Alleged gun seen in Hernandez home hours before murder

By: Melissa Randall

mrandall@abc6.com

@MRandallABC6

Day 23 of the Aaron Hernandez murder trial focused mainly on testimony from the babysitter, Jennifer Fortier. The 28-year-old was asked about watching Hernandez’s daughter, Avielle, on father’s day night in 2013.

Fortier says she arrived around 7:45 that evening. After about an hour Hernandez and his fiance, Shayanna, left for dinner in Providence. Some time later there was a knock at the door. Two men, identified as Hernandez’s alleged accomplices Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz were let in.

“They came over and said hi to the baby and then I dont know where they went,” said Fortier.

The former Patriot and Jenkins returned home around midnight. Hernandez spent a few minutes holding his daughter before he, Wallace and Ortiz moved to the basement ‘man cave’. The men were seen coming up stairs several times. At one point home surveillance video shows Hernandez shift something from hand to hand– alsmost as if to shield the object from the babysitter. That object is allegedly a gun.

“Is it fair to say you couldn’t see what if anything Aaron Hernandez had in his hands is that true?” asked prosecutor William McCauley. “True. I didn’t,” responded the witness.

The defense tried to raise doubt about what the object was by asking the babysitter about various remote controls in the home.

The three men left the North Attleboro home after 1 am in a Nissan Altima rented by Hernandez. Prosecutors allege that the trio drove to Boston and picked up Odin Lloyd. Later that night he was killed.

Backtrack two days and the babysitter says Hernandez spotted her outside the W Hotel in Boston. She says the ex-NFL player told her and a friend to “get in the car.” Fortier testified she thought Hernandez was taking them to their parked car, but instead he drove for more than an hour. Two other men were also in the car.

“I kept telling him that I needed to leave because I was the baby sitter and  I wasn’t comfortable,” Fortier testified.

Hernandez dropped off one of the men in North Attleboro. Everyone else stayed in the car. Eventually the group ended up at “the spot”– Hernandez’s so called ‘flop house’ in Franklin.

“He tried to kiss me. I said, ‘No. I’m the nanny. I can’t,'” testified Fortier.

She says at that point Hernandez told her it was okay and then passed out. He and Lloyd had been smoking marijuana all night, according to her testimony.

The defense argued that much of what Fortier said Monday after noon differed from what she told the Grand Jury. Hernandez’s lawyers went point by point with her on several key issues.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in the 2013 murder of Lloyd. Lloyd was dating the sister of his fiancé.

A cell phone expert from AT&T was last to take the stand Monday. Trial will pick up with his testimony first thing Tuesday morning.

© WLNE-TV 2015