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 Defense questioning focused on a wad of chewed bubble gum and a
.45-caliber shell recovered from a rental car the former tight end
had returned the day that semiprofessional football player Odin
Lloyd's bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial park in June
2013.
Hernandez, 25, is on trial in Massachusetts Superior Court in Fall
River on charges of fatally shooting Lloyd in an industrial park
near the former NFL star's North Attleborough, Massachusetts, home.
North Attleborough Police Detective Michael Elliott testified that
he and other officers found items including the chewed piece of gum
and the shell in a dumpster after employees at a rental car agency
cleaned out a car Hernandez returned on the day Lloyd's body was
found.
Defense attorney James Sultan asked Elliot why he and fellow
officers had dug into the trash on their own, rather than waiting
for a squad of crime-scene specialists.
 "Has anyone ever taught you to collect evidence in that way?" Sultan
asked.
"No," Elliott responded.
Police have said the gum, which could contain DNA evidence, had been
wrapped around the bullet casing when they first found it but became
unstuck and were logged as separate pieces of evidence.
Investigators have not located the gun they say was used to murder
Lloyd and the case against Hernandez weighs heavily on
circumstantial evidence, including surveillance video of him coming
and going from his home.
Defense attorneys this week have repeatedly tried to point out
mistakes made in the handling of evidence.
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Prosecutors say Hernandez and two friends, Ernest Wallace and Carlos
Ortiz, picked up Lloyd at his Boston home before driving him to the
North Attleborough industrial area where his body was found later
that day.
Investigators say they found five empty .45 caliber shells near
Lloyd's body, and that he had been shot six times.
Defense attorneys contend that the ex-NFL star and Lloyd were
friends and that Hernandez, who has pleaded not guilty, had no
reason to kill Lloyd.
If convicted, Hernandez faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Hernandez will face a second trial later this year on charges he
killed two Cape Verdean men outside a Boston nightclub in 2012.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Barber; Editing by Scott Malone and Eric
Beech)
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