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Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was implicated by an alleged accomplice as the man who shot and killed a semi-pro football player in Massachusetts last month, according to bombshell court documents obtained today by ABC News.
Carlos Ortiz, who prosecutors say was with Hernandez when Odin Lloyd was killed, told cops he was informed by the second alleged accomplice that "Mr. Hernandez admitted to shooting Mr. Lloyd."
The statement is included in an eight-page affidavit filed in Fort Lauderdale today. The document was submitted in Florida because the second alleged accomplice, Ernest Wallace, 41, was arrested near Fort Lauderdale, in Miramar, after Hernandez was charged with murder. Lloyd, 27, was killed June 17 at an industrial area near Hernandez's million-dollar home in North Attleboro, Mass.
Accusations that Hernandez pulled the trigger marked a major development in the case of the disgraced all-pro who was released from the Patriots as soon as he was arrested last month. Until today, the authorities had refused repeatedly to say who among the three men – Hernandez, Ortiz and Wallace – they believe actually fired the five rounds that killed Lloyd in what's been termed an execution-style slaying.
According to a separate volume of court records released today in Massachusetts, Ortiz's words were also key in flagging investigators to Hernandez's "flop house" in Franklin, Mass. It was there that investigators said they recovered ammunition similar to the .45-caliber bullets used to kill Lloyd.