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Feb. 23, 2015 FALL RIVER, MA – Defense attorney Michael Fee reads text messages from housekeeper Grazielli Silva to a State Police officer during the murder trial for former NFL player Aaron Hernandez at the Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, MA, February 23, 2015. (globe photo: Dominick Reuter section:Metro reporter: reporter topic: Hernandez_Poolphotos LOID: 8.0.2723330238)
Feb. 23, 2015 FALL RIVER, MA – Prosecutor William McCauley (R) refers to defense attorney Michael Fee (L) during the murder trial for former NFL player Aaron Hernandez at the Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, MA, February 23, 2015. (globe photo: Dominick Reuter section:Metro reporter: reporter topic: Hernandez_Poolphotos LOID: 8.0.2723330238)
HERNANDEZ’S HELP: During testimony yesterday in the murder trial of former NFL player Aaron Hernandez, below at left, at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, housekeeper Grazielli Silva, above, indicates the size of a gun she said she found while working in Hernandez’s home.
Feb. 23, 2015 FALL RIVER, MA – Housekeeper Grazielli Silva communicates with an interpreter in testimony during the murder trial for former NFL player Aaron Hernandez at the Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, MA, February 23, 2015. (globe photo: Dominick Reuter section:Metro reporter: reporter topic: Hernandez_Poolphotos LOID: 8.0.2723330238)
HERNANDEZ’S HELP: During testimony yesterday in the murder trial of former NFL player Aaron Hernandez at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, housekeeper Grazielli Silva indicates the size of a gun she said she found while working in Hernandez’s home.
Prosecutors are closing in on former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, and they are putting a murder weapon in his hands where none exists.
Jurors listened intently yesterday as two women who cleaned Hernandez’s North Attleboro home chronicled how they stumbled upon guns in three places before Odin Lloyd’s murder. Housekeeper Marilia Prinholato and her boss, Grazielli Silva, spoke about discovering the weapons while tidying up and later being asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, which neither agreed to do.
Prinholato said she found a “big” gun while fixing the sheets in Hernandez’s guest bedroom and told jurors it was about 30 to 40 centimeters long and “heavy.” Silva was making the same bed and felt a gun, but she didn’t look at it.
Silva also said she saw a gun — about the size of a police officer’s — in Hernandez’s sock drawer on two occasions. Then there was the time Silva showed Prinholato a smaller gun she found in Hernandez’s khakis, which he left on the floor of his master bedroom.
“I picked up the pants to put them away,” she said, in broken English. “They were heavy. I put my hands inside, and I felt there was a gun.”
Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh frequently reminded jurors that they couldn’t use the evidence to show that Hernandez had a “propensity” to kill. Rather, if they believed the testimony, they could use it as evidence that Hernandez had the “means to commit the murder charge,” she said.
In a case without a murder weapon, that’s pretty important.
It’s also possible that jurors will hear more testimony along a similar line. Other maids are expected to testify about their time working in the Hernandez household, which can’t be a good thing for the former tight end.
The housekeepers who testified yesterday also painted Hernandez’s fiancee Shayanna Jenkins in a negative light. Silva said Jenkins — who has been granted immunity by prosecutors, but has not yet testified — fired her after she declined to sign the non-disclosure form.
She also shed light on a poignant moment on June 18, 2013, the day after Lloyd was murdered. Silva went over to Hernandez’s home and tried to talk to Jenkins, but she appeared scattered and couldn’t pay attention to the conversation.
“She was nervous,” Silva said. “I could see she had cried before.”
Silva may have also inadvertently caught Jenkins in a pretty serious lie. Prosecutors showed jurors a $300 check Jenkins had given to Silva for her services on June 18, 2013. It was the last payment made before Silva was fired and Hernandez was subsequently arrested.
That doesn’t line up with the story told by Shaneah Jenkins — Lloyd’s former girlfriend and Shayanna’s sister — earlier in the trial. Shaneah said her sister left the house with a black trash bag. When Shaneah asked Shayanna where she was going, her sister said she was getting cash for the housekeepers.
But why would you need cash if you had paid the housekeeper with a check?
Prosecutors have hinted that Shayanna was actually disposing of the .45-caliber gun used to kill Lloyd in a nearby industrial park, and the image of that check — while seemingly innocent — could come back to haunt her.
All of that came from just two housekeepers. The prosecution is just getting started.
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