Aaron Hernandez's first degree murder conviction will stay despite the former football player's latest plea, as a judge recently upheld the court's original decision.
Hernandez's legal team filed a motion demanding that the former New England Patriots tight end should not be given a guilty verdict based on "improper speculation, conjecture, and guesswork." They believe that the prosecution never presented a murder weapon and failed to prove that he definitely killed Odin Lloyd in June 2013.
Hernandez's lawyers argued: "Notwithstanding the testimony of more than 130 witnesses and the introduction of more than 430 exhibits at trial, the commonwealth utterly failed to prove that Hernandez intentionally participated in the killing of Odin Lloyd."
However, Bristol County Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh from Massachusetts denied the motion.
"The court finds that a rational jury could find that the Commonwealth proved every essential element of the crimes charged," Garsh wrote. "The verdict rendered by the jury is consonant with justice."
This means that Hernandez's life in prison sentence without the possibility of parole will remain.
A separate motion from the former football pro's defense team to investigate an anonymous tip claiming that one of the jurors in the case lied during the jury selection is still pending at the moment.
Hernandez was arrested on June 26, 2013 after Lloyd's body was discovered less than a mile away from the NFL player's house in North Attleboro. Lloyd used to be Hernandez's close friend and a semi-pro football player who played for the Boston Bandits since 2007 as the team's linebacker.
On April 15, 2015, the jury found Hernandez guilty and is currently detained at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.
Aside from the Lloyd murder, Hernandez also has to face a separate double homicide trial for the deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in 2012.
