Aaron Hernandez friend: not guilty of murder, guilty of accessory

Ernest Wallace, who was with Aaron Hernandez the night the former NFL star shot and killed Odin Lloyd, was found not guilty of murder. Wallace was, however, found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of Lloyd.

Wallace, who has been jailed since June 2013, was immediatley sentenced to 4½ to 7 years in prison. He will be credited with time served, meaning he could be out as soon as next year.

The verdict, handed down Thursday by a jury of 12 who began deliberations Wednesday, is a victory for Wallace.

From the get-go prosecutors acknowledged that Wallace didn't kill Lloyd; Hernandez did. But they argued that Wallace knew what was going down on the night of June 17, 2013.

On that night, Hernandez, Wallace and Carlos Ortiz drove to the home where Lloyd was staying, picked him up, then drove to an abandoned field in North Attleboro, Mass., where Hernandez shot Lloyd multiple times.

District Attorney William McCauley pointed to 34 phone communications between Wallace and Hernandez in the 24 hours leading up to the murder as evidence that Wallace was a knowing participant in a plot to kill Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancée.

Hernandez, who was found guilty of Lloyd's murder, is currently serving a life sentence.

Prosecutors argued that Wallace willingly followed "The Prince," a name used to describe Hernandez, in order to remain within the former NFL star's inner circle. McCauley noted that after Hernandez shot Lloyd, leaving him to die in that abandoned field, he, Wallace and Ortiz returned to Hernandez's home where Wallace slept "like a baby."

"God knows the truth," Odin Lloyd's mother Ursula Ward said, according to the Fall River Herald's Brian Fraga, after the verdict was handed down.

Defense attorney David Meier argued that while Wallace was "no boy next door," it was "Aaron Hernandez and Aaron Hernandez alone who killed Odin Lloyd."

Wallace was loyal to a fault, Meier argued, but "he didn't kill Odin Lloyd." Instead, he was a "victim of circumstances," which were dicated by Hernandez.

According to Fraga, jailhouse recordings showed that Wallace was angry with Hernandez for getting him caught up "in this big thing."

"[The jury] apparently felt there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove Mr. Wallace and Mr. Hernandez were acting in concert to kill Odin Lloyd," Bristol County (Mass.) District Attorney Thomas Quinn said in a statement. "I am happy the jury found the defendant guilty of accessory after the fact to murder, and was involved in the attempt to cover up the crime."