Defense on point in Hernandez trial

— -- Great trial lawyers are able to distill their arguments into a single phrase, and that's exactly what the lead lawyer for Aaron Hernandez did Thursday in his opening statement to the jury.

Nearly two dozen times in a 48-minute presentation, attorney Michael Fee repeated the phrase "his friend Odin Lloyd."

Seeking to plant the seeds of reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors that could lead to a not guilty verdict for Hernandez, charged with murder in the 2013 shooting death of Lloyd, Fee asked them again and again: "Why would he kill his friend Odin Lloyd?" It was Fee's way of highlighting one of the weaknesses in the prosecution's case against Hernandez -- the lack of any clear evidence of motive.

He described their friendship in graphic terms: "They partied together. They smoked marijuana together. Odin Lloyd supplied Aaron with his marijuana. They went to nightclubs together. They chased girls together."

Fee offered specifics: Lloyd not only served as Hernandez's marijuana connection, he also rolled the blunts that Hernandez preferred. "He was the bluntmaster," Fee told the jury. He seemed to be saying that no stoner would ever consider a harming a supplier who could also produce the most exquisite of blunts.

He offered a vivid example of their partying: A few days before Lloyd was murdered, Fee said, Hernandez and Lloyd went to Rumor, a nightclub in Boston, and found a couple of "young women." They drove the women to an apartment in Franklin that Hernandez kept and spent the night with them, according to Fee.

That's not all. In addition to their friendship, Fee explained to the jury that they could easily have been brothers-in-law. Hernandez was engaged to Shayanna Jenkins, and the couple have a 2-year-old daughter. Lloyd was dating Shayanna's sister, Shaneah.

Before Fee began his riff about the warm and fuzzy friendship of two young men, prosecutor Patrick Bomberg used dozens of security videos, text messages and phone records to show the jury how Hernandez orchestrated the evening that resulted in Lloyd's murder. His opening statement may have lacked the drama and eloquence of Fee's, but the career prosecutor produced a mosaic of sinister activities that will be difficult for Hernandez and his lawyers to dispel.

Fee's opening statement, though, marked the latest achievement of a top-of-the-line defense from a team of experienced and talented lawyers. Fee is a former federal prosecutor, and the lawyers assisting him, James Sultan and Charles Rankin, are both graduates of Harvard Law School.

Before the trial began, Hernandez's legal team succeeded in barring evidence that could have been disastrous for Hernandez. Responding to the lawyers' detailed and authoritative arguments, Bristol County Superior Court Justice E. Susan Garsh told prosecutors they would not be permitted to use as evidence the ammunition found in Hernandez's house that matched the gun used in the killing. And she eliminated fearful text messages that Lloyd sent in the moments before his death. Garsh also barred the use of evidence the police took from five mobile devices that belonged to Hernandez and eliminated any mention of the double murder charges against Hernandez that are pending in Boston.

In addition to pounding the no-motive-to-kill-a-friend theme, Fee tried to soften the impact of Hernandez's lifestyle and hinted at what the defense team may offer as a theory of what happened.

Hernandez was in the middle of his offseason at the time of the murder, Fee said, and he was "enjoying life" to the fullest. His daily activities were "not unusual for a football star." They may not "be acceptable to you," Fee told the jury, but they were not unusual for a "young man who was single and had money."

As Fee described Hernandez's world of friends, he emphasized his relationships with Lloyd and with Ernest Wallace who, like Hernandez, grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, and had become Hernandez's "right-hand man." Wallace had been in the car with Lloyd and Hernandez before and after the murder.

As Fee described Carlos Ortiz, a fourth man in the car, he said that Hernandez and Ortiz were "not particularly close," even though Ortiz also had grown up in Bristol. With obvious evidence that Hernandez was with Wallace and Ortiz before, during, and after the murder of Lloyd, the Hernandez legal team may suggest during the trial that it was Ortiz who did the killing and Hernandez was an innocent bystander.

If Hernandez and Ortiz were not close, Hernandez and his lawyers could ultimately claim that Ortiz surprised Hernandez when he attacked Lloyd.

Reacting to Fee's eloquent and persuasive opening statement, Garsh decided to try to level the playing field. Without any objection from the prosecutors, she told the jury that the prosecution was not required to show that Hernandez did the killing. It was enough for conviction, Garsh said, if Hernandez "knowingly participated" in the murder.

Fee warned the jurors early in his statement that the prosecution would be trying "to dazzle and distract you." The guy who did the dazzling and distracting on the first day of the trial was Fee.