Witness: Hernandez looked upset at Lloyd 48 hours before his death

FALL RIVER, Mass.

Aaron Hernandez glared at Odin Lloyd and stormed out of a Boston nightclub after seeing the man talking with a friend, a witness testified Tuesday in the former NFL star's murder trial.

Defense attorneys later challenged the witness’ memory and recounting of the same episode in earlier police interviews, pointing to numerous inconsistencies.

But the day began with prosecutors working to establish their theory of the motive for Lloyd’s June 17, 2013 killing — going back to what allegedly happened roughly 48 hours earlier at a Boston nightclub called Rumor.

Kwami Nicholas was the seventh witness called by prosecutors who saw some part of the early-morning interaction on June 15, 2013, in and outside Rumor in Boston's theater district. Prosecutors have alleged that Hernandez grew angry with Lloyd after an incident in the club, went to his rented Chevrolet Suburban and grabbed a pistol.

Nothing happened to Lloyd that morning, but prosecutors repeatedly have suggested that what took place at the club was the impetus for the alleged murder.

Lloyd was gunned down in a secluded field less than a mile from Hernandez’s home, and prosecutors allege he was killed between 3:23 and 3:27 a.m. on June 17, 2013.

Nicholas was among a group of friends, all of whom knew Lloyd, who went to the club to celebrate a birthday. He described being in the club when he heard the DJ announce that “Aaron Hernandez is in the building.”

Hernandez, then a star tight end for the New England Patriots, had gotten the VIP treatment at Rumor: a host lifted the ropes so he could cut past the line, and at least one fan attempted to snap a photograph with him.

After hearing the DJ's announcement, Nicholas testified under questioning from lead prosecutor William McCauley that he turned to his right, looked over his shoulder and saw Hernandez 10 or 15 feet away.

“I had never seen him in real life, but I knew who he was,” he said.

Nicholas said Hernandez was standing and staring at Lloyd as he talked to a mutual acquaintance, Glenroy Herbert.

Over repeated objections from defense attorney Michael Fee, Nicholas described Hernandez as angry.

“His facial expressions seemed, he was just not calm, everything, seemed like something was up, he was angry about something,” Nicholas said. "His cheeks, like everything, looked tense. ... He's standing, his shoulders were pushing up.

“His eyes were just beaming on Odin.”

Nicholas had gone to the club with Akil Joseph, who testified last week, Herbert and a man named Jules Nesbit. The men have ties to Antigua, an island in the Caribbean — Joseph was born in Boston but lived a portion of his childhood there, and Nicholas was born there and came to Boston in 2004.

Although it has not been made clear what prosecutors allege angered Hernandez, the former football star has separately been indicted in the murders of two immigrants from Cape Verde in July 2012. That has led to speculation that Hernandez thought Lloyd was talking to associates of the two victims of the killings the previous year.

Judge E. Susan Garsh has ruled that no evidence can be presented about the 2012 killings.

Defense attorney Michael Fee wasted no times grilling Nicholas about his testimony, suggesting that he never told police in his first meeting with them in August 2013 that he saw Hernandez glaring at Lloyd in the nightclub.

Fee at one point suggested he could play Nicholas' entire interview from August 2013, then pointed out that a state trooper, in a report of an interview a year later, classified the assertion that Hernandez stared at Lloyd as "new information."

“I remember telling him both times,” Nicholas said. “That’s what I remember.”

Fee had several clips of that 2013 police interview played, showing that then Nicholas said Hernandez was talking to the DJ and described where people were standing differently than he had in court. That led Fee to suggest that there was no way he could see Hernandez staring at Lloyd.

“So Aaron couldn’t see Glen and Odin, could he?” Fee asked.

“Yes, he could; he could look down and see everything,” Nicholas testified.

Defense attorneys repeatedly have stressed two themes: that police were sloppy and rushed to judgment and that witnesses have been coached.

Prosecutors have alleged that Hernandez arranged to meet Lloyd and at the same time summoned two associates, Ernest Wallace Jr. and Carlos Ortiz, from Bristol to his home in North Attleboro late the night of June 16, 2013. From there, the trio allegedly set out for Boston — roughly an hour’s drive — about 1:10 a.m. on June 17.

After picking up Lloyd in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, Hernandez allegedly drove the group back to North Attleboro, pulling into a secluded area in an industrial park less than a mile from the player’s mansion.

Hernandez faces one count of murder and two firearms charges in the slaying of Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player who was dating Shaneah Jenkins, the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee.

Prosecutors have not said who they believe fired the fatal shots, and Ortiz and Wallace also have been charged with murder and will be tried separately. Under a Massachusetts law often referred to as “joint venture,” a person can be convicted of murder even if someone else carried out the actual killing. To prove that, prosecutors would have to convince the jury that Hernandez knowingly participated in the killing and did so with intent.

On Tuesday, jurors also saw photographs from Hernandez’s home, taken by police during searches in June 2013, that showed the shoes they allege the player and his two alleged accomplices were wearing. Investigators had neglected to note the significance of those shoes at the time, but they got a new search warrant in November 2014 to go back and look. By then, they were gone.

Defense attorneys filed a last-ditch motion to try to block jurors from hearing that the shoes were missing, but Judge Garsh denied it. She is considering, however, whether to issue an instruction to jurors that could limit the use of that fact as evidence of a consciousness of guilt.

Jurors also saw grainy, black and white video clips from three businesses in the area of the murder scene purported to show a rented Nissan Altima, driven by Hernandez and carrying Lloyd, Ortiz and Wallace, headed toward the murder scene and then driving away from it.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.

In the Boston case, Hernandez has separately been indicted on multiple murder and assault charges in the July 16, 2012, shooting that killed Daniel De Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28. Another man was wounded.

In the Boston killings, prosecutors have alleged that Hernandez became enraged after a man bumped him on a nightclub dance floor, spilling his drink and failed to apologize. They allege that Hernandez later followed the man and his friends as they drove away from the club, then pulled up next to their car at a stoplight and opened fire with a .38-caliber revolver.

That trial originally was scheduled to begin May 28, but the judge there indicated recently he would push it back given the anticipated length of the trial in the Lloyd case. No new trial date has been set.