Why Aaron Hernandez will go back to jail even if found not guilty

FALL RIVER, Mass. – Late Wednesday afternoon a Bristol County jury decided to break off deliberations in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial for the day. By that point, the group of seven women and five men had spent about eight-and-a-half hours over two days considering the case. They are scheduled to get back at it Thursday at 9 a.m.

Hernandez, a former star with the New England Patriots, is charged with orchestrating the June 17, 2013, killing of Odin Lloyd, who was found shot to death in an industrial area of North Attleboro. He also faces separate weapons and ammunition charges at the trial.

A first-degree murder conviction carries with it life in prison without the possibility of parole. A second-degree conviction would be life but with parole eligibility after 15 years. The gun charge is a maximum of five years in prison and the ammo up to two.

So he’s staring down serious time.

But what if Hernandez beats the rap here and the jury finds him not guilty on all charges?

For the 25-year-old, not much will change, actually, and he certainly won’t be plotting a return to the NFL anytime soon.

Even full acquittals here will not allow him to walk out of the Fall River Justice Center a free man. Hernandez still faces a litany of charges in Massachusetts that will keep him locked up for the time being.

The most pressing are two counts of murder in Suffolk County for the deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in the early morning hours of July 16, 2012, in Boston’s South End neighborhood.

De Abreu and Furtado were at the Cure nightclub at the same time as Hernandez. There may have been some kind of minor brush up between them. Hernandez left the club with his friend (and now prosecution witness) Alexander Bradley. Hernandez, prosecutors allege, is then seen circling the club for an hour in an SUV, apparently waiting for de Abreu and Furtado’s group to leave.

When they finally do, Hernandez, prosecutors allege, followed them to a nearby stoplight where he pulled alongside and opened fire into their car. The two men were killed, another was wounded and two more had to escape out a rear door before Hernandez fled.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to the crime but the evidence is strong. It starts with surveillance video from inside the club and out on the streets of Boston.

The SUV involved was later recovered from a garage in Connecticut belonging to Hernandez’s uncle. The gun was found in a vehicle driven by a woman from Bristol, Conn., Hernandez's hometown, who told police it belonged to some football player friends. One of the survivors of the shooting identified Hernandez as the shooter after seeing him on television following his 2013 arrest for killing Lloyd.

Then there is Bradley, who alleges Hernandez shot him in the face in February 2013, as they drove back from a night of partying at a South Florida strip club. In a civil suit, Bradley, who now has just one eye due to the alleged attack, said he and Hernandez were arguing over how the drink bill should be split before Hernandez pulled over, shot him and dumped him in a field on the side of the road. He may have died if not for being discovered by workers at a nearby John Deere dealership. Bradley refused to cooperate with Florida police, so no criminal charges were filed.

Now, though, Bradley is expected to testify that Hernandez unloaded his entire gun into the other car that July night in Boston.

Suffolk County prosecutors are waiting the outcome of the Lloyd murder charges before setting a trial date, although it is expected to come later this year.

Each first-degree murder charge carries with it a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Making matters more challenging for Hernandez is the likelihood the fortune he amassed playing the NFL is dwindling or may even be depleted. His total NFL earnings are believed to be around $11 million, pre tax, union dues and agent fees. He has had no known income since his arrest in 2013 but plenty of bills from the 7,100-square foot home his fiancée and daughter reside in, to other family support, to legal fees from his elite, high-profile defense team that has given him a puncher's chance here.

Will he be able to continue to afford them in the Boston case, though?

Either way that pending trial will assure Hernandez doesn’t spend a minute as a free man regardless of what the jury here finds. Even if he received a not guilty verdict, Hernandez would still return to his current 7-by-10 foot cell at the Bristol County House of Corrections until Suffolk County, located 50 miles north of here, worked out a transfer.

While Suffolk County has yet to deny him bail until the outcome of that case (since he was already jailed it wasn’t necessary), that is a mere formality and one Hernandez’s defense team may even agree to without a proceeding.

There’s more, too.

Even if Hernandez somehow beat the double-murder case in Boston, he would still have to return to court in Bristol County to face additional charges.

When searching Hernandez’s North Attleboro home during the Lloyd murder investigation, police found a Toyota Camry in the garage with a Hungarian FEG rifle inside. Hernandez did not have a license to own that gun, often referred to as a knock-off AK 47. He faces 18 months to five years on that charge, according to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.

Police also discovered a high-capacity feeding device (or magazine) and corresponding ammunition for that, both felonies. The ammo carries a two-year maximum sentence and the high-cap clip calls for up to 10 years in prison, according to the DA’s office.

It’s like the Commonwealth's legal backstop in case Hernandez gets on a murder-rap winning streak.

And that still isn’t even all of it.

Hernandez also faces two misdemeanors in Bristol County for a fight in the jail with a fellow inmate and threatening an officer. Of course, if he makes it all the way to that, he’ll have plenty of time served – nearly 20 months and counting – to offset any sentence.

So no matter what that jury decides here in the Odin Lloyd case, freedom is a long time and a lot of long-shot victories away for Aaron Hernandez.