to hear what was happening and he kept turning and looking to see his mother and his fiancee. And then the moment, John, looked like he had the air knocked out of him and it looked like he had taken the worst emotional tackle of his life. When the verdict was read telling him that he was guilty, guilty of first-degree murder. That comes with the jury finding as well that he killed Odin Lloyd, firing six gunshots with great cruelty and atrocity, not once, not twice, not three times, but six times. Aaron Hernandez during this time constantly turning to look at his mother and fiancee who by now are openly weeping in the courtroom. He looked stunned, in shock, and was mouthing to them from time to time "it's OK, be strong" and he kept looking at them and looking at them because they were weeping openly. He also glanced over at the victim's family. I saw that too. This was the most powerful moment, looking over at Odin Lloyd's mother as she literally did this, she raised her hands and just said, thank you. This is a woman who's been in court each and every day, who the only time when she addressed the court was very briefly. She was showing his photograph and identified him as being her son and the judge told her before she began to testify, and outside the presence of the jury, you are not to cry. Told her not to cry. And that was very difficult for Ursula Ward. You heard what she said during the victim impact --

BOLDUAN: You know what, Susan --

CANDIOTTI: -- portion of this case.

BOLDUAN: Let's take a pause and listen to that portion of this case. The one time that Ursula Ward was allowed to get emotional, was allowed to speak her mind as she read her victim impact statement. Here's a piece of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA WARD, MOTHER OF ODIN LLOYD: Odin was my first best gift I ever received. I thank God every second and every day of my son's life that I spent with him. The day I laid my son Odin to rest, I felt my heart stop beating for a moment. I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my son.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Susan, you've been in that courtroom every day that they've been -- the nine weeks of this trial as well as the 35 1/2 hours of this jury's been deliberating and waiting. We've heard from Ursula Ward. Obviously did not hear from Aaron Hernandez, didn't hear from Aaron Hernandez's family but they were in there as well for the dramatic moment that the verdict was read. Were they in there for his sentencing as well?

CANDIOTTI: They were not. Right after the verdict was read, that's when his mother and his fiancee left the courtroom and, in fact, left the courthouse, so they weren't there to see any of that. That's what made it particularly interesting as the victim impact witnesses were being read, Aaron Hernandez had nowhere else to look but occasionally up at his lawyers, and they were looking straight ahead, and then he kept looking over at the victim's family, at Shannia (ph), who he knew very well, who had been to his home, the estranged sister of his own fiance. He kept looking over in her direction, and in the direction of the mother, constantly wiping his lips, looking around. And once even turned to look in the direction where we in the news media, in the press were sitting and briefly glanced our way, too. I have never taken my eyes off him as -- throughout this entire procedure. It was tough to watch, it was tough to listen to the family, and it is one of the most memorable cases I've ever covered.

[11:55:46] BERMAN: Susan Candiotti, thank you so much. Give you a chance to do more reporting on this, the terrific reporting you've been doing from the beginning here. Thanks so much.

Just a short time ago we showed you picture of Aaron Hernandez's fiancee leaving the courthouse driving away in her car.

Paul Callan, I want to bring you back. We saw Aaron Hernandez as soon as that was read, always security in

the courtroom, but as soon as the verdict was read he was surrounded by court officers. Walk me through the process of today, tomorrow, the next few days for Aaron Hernandez.

CALLAN: That moment -- and I've been a prosecutor and homicide cases and stood next to defendants, and that moment when they announce the verdict and the court officers surround the defendant it's just a moment of great emotion, and it's solemn because the reality is he's going to go through a door and never going to come out of that door. He will be incarcerated the rest of his life.

What's going to happen next, of course, is they'll start to prepare his appeal. I agree with my friend, Mr. O'Mara, that there's little to appeal, it was a strong circumstantial evidence case. I think it will sustain an appeal. He's also facing a trial on two other murder charges in Boston and a charge concerning a weapons charge in the current court that he's in front of. He's got a lot of things that he's looking at.

But I'm left with the thought, as I look at this case, celebrity, motive, circumstantial evidence, here's a celebrity and a lot of people said, you know something, he's rich, bought a great defense, he can't be convicted, he's convicted in an American courtroom. People said you can't win circumstantial evidence no matter how strong unless there's a motive. We've seen a conviction in a strong circumstantial evidence case of a celebrity. Very interesting case in a lot of ways.

BERMAN: He just signed a $40 million contract not long before this murder.

BOLDUAN: That was brought up quite often. Brought up by the defense saying this was a guy who just signed a $40 million contract. He had everything to lose. Why would he throw his life away? On the flip side the prosecution saying this was a cold-blooded killer.

BERMAN: I'm curious -- does his family, Odin Lloyd's family, have access to that money right now? Will there be a wrongful death?

CALLAN: There can be a wrongful death case. If he has assets sizable, the family would have the right to recover those assets. They would have a strong case here. They have a finding beyond a reasonable doubt he committed the murder.

BOLDUAN: Mark, weigh in on that. What do you think that means going forward? He had just signed that $40 million. Will Odin Lloyd's family be able to -- do you expect they'll be seeking damages if you want to call it that, seeking to get a piece of that?

O'MARA: Absolutely, without question. Any asset he had, whether the money from the contracts, houses, boats, planes, cars, whatever he has are now subject to a lawsuit. And as Paul just mentioned, we now have 12 people who found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard in a civil lawsuit, a wrongful death lawsuit, is much less than that. We can presume that a civil verdict is going to be entered against Hernandez as well and the money is going to be everything that he has. So they will get what Hernandez has now that Hernandez will never have access to it again.

BERMAN: Mel Robbins, final thoughts here. Paul Callan makes the case this is a banner day for the justice system in Massachusetts and the country. A celebrity was just convicted when many thought it couldn't happen, it wouldn't happen, your final thought?

ROBBINS: You know, we're often asked as legal analysts to do the impossible task of predicting what a jury will do and this was a case that had a lot of us on the edge of our seats because we, of course, watching from the outside knew he's also facing a double homicide charge in another case and had other gun charges alleged against him in his life. We also, you know, had some of the motive element that Paul talked about earlier that the jury wasn't allowed to consider. We were on the edge of our seats worried there wouldn't be enough, worried that this jury would be clouded by the fog of celebrity and honestly, I'm relieved. This is the correct verdict. It's a very, very sad day for Odin Lloyd's family, but a deep sense of relief that there was a conviction. And it's a -- it's a victory for the justice system here in Massachusetts that this jury clearly got this case right.

[13:00:08] BERMAN: It is the final verdict, guilty of first-degree murder, life in prison without parole.

Mel Robbins and our entire legal team, thanks so much.