Aaron Hernandez associate pleads guilty to his part in murder

An associate of former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.

Carlos Ortiz had been facing a charge of first-degree murder. He entered his guilty plea to the accessory charge in Bristol (Mass.) Superior Court, and now faces 4 1/2 to seven years in prison.

Hernandez was convicted in 2015 of the murder of Lloyd, who was shot to death in a North Attleborough, Mass. industrial park. Ortiz and Ernest Wallace had accompanied Hernandez and Lloyd to the park.

"When we got to the spot, the only two people that got out of the car was Aaron Hernandez and Odin Lloyd," Ortiz told Superior Court Judge Susan Marsh on Monday. He then said he heard a gunshot, and added, "The only one person that came in was Aaron Hernandez."

Wallace was acquitted of murder charges last month, but convicted on accessory charges and also faces seven years in prison.

Ortiz had been spotted on surveillance video carrying a gun in Hernandez's former North Attleborough home. He was initially charged with manslaughter and believed to be cooperating with authorities, but those charges were later increased to first-degree murder.

Hernandez is currently serving life without the possibility of parole in the murder of Lloyd, though he has indicated he intends to appeal. Hernandez still faces murder and gun charges in the deaths of two men in Boston in 2012. Authorities believe Lloyd may have been killed because he claimed knowledge of Hernandez's role in those deaths. Hernandez has pleaded innocent in that case, which is still pending.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.