FALL RIVER, Mass. — A friend of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez has pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact for his part in the 2013 shooting death of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.
Hernandez was convicted in Massachusetts last year of killing Odin Lloyd, who was dating his fiance’s sister.
Carlos Ortiz changed his plea to guilty on Monday. In return, prosecutors dropped murder charges against him. He was sentenced to 4 1/2 to 7 years in prison.
Hernandez, Ortiz and Ernest Wallace — all friends from Bristol, Conn. — were all initially charged with murder.
Ortiz told the judge that Hernandez and Lloyd got out of the car together, he heard a shot, looked back and only Hernandez got back in. Ortiz began to cry as he listened to Lloyd’s mother speak about how much she missed her son.
Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last year. Wallace was acquitted of murder earlier this year but sentenced to seven years in prison for being an accessory after the killing.
Lloyd’s body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez’s North Attleborough, Massachusetts home.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to a 2012 double murder in Boston.
