BOSTON — The jury in the Aaron Hernandez double murder trial is expected back in court Tuesday after an unexpected day off.
The jury was sent home Monday so Judge Jeffrey Locke could hear three separate motions filed by Hernandez’s lawyers to dismiss the case.
The defense claims police failed to include an important piece of evidence. That comes from street sweeper Warren McMaster, 26, who accidentally drove through the crime scene.
He said police ordered him to drive his machine to a place where he could dump the contents for police to examine, but the prosecution admitted officers never looked through the trash.
The defense, claiming the machine may have picked up trace evidence including metal fragments, glass and hair.
McMaster also claimed that he saw a third vehicle at the crime scene – a white SUV with a woman coming out of the sunroof.
“She could have been making a phone call, calling for help,” he said. “She could have just been driving by. Anything is possible.”
The defense said they only recently learned about that, as well as prosecutors and police. But McMaster said he reported what he saw that night and police tried to silence him.
A Boston police detective said McMaster never said anything about the white SUV that night. He also said he let him continue with his work because he didn’t think the street sweeper came close enough to the SUV to have picked up any valuable evidence.
Hernandez is accused of shooting two men, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, after de Abreu accidentally bumped into Hernandez, spilling his drink, in 2012.
Prosecutors say Hernandez opened fire on the men at a stoplight, while the defense claims that Hernandez's former right-hand man, Alexander Bradley, is the real killer.
Monday, March 6: "Defense in Hernandez double murder trial claims new evidence"
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