Washington, Apr 15 (EFE).– Aaron Hernandez, a former tight end with the NFL New England Patriots, was found guilty on Wednesday of first degree murder in the 2013 death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player from Boston who was dating his killer’s sister.

Hernandez, 25, fired his pistol six times at the 27-year-old victim.

The seven-woman five-man jury deliberated for seven days before reaching the unanimous verdict, which announced in a courtroom in Fall River, Massachusetts, and carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.

At the time of his arrest, Hernandez had just signed a $40 million contract with the Patriots.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft was a witness at the trial, saying that the player had personally assured him that he was innocent.

Prosecutors also filed murder charges against two of Hernandez’s friends, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, whom they accused of having gone to find the victim at his home and then taking him to an deserted industrial park in Dorchester, outside Boston, where Hernandez shot him to death.

Although the defense alleged that the evidence against their client was only circumstantial and tried to blame Ortiz and Wallace for firing the fatal rounds, a security video at Hernandez’s home recorded shortly after the shooting and DNA samples matching the NFL player found on Lloyd’s body supported the prosecution’s case.

Even so, prosecutors were not able to firmly establish a motive for the murder. EFE