Aaron Hernandez Returns to Court
CABRERA: Football star turned accused killer Aaron Hernandez will be back in a courtroom this week. He's accused of killing two men in 2012 and another man, a semi-pro football player in 2013. Now what will his attorneys try to accomplish in this week's hearing? CNN's Susan Candiotti has a preview.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, accused murderer Aaron Hernandez is expected in court twice in the coming days to challenge prosecutors and the New England Patriots.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Aaron Hernandez flashes an occasional smile while his lawyers fight tooth and nail to drop a first-degree murder charge in the execution style murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty.</s>JAMIE SULTAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think that the grand jury could find, based on drawing out inferences, as it must be drawn, the light must be the rule of Commonwealth that Mr. Hernandez was present when Mr. Lloyd was killed. Yes, I think that they have enough to say that, but that just not -- is not enough to make him a voluntary deliberate participant in that killing.</s>CANDIOTTI: The defense also wants a judge to throw out evidence seized from Hernandez's home arguing the search warrant was not properly served. That could include Hernandez's own home security video which shows Hernandez holding what prosecutors believe is the murder weapon. It's never been found. On Monday the trial judge is also expected to rule on the defense request to move Hernandez to a different jail so he could be closer to his lawyers. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to assaulting a fellow prisoner where he is now. On Wednesday the defense is taking aim at the New England Patriots. Hernandez wants the court subpoena to force his old team to turn over any medical and psychological information that, quote, "may bear upon his physical and mental state prior to Lloyd's murder."</s>CANDIOTTI: Legal experts say this indicates his lawyers might be considering a diminished capacity defense, meaning he didn't know right from wrong -- Ana.</s>CABRERA: Thank you, Susan. Let's talk now about this with Aaron Hernandez's case with our two commentators here with us, sports contributor, Terence Moore, back along with defense attorney Brian Claypool. Brian, Susan Candiotti says Hernandez's attorneys will try to get this evidence thrown out, even maybe some of the charges completely dropped. Any chance of success with these requests?</s>CLAYPOOL: The chance of that happening is about as likely has the Clippers sale going through on June 15th, which means there's zero chance. I mean, Aaron Hernandez's lawyer just told you that Aaron Hernandez was there when Odin Lloyd was killed. That, Ana, is enough evidence to get to a jury on first-degree murder, so forget about that. And in terms of getting this search warrant quashed, forget about that as well. As long as there was an adult at the house, it was served on an adult at the house, at least 18 years old, then that search warrant is going to hold up and that could be very damaging evidence against Aaron Hernandez because it depicts a picture of him with a gun that might be matched to the gun used in the murder of Odin Lloyd.</s>CABRERA: Terence, we expect his attorneys also to try to get his medical records from the New England Patriots and possibly call his mental state into question. Does this sound to you like they want to somehow blame this on the hit he suffered while playing football?</s>MOORE: Well, you know what, Ana, this concussion thing in football has become the latest in the long lines of the dog ate the homework and the check is in the mail. I mean, sure, they are going to try but whether it works or not, it's not going to work. But you know they would have a better chance, if you look back at Aaron Hernandez's life, when he grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, it looks as if a lot of his troubles began when his father died, and when he was about 16 years of age or so. And then after that, his mother got involved with an ex-con that was -- really ugly things and he started joining gangs and what have you. He's got a better chance of going that route than anything else and even that doesn't work. And I tell you something about Hernandez, besides the fact just being a bad guy, you've got the question the University of Florida, right, recruited him with all of his issues that he had even before he went to the University of Florida. Then you've got -- you really got a question the New England Patriots. When he was coming out of Florida, he was a guy that nobody wanted to touch because everybody knew about the marijuana problems he had, the gang problems, but New England took a chance anyway just because they knew that the guy could play. So the other thing you've got to look at is all the enablers in his life that have helped to get him to this point, which is not good.</s>CABRERA: Well, it seems like he had it all and now here he is. Terence Moore and Brian Claypool, thank you both.</s>MOORE: Thank you.</s>CLAYPOOL: Thanks, Ana.</s>CABRERA: After more than three months, a U.S. Marine is still in a Mexican jail facing what he calls bogus charges. His day in court just days away. An exclusive interview with him from jail, next.