Wednesday’s arraignment of Aaron Hernandez unfolded quickly, with audio of fairly mediocre quality carrying words that flowed quickly from prosecutor Bill McCauley. Absent a transcript, which we have yet to obtain or locate online, the best (only) way to fully process everything that was said is to listen to the audio from the hearing, repeatedly.
It became obvious during the live proceedings that police have not recovered the murder weapon. After listening to the arraignment a few more times, it became clear that police found a different weapon on the path between the industrial park where Odin Lloyd was murdered and Hernandez’s home.
Specifically, police discovered roughly one-quarter mile from Hernandez’s home a Jennings .22, a handgun firing ammunition much smaller than the .45-caliber bullets that struck Lloyd. The Jennings .22 was loaded, and when police searched Hernandez’s home they found matching ammunition, but no .22-caliber gun.
In May, Hernandez had an incident with a Jets fan in Providence. Another man discarded a gun under a car. That gun and the gun found by police near Hernandez’s home were both purchased at the same gun store in Florida.
Coupled with surveillance video that, according to McCauley, showed Hernandez and one of the other two men carrying guns that appeared to be larger-caliber weapons, the authorities seem to believe that each of the three men had a gun when Lloyd was shot, that the man with the Jennings .22 didn’t fire on Lloyd, and that the .22 was ditched (possibly thrown out the window of the car) while the three men drove from the industrial park back to Hernandez’s home.
This explains the decision to search the pond and wooded area near Hernandez’s home on Monday with metal detectors. They were looking -- and apparently still are looking -- for the larger-caliber gun(s) that were used to kill Lloyd.