Aaron Hernandez will get a short break in between murder trials.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge has agreed to delay the Boston double murder trial of former NFL star until May 28. Hernandez will first faces a January 9 murder trial where he is accused of shooting Odin Lloyd.
A pool of more than 1,500 prospective jurors will have to be whittled down to 16 — 12 jurors and four alternates — and more than 300 people are listed as possible prosecution witnesses in the Bristol case, leading Hernandez’s lawyers to argue that the trial could take longer than expected.
“If [prosecutors] really call all those people, we’re going to be in Bristol for two or three months,” said Charles Rankin, one of Hernandez’s lawyers, in court Tuesday. “That would make it impossible for us to be ready by May 28.”
Judge Jeffrey Locke agreed that the complexity of the Bristol case will make it difficult for defense attorneys to devote enough attention to the Suffolk case — Hernandez is accused of killing two men in Boston in 2012.
“The motion to continue is not at all unreasonable,” Locke said.
Rankin asked for a November 2015 trial date but Locke declined to commit to a specific date in case the trial in Bristol ends sooner than defense attorneys predict.
If the trial ends quickly, the Suffolk case could still begin as early as September or August, Locke said.