Alleged murder accomplice: Aaron Hernandez 'shot and killed Odin Lloyd'

Aaron Hernandez sits behind bars for the murder of Odin Lloyd, though despite his conviction he insists he didn't pull the trigger. Not so, says the lawyer for Ernest Wallace, who was with Hernandez on the early morning of June 13, 2013.

"It was Aaron Hernandez who shot and killed Odin Lloyd," defense attorney David Meier said Tuesday as opening statements began in the trial of Wallace.

Inside a Fall River (Mass.) courtroom, Meier didn't deny Wallace and Hernandez were friends; he didn't deny Wallace was in the car that night they picked up Lloyd at his Dorchester (Mass.) home; and he didn't deny his client was with Hernandez at the industrial park where Lloyd's body was found riddled with six bullets.

But he denied that his client knew what Hernandez was going to do.

"Did [Wallace] actively participate? Did he know what Aaron Hernandez was going to do? Absolutely not," Meier stated. "That’s what the evidence is. That’s what the law is going to be in this case."

Hernandez was convicted of Lloyd's murder last April and is currently serving a life sentence without parole.

Wallace's trial began Tuesday without the fanfare of Hernandez's but with much the same cast of characters. The judge, E. Susan Garsh, is the same, as is the assistant prosecutor, Patrick Bomberg, who provided the state's opening statement Tuesday.

"It was a cooperative effort,’’ Bomberg argued. "It was a joint venture by this defendant [Wallace], Aaron Hernandez and Carlos Ortiz."

Ortiz is being tried separately.

Bomberg laid out a case that Wallace, 44, was financially dependent on Hernandez, who paid him $1,000 a month to run errands.

Bomberg also claimed that Hernandez had promised to give Wallace a $110,000 motor vehicle, and according, to the Sun Chronicle, that Wallace told police after his arrest that "he was loyal to Mr. Hernandez."

The trial is expected to last nine weeks.