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 Samson Michael said he was working at the W Boston hotel around 1:30
a.m. on June 15, 2013, when he saw Hernandez through the passenger
side window of a black SUV parked outside the hotel.
"I noticed a gentleman with his shirt (pulled) up to his chest and
what looks like a gun in his waistband," he said, referring to
Hernandez.
Shortly afterward, Hernandez drove several people including his
babysitter and his alleged victim, semiprofessional football player
Odin Lloyd, in the SUV to an apartment he rented in Franklin,
Massachusetts, the babysitter testified this week.
Hernandez, 25, is on trial at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall
River, Massachusetts, on murder and firearms charges. If convicted,
he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Prosecutors contend Hernandez and two friends, Ernest Wallace and
Carlos Ortiz, picked up Lloyd at his Boston home in the early hours
of June 17, 2013, and drove him to an industrial park near
Hernandez's house in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, where his
bullet-riddled body was found.
Wallace and Ortiz have also been charged with murder.
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bomberg showed jurors a text
message that prosecutors have said was sent by Hernandez to his
fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, two days before the murder, referring to
Lloyd and saying he had made a mistake.
"I didn't mean to but got drunk ... and O took care of me an somehow
tol him bout my other spot and I just woke up buggin im sorry and on
way home," the message read.
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The "other spot" was a reference to the Franklin apartment, where
police also discovered five boxes of .45-caliber cartridges during
their investigation of the shooting.
Lloyd was killed with a .45-caliber handgun, but the weapon used in
the murder has not been recovered.
Prosecutors say Hernandez can been seen in surveillance video taken
at his North Attleborough home holding a gun in his hand, but
defense attorneys have argued the video is unclear and that it could
be something else, such as a TV remote.
Hernandez's defense team has argued their client had no reason to
kill Lloyd because the two were friends.
(Editing by Scott Malone, Eric Beech and Eric Walsh)
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