Conn. Hometown of Hernandez Shocked at Star's Fall

Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, left, stands with his attorney Michael Fee, right, during arraignment in Attleboro District Court on June 26, in Attleboro, Mass., where Hernandez was charged with murdering Odin Lloyd. (Mike George/The Sun Chronicle/AP Photo)

 

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The murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has led investigators to his hometown of Bristol, Conn., the working-class Hartford suburb where he began a meteoric rise that would carry him to the upper echelons of the NFL.

He is remembered as a fun-loving teenager at Bristol Central High School, where he followed in the footsteps of his older brother D.J., who would star as a quarterback and tight end at the University of Connecticut.

Some recall him struggling with the death of his father, Dennis, in 2006, but always determined to become a pro athlete, spending hours working out before and after school. As Bristol police assist Massachusetts investigators, arresting one local man as a fugitive from justice, the community was left to ponder the fall of the hometown hero with the $40 million pro contract and a new family of his own.

A former high school teammate, Andrew Ragali, 24, said the troubled street hood he has seen portrayed on television is not the Aaron Hernandez he knew.

"You could maybe say he was immature, but he wasn't a gang-banger at all," Ragali said. "I think when he went to college things might have changed, hanging around with the wrong people, but in high school, he wasn't like that at all."

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The 23-year-old Hernandez was arrested Wednesday at his mansion in North Attleborough, Mass. and accused of orchestrating the execution-style shooting of his friend, Odin Lloyd, allegedly because Lloyd had talked to the wrong people at a nightclub. He was denied bail at a Thursday hearing in a Massachusetts courtroom, where a prosecutor said a Hummer belonging to Hernandez turned up an ammunition clip matching the caliber of casings found at the scene of Lloyd's killing.

Hernandez's lawyer argued his client is not a risk to flee and the case against him is circumstantial.

On June 16, the night before the slaying, a prosecutor said, Hernandez texted two unidentified friends and asked them to hurry to Massachusetts from Connecticut. A few minutes later, he texted Lloyd to tell him he wanted to get together, the prosecutor said. Authorities said surveillance footage showed the friends arriving, but they did not say who fired the shots.

New Britain State's Attorney Brian Preleski said Thursday that his office and Bristol police have been assisting investigators in Massachusetts and that Carlos Ortiz, 27, of Bristol, had been charged as a fugitive from justice. He waived extradition to Massachusetts and was being held on $1.5 million bail in Hartford.

Ortiz's public defender, Alfonzo Sirica, declined to comment about the case.

Massachusetts state police said Thursday night they were seeking another man, Ernest Wallace, in connection with Lloyd's killing. They issued an alert and wanted poster for Wallace, saying he was considered armed and dangerous, and sought the public's help in tracking down a silver or gray 2012 Chrysler 300 with Rhode Island license plates he was seen driving.

In Connecticut, Bristol is known to many as the home of ESPN, Otis elevator and the Hernandez family.