FALL RIVER, Mass. – A jury found Aaron Hernandez guilty of murder in the first degree for the 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd, ending forever his life of NFL fame and fortune.

A Bristol County jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 36 hours over seven days before reaching a unanimous verdict on the former New England Patriots star. They said the murder rose to first degree due to Hernandez acting with extreme atrocity or cruelty. The conviction carries a sentence of automatic life in prison without the possibility of parole.

View photos A court officer places handcuffs on Aaron Hernandez after the guilty verdict was read. (REUTERS) More

Hernandez, 25, stood stone-faced as the verdict was read, only to collapse into a chair as the guilty charges piled on. Behind him, his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins wept uncontrollably on the shoulder of Teri Hernandez, Aaron's mother. Lloyd's family, who during the trial made a daily pilgrimage to this old mill town 50 miles south of Boston, wept and embraced as the verdict was read.

"Stay strong, stay strong," Hernandez mouthed to his mother and Jenkins. Moments later, he was placed in handcuffs.



Formal sentencing took place about 30 minutes later. Before the sentence was handed down, Ursula Ward, Lloyd's mother, stood before the court.

"The day I laid my son Odin to rest, I felt my heart stop beating for a moment," she said, fighting back tears. "I felt like I wanted to go into that hole with my son, Odin.

"... I forgive the hands of the people who had a hand in my son's murder, even before or after, and I pray and hope that someday everyone out there will forgive them also."

After four of Lloyd's family members spoke of their son, brother, nephew and cousin, the sentence came down: Aaron Hernandez will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As his sentence was read, Hernandez again stood stone-faced, pursing his lips, but otherwise showing no emotion. He was then led out of court and on his way to prison.

Hernandez was taken to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction, about a mile from Gillette Stadium, where the Patriots play, before likely being transferred to another facility where he will serve his life sentence.

Lloyd was found shot to death in the early morning hours of June 17, 2013, after Hernandez and two co-conspirators picked up the 27-year-old at his Boston home, and then proceeded to an undeveloped piece of land behind an industrial park in North Attleboro – just a few minutes from Hernandez's home.

"The perfect spot to kill somebody," prosecutor William McCauley said in closing arguments of the dark, out-of-the-way area called Corliss Landing. "No witnesses, other than the killers."

The prosecution overcame the lack of testifying eye witnesses by painstakingly piecing together a mountain of circumstantial, forensic evidence and so-called "electronic witnesses" that was so convincing it forced the defense during closing arguments to change tactics and concede that Hernandez was at the murder site. It just claimed he didn't do it, but rather witnessed a possible PCP-rage killing by either Ernest Wallace or Carlos Ortiz, friends of Hernandez and alleged low-level drug dealers in Connecticut.

The jury explained afterwards they did not buy the PCP theory, nor anything the defense put forth.

"The evidence was compelling," one juror said.

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