Judge won't dismiss murder charge against Aaron Hernandez

FALL RIVER, Mass. - A judge has rejected a motion by lawyers for Aaron Hernandez to dismiss charges stemming from the 2013 slaying of a Boston man whose body was found near the ex-New England Patriot player's home.

Hernandez's lawyers argued that prosecutors hadn't shown probable cause to sustain the murder charge against Hernandez in the death of Odin Lloyd and hadn't presented any evidence or motive for the slaying.

The Bristol Superior Court judge said in her ruling Thursday that probable cause, and a defendant's guilt, can be established by circumstantial evidence, and prosecutors don't need to prove a motive to secure a murder conviction.

Hernandez is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to killing Lloyd, who was dating Hernandez's fiancee's sister. His trial is scheduled to start Jan. 9.

The former tight end, who is from Bristol, Conn., has pleaded not guilty, in a separate case, to the murder of two men in Boston in 2012. He's being held without bail.