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Reuters

Former National Football League star Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for murdering an acquaintance in an industrial park near his Massachusetts home - concluding the first of two murder trials he faces this year.
The jury found Hernandez, 25, guilty of first-degree murder in the June 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd, who had been dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancée at the time.
Massachusetts Superior Court Associate Justice Susan Garsh sentenced Hernandez to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the mandatory punishment for first-degree murder in the state.
During the trial, the men were described as having been in the early stages of friendship, but Hernandez soured on Lloyd after the man hung out with people the former New England Patriots player disliked.
Hernandez collapsed into his chair after the verdict was read, and court security officers handcuffed him. His mother and fiancée, who were in court, broke into tears.
The Patriots cut Hernandez, a rising star with a US$41 million contract, hours after his arrest on June 26, 2013, nine days after a teenage jogger found Lloyd's body.
During four months of highly publicised testimony, the jury heard from more than 130 witnesses who testified that Hernandez, a native of Bristol, Connecticut, was a regular user of marijuana and sometimes of the stimulant PCP, that he owned guns and at times acted paranoid.
The witnesses included Alexander Bradley, a former friend of Hernandez who charged in a civil lawsuit that the former NFL player shot him in the face in February 2013, costing him an eye. Bradley, who never pursued criminal charges over the incident, testified that he saw Hernandez handle a gun similar to the one used to kill Lloyd but was not allowed to tell the jury about the shooting.
Investigators never recovered the .45-calibre Glock pistol used to kill Lloyd, 27, who had been a semi-professional football player.
Prosecutors contended that two friends, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, were with Hernandez at the time of the killing. Those two men will be tried separately.
Defence lawyers argued Hernandez had been present at the time of Lloyd's slaying, but had been a witness not a participant.
Hernandez faces another trial beginning later this year in Boston, where he is charged with fatally shooting Cape Verdean nationals Daniel Abreu and Safirdo Furtado outside a nightclub. The jury that rendered the Lloyd verdict was not told about that case.


Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez guilty of 2013 murder

Aaron Hernandez in court (above) just before the guilty verdict was read out and his 27-year-old victim Odin Lloyd. Photo: AP