Aaron Hernandez to be called to testify in wrongful death lawsuit
BOSTON - A lawyer for the family of a man slain by Aaron Hernandez plans to call the former New England Patriots star to the stand in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Speaking alongside Odin Lloyd's mother, lawyer Doug Sheff promised the case would take a different tone than Hernandez's criminal trial, which ended April 15 with his conviction and sentencing to life in prison for Lloyd's 2013 murder.
Sheff said Hernandez won't be able to avoid testifying by pleading the Fifth Amendment.
He says Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, wants to know what happened and why.
He said the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, but maintained the family is not in it for the money because no amount can compensate for their loss. The suit was filed in December 2013.
CBS Boston reports Sheff said any money that is owed to Hernandez by the New England Patriots should go to Lloyd's family. The suit puts that amount at more than $3 million. To that end, the New England Patriots and Kraft Enterprises are also named as "ready and apply" defendants in the suit.
Hernandez had a $40 million contract with the Patriots at the time of his June 26, 2013 arrest in the murder of Lloyd, who was found dead in an industrial park just days earlier, not far from Hernandez's North Attleborough, Mass. home.
"I'm not confident he has money, but he sure has received a lot over his career and we're curious as to where it might be," Sheff said, according to the station.
"There are people who should be deposed. Did you handle his money? What did you do with it? Where was it transferred? We'd like to ask those questions. We haven't been able to do that yet.
Ward said Wednesday her son never took life for granted and was her hero.
"I thought my life ended with his," she said.
Hernandez is also named in a civil lawsuit filed by the families of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado - the two victims in a 2012 Boston double-homicide which Hernandez is also charged in. He has not yet gone to trial in that case.
