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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

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

Aired April 15, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:08] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Berman.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you for joining us.

We'll continue following this breaking news out of Fall River, Massachusetts. The jury has spoken. The jury reached their verdict in the murder trial of Aaron Hernandez just a short time ago, finding that the former NFL star is guilty on all counts, most importantly, guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Odin Lloyd. He now is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

BERMAN: That will be the sentence. It is mandatory. It will officially be handed down any moment. We'll take it when it does happen.

This is how the verdict sounded when it was read just a short time ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charging the defendant Aaron Hernandez with murder, what say you, Madame Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty, guilty of murder in the first degree or guilty of murder in the second degree?

UNIDENTIFIED JURY FOREPERSON: Guilty of murder in the first degree.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madame Foreperson --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You can see his face, Aaron Hernandez, when that verdict was read. His fiance and mother weeping. There was so much emotion.

On the other side, Odin Lloyd's mother cried and pumped her fists in the air. Odin Lloyd, the victim, the man who that jury determined was murdered by Aaron Hernandez.

Our Jean Casarez is here with more on the verdict and this case.

Jean, remind us what this case was about and what this jury just decided.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First of all, this was a murder trial of an NFL football player, America's institution. It was an 11- week trial with 135 witnesses. Over 400 exhibits. This jury deliberated for 35 and a half hours, which almost sets a record for high-profile trials. In the end they had a verdict and it was guilty. As you just heard, first-degree murder is a mandatory penalty of life in prison. There is no leeway for the judge in sentencing. That's what it is. There will be victim impact statements as you just heard in just a minute that will be so emotional. This all happened on a father's day. Odin Lloyd, a friend of the defendant's. They used to smoke pot together and he may have purchased pot from Odin Lloyd. At 2:30 in the morning, he, the defendant, and two other people picked him up, Odin Lloyd at his home. All of the bars were closed. No place for them to go. They drove. Aaron Hernandez was driving to an industrial park area that had nothing but a pit in it. And that's where prosecutors say and it did happen, he was shot six times and left for dead. It was that videotape that many people believe, surveillance video from inside the home of Aaron Hernandez that made a difference. You saw Aaron holding what appeared to be a Glock. A gun which was never found but authorities said would have been that murder weapon.

BOLDUAN: There were so many -- 400 plus pieces of evidence for the jury to consider. As you said deliberated for a near record time. What tipped that balance though we don't know yet. The jury can come out and speak now if they like. Do you know after these trials many avoid the cameras? Very possible that they could come out and speak if they would like to. Let's continue this discussion.

But let's continue this discussion. Jean set it up for us. Let's continue talking about it.

BERMAN: Paul Callan, former prosecutor and defense attorney, you have done it all. Aaron Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder with extreme atrocity or cruelty. What does that mean?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a very interesting finding by the jury because bear in mind this was a circumstantial evidence case. Meaning there was no actual eyewitness to the murder who testified. So for the jury to say this was done with extreme cruelty or atrocity, which is the worst kind of murder that can happen under Massachusetts law, where did they come up with that conclusion and what does it mean? Under Massachusetts law, a murder that's done this way they evaluate the degree of suffering of the deceased. They probably looked at the autopsy report and decided did he die slowly or did he die quickly? The number of shots that were fired. Extent of injuries that were extended in the course of the killing. The nature of the weapon used. There was an allegation there was a Glock, automatic weapon that was used.

BOLDUAN: With that in consideration, does that meet the standard?

CALLAN: Yes, it does. There was sufficient supporting evidence as to cruelty with respect to the homicide. What that means, John, of course, ultimately is he's facing life without parole because that's murder in the first degree under Massachusetts law.

BERMAN: He's getting life without parole?

[11:05:00] CALLAN: That's right. It's mandatory. This judge has no discretion on this.

BOLDUAN: So what we are going to be awaiting here to see, as we continue this discussion, we could be hearing victim impact statements. We could be hearing from Odin Lloyd's mother. He's the victim here. Maybe other members of his family. They could be speaking out before the judge hands down this sentence. We'll be waiting for that and bringing that to you live when they go back into the courtroom.

Let's bring in Mel Robbins, CNN legal analyst. She's joining us as well.

Mel, as Paul laid out there, this was a circumstantial case. In all of our conversations leading up to this point, that had many saying there's a possibility because of that that he could walk. What do you make then of this fact that the jury came out and he's guilty on all counts in spite of the fact that there was all this circumstantial evidence only circumstantial evidence that they were looking at.

ROBBINS: You know, look, I was one of them. I thought he would be acquitted of murder one only because of the nature of the case. It is circumstantial. While they had a mountain of evidence that put them at the scene, the problem with this case was always the motive. Why would a guy with this much going for him, with so much to lose, be involved in the planning of a murder of a guy that could be his future brother-in-law? And that was a very, very high mountain to climb for the prosecution. I had a great concern they hadn't done it sufficiently. However, what Paul was talking about in terms of the statute is that in addition to cruelty and the nature of how Odin Lloyd died, what the jury can consider and what they clearly considered and if any of them speak to us, we'll probably hear about is they can also understand the statute look at whether or not the defendant was indifferent. Obviously if he's -- yes. Based on how Hernandez behaved immediately following. He goes back to his house. He's parading around with people that he killed Odin Lloyd with. He's ordering his fiance to remove a box from the House, which obviously the jury didn't buy what she had to say when she said it contained weed and she didn't know where she put it. They thought it contained the murder weapon and how he lied to Bob Kraft, the owner of the Patriots, about where he was that night. He showed extreme indifference and that's what tipped the scales.

Now, another interesting thing, we're going to see witness impact statements. One of the things that's been going on in this case is this is a case that is not only about Hernandez. It's a story about two sisters. Hernandez's fiance met him in high school. She's two years older than her younger sister. Her younger sister is the girlfriend of Odin Lloyd. In fact, Odin Lloyd and Aaron Hernandez only knew each other because these two sisters divided by just two years went to high school with Aaron Hernandez, have known Aaron Hernandez for years. They now have been divided by this murder case. And so interesting thing to kind of pay attention to is will the younger sister take the stand? Will she get on the stand in that courtroom and talk about Odin Lloyd and talk about how this has impacted her. She's estranged from her older sister that got on the stand. The older sister, Shayanna Jenkins, is facing a count of perjury, a felony charge for lying allegedly 26 times to the grand jury so this case is far from over for the Jenkins family. I suspect you will see the girlfriend of Odin Lloyd who has been in that courtroom for most of these proceedings taking the stand along with Odin Lloyd's mother when they get a chance to give witness impact statements on behalf of their loved ones, guys.

BERMAN: They'll get that chance any minute right now.

You're watching the emotion in the courtroom after the verdict was read. That's --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: That's Aaron Hernandez's mother and fiance. This is Odin Lloyd's mother right here, Ursula Ward. So you can see just how close these two families, both torn apart, how close they were in the courtroom as the verdict was read.

BERMAN: Again, we're standing by for the victim impact statements any minute now and official sentencing again any minute.

I want to bring in criminal defense attorney, Mark O'Mara. Mark joins us right now.

And Mel Robbins just brought out the idea of indifference that the jury perhaps found that Aaron Hernandez was indifferent to this crime. It made me think about his demeanor in the courtroom over this trial. He was smiling. He was smirking. He at times was giggling. Expressing no remorse let alone any kind of apparent concern for the proceedings themselves. Mark, in your experience, can what the defendant does in the courtroom itself affect how a jury looks at what that man may be charged with?

[11:10:21] MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Without question. Moment by moment, that jury is assessing the credibility of a defendant, even if he never testifies, and looking at his demeanor and how he reacts to evidence. Aaron Hernandez can play football very well and he's a very wealthy man but he was in that courtroom the same person he was five or ten years ago before he was famous or wealthy and the jury got that impression from him. If you look at what happened in a circumstantial evidence case is they weigh all of the evidence not just individually but in sum. And in sum, when you look at all this evidence, it looks as though Hernandez was, as you say, indifferent. No question was involved. It made no sense to suggest that he was there at the murder. We're going to look at circumstantial evidence and who will I believe? What happened in this case and we love to speculate as defense attorneys what jurors were thinking, it seems as though there was one hold out juror who they had to convince to go with them for the conviction on first degree. I say that because we know it wasn't a compromise verdict. It wasn't 4-8 or 6-6 for first degree so they came back down to a second. It really seems there was one, maybe two, who just held out for whatever reason and it took several days to convince that juror to come around to majority opinion.

BOLDUAN: Mark, I want to continue. I want to ask you about your thought right there.

But let's just bring our viewers who are joining us for breaking news up to speed. Let's listen to the moment after 35 and a half hours of deliberating, the jury comes out and offers their verdict in this amazingly long and complex trial, the murder trial of Aaron Hernandez. Let's listen to the moment.

BERMAN: Yeah, very dramatic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madame Foreperson, on indictment 2013-983-A, charging the defendant, Aaron Hernandez, with murder, what say you, Madame Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty, guilty of murder in the first degree or guilty of murder in the second degree?

MADAME FOREPERSON: Guilty of murder in the first degree.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madame Foreperson, by which theory or theories, deliberate premedication or extreme atrocity or cruelty?

MADAME FOREPERSON: Extreme atrocity or cruelty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indictment 2013-983-B, charging the defendant, Aaron Hernandez, with unlawful possession of a firearm, what say you, Madame Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty or guilty?

MADAME FOREPERSON: Guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indictment 2013-983-C, charging the defendant Aaron Hernandez with unlawful possession of ammunition, what say you, Madame Foreperson? Is the defendant not guilty or guilty?

MADAME FOREPERSON: Guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your Honor, the jury be polled on count one, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat one, is the verdict on indictment 2013-983-a, as announced by the foreperson, your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat number three, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madame Foreperson, is the verdict you announced your verdict?

MADAME FOREPERSON: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat number seven, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat number eight, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat number nine is the verdict your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat number 10, is the verdict announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat 13, is the verdict announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat 14, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat 15, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat 16, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Juror in seat 18, is the verdict as announced by the foreperson your verdict?

UNIDENTIFIED JUROR: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:15:00] BOLDUAN: You can hear the dramatic moment there. You can see the faces of both Aaron Hernandez's family, Odin Lloyd's family, the moment it all hits them.

Mark O'Mara is still with us. Our entire legal team is with us.

Mark, I want to go back to you. You were talking about the fact you believe there may be one or two holdout jurors because this ended up not being they wanted to convince them to join that final verdict. This was not a compromise verdict. This was unanimous. He was guilty on all counts. When you take a look at that from your experience and how this trial has panned out over nine weeks, is this, do you think a failing of the defense or success of the prosecution in how they brought their case?

O'MARA: I'm going to give credit to the prosecution. They did not have a live witness to the event. They put together painstakingly a very good circumstantial evidence case. Under the law in Massachusetts, the circumstantial evidence jury instruction says use your common sense. But what you look at when you decide whether or not he's guilty is this circumstantial evidence has to exclude any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. You have to be certain he's not guilty based upon the circumstances. There was an enormous amount of circumstance from phone records to telephone pinging to video evidence. There's a lot that prosecution did without showing the one point they had to Aaron Hernandez killed Odin Lloyd and everything else pointed to no other explanation but Aaron Hernandez was there, he did it, he conspired for it and he was part of it and is guilty as anybody else who did it.

BERMAN: Mark O'Mara, standby.

I want to bring you back to pictures of the courtroom in Fall River, Massachusetts, the Bristol County courthouse in Fall River, Massachusetts. WE are waiting for the sentencing, the official sentencing of Aaron Hernandez. You're looking at the assistant district attorney there, assistant district attorney, William McCauley.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: That is Ursula War, Odin Lloyd's mother. She'll be reading a victim impact statement. Let's listen in.

URSULA WARD, MOTHER OF ODIN WARD: Good morning, Your Honor.

SUSAN GARSH, MASSACHUSETTS SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: Good morning.

WARD: First and foremost, I would like to thank the jurors and everyone for all of their support and everything. I thank God for being here this morning.

My name is Ursula Ward, Odin Lloyd's mother. Odin was the first born of three children. Odin was my only son. Odin was the backbone of the family. Odin was the man of the House. Odin was his sisters' keeper. After my daughter, Olivia, had her daughter, Odin became her keeper also. Odin attended every one of her recital. Odin was her biggest supporter in all aspect of her life. They had two sons who will never know their uncle, Odin. Odin would have taught them to be like him. To have respect and manners to everyone. And to play his favorite sport, football.

Odin gave me a beautiful gift before he was murdered. And that was introduce me to his girlfriend, Shaneah. 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 to rest, I felt my heart stop beating for a moment. I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my son, Odin. I will never have a grandchild from my son or grandchildren.

I'll never get to dance at his wedding. He will never get to dance at my wedding. I will never hear my son say, "Ma dukes. Ma, did you cook? Ma, go to bed. Ma, you're so beautiful. Where are you going, Ma? Did you get my permission to go out? I love you, Ma."

I miss my baby boy, Odin, so much. But I know I'm going to see him some day again. That's giving me the strength to go on. We wore purple in this courtroom every day because it's my son's favorite color.

I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder, either before or after. I pray and hope that some day everyone out there will forgive them also. May God continue to bless us. Thank you. Thank you.

[11:21:39] UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: I would ask Your Honor to call Vorn Samuel, Odin Lloyd's uncle.

BERMAN: All right. You're going to hear now from someone else I could not hear.

BOLDUAN: This might be the uncle. This might be Odin Lloyd's uncle.

BERMAN: Just heard from his mother, Ursula Ward.

VORN SAMUEL, UNCLE OF ODIN WARD: First I would like to thank the jury. Thank everybody who worked on the case.

My nephew, Odin was brought into my life at the age of 2 years old. He had been with me ever since. It meant a lot to me to see how he grew, the respect he had, toughest thing for me is that I won't get to see him have a child and to treat that child like he did my own. My son called him uncle. The way he interacted with him is special to me. The way he treated his friends, his family, especially his sisters, from the age of 4, he had a big stature so everyone knew his sisters, you do something, you got to see him. And just the way he cared for them was very special to me. A lot of people won't see from the outside the value and riches he had. It wasn't material. The wealth he possessed. Often times we look on the outside and forget the inside and person they are. He was a great person.

I'm sorry for the way I stand today but I know that the amount of time I had with Odin was special and he'll always be with me. The love he had for his mother, my sister, how strong she is. I just want everybody to know how good of a person he was. The smile he had on his face was the smile that got him out of a lot of trouble with me. That smile. Just had to say go ahead, man. He was a prideful guy. Never wanted you to be giving him anything without him earning it. The car that I drive today was my nephew's. Didn't want me to give it to him. He wanted to earn it. He ride his bike every day to work. Unless it's raining, uncle, can I get a ride to the station. If not, he would jump on his bike and he would go to work. Because that's the kind of family we are. We work for what we want.

And so I thank everybody again. I appreciate my family. The support that we have from friends, from family. And that's the kind of wealth that he possessed that so many people who knows him, love him, when I tell you they love him. And so he was a very rich young man. I'm sorry that I won't get to hold his kid and treat him like he treat mine. All the darkness must come to light. I'm sorry that he was that light. And so it's set. And I thank you.

[11:27:14] UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: Your Honor, I would like to call Olivia Thibou to address the court. She's the sister of Odin Lloyd.

OLIVIA THIBOU, SISTER OF ODIN LLOYD: Good morning. I am Odin Lloyd's sister. I was only -- I'm only two years younger than Odin so I spent my entire life with him. He was the big brother that everybody would love to have. Today my sister isn't here so I'll speak on her behalf as well.

These last couple of years have been the hardest time of our lives. At the age of 25, I was asked to write my brother's eulogy, the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I wrote it with a smile because I got to write all of the great memories that I had of him. I got to tell everyone how he wore the same Adidas flip-flops for 12 years until there were no soles on them and his feet were touching the ground. As much as I asked him to buy a new pair, he wanted those slippers to be his and he wore them with pride. I got to sit in front of a congregation of people and talk about how my brother protected me and my sister. How he was such a great guy. How he would wake up in the morning sometimes and as soon as I get ready to get mad at him, he'll come home with my car and it's clean on inside and out. I had to tell people how great of an uncle he was. How he taught my daughter to ride her bike.

It doesn't feel like Odin is not here. It feels like just a bad dream and I'm stuck between living and reality and this dream world where he's just not here and I haven't had a chance to speak to him. Odin called me every day. If he didn't call me, he texted me. He would call me at work and ask me what I'm doing and first thing I would say is I'm at work, what do you think I'm doing? I miss that.