The court ruled that prosecutors can examine the cell phone owned by former NFL star and convicted murderer, Aaron Hernandez, for possible evidence in his upcoming double murder trial, according to DailyMail.
The former New England Patriot gave the cell phone to his last attorney back in 2013 when he first was being investigated in the killing of Odin Lloyd. Since then he’s been convicted and serving a life sentence.
Supreme Judicial Court states in the ruling that there was ‘no legitimate purpose’ for his attorney to keep the phone after already downloading the contents of it.
But Hernandez’s former attorneys argued back, saying they have the right to keep it since it was given to them during the time he was seeking their legal advice.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said prosecutors have already begun the process of seeking a search warrant for the phone.
He also mentioned:
No court or legislature ever intended that critical evidence could be placed beyond the reach of investigators, in perpetuity, simply by providing it to an attorney.
A new defense team has now been hired by Hernandez, led by an attorney from Florida named Jose Baez, the man who successfully helped acquit Casey Anthony for murder.
Hernandez is awaiting trial in the 2012 killings of two men, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, whom he encountered at a Boston nightclub. Still no word on when that’ll be.
I guess for now, we’ll all have to wait to see what happens next.