Aaron Hernandez indicted on a charge of first-degree murder

ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. -- Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez was indicted yesterday on first-degree murder and weapons charges in the death of a friend whose bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial park about a mile from the ex-player's home.

The six-count grand jury indictment charges Hernandez with killing 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player from Boston who was dating the sister of Hernandez's girlfriend.

Hernandez, 23, pleaded not guilty to murder and weapons charges in June and is being held without bail.

He had a brief court appearance in Attleborough yesterday afternoon. Afterward, his attorney, Michael Fee, said the defense is pleased to be on a path to a jury trial and is looking forward to testing the prosecution's evidence.

"There has been an incredible rush to judgment in this case" and the state doesn't have enough evidence to prove the charges, he said.

Hernandez signed a contract worth $40 million last summer but was cut by the Patriots within hours of his June 26 arrest, when police led the handcuffed athlete from his home.

He could face life in prison if convicted.

The Bristol County grand jury also indicted two others in the case: Hernandez associate Ernest Wallace and Hernandez's cousin, Tanya Singleton.

Wallace is charged with accessory to murder after the fact. Prosecutors have said he was with Hernandez the night Lloyd died.

Singleton is charged with criminal contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury, Bristol County district attorney Samuel Sutter said. She has been jailed in Massachusetts since Aug. 1. A recent affidavit said that, after Lloyd's killing, Singleton bought Wallace a bus ticket.

Carlos Ortiz, who faces a weapons charge in district court connected to the case, was not indicted.

Sutter said Hernandez's arraignment in Superior Court, where the case now moves, could come next week.

A jogger found Lloyd's body on June 17 in a North Attleborough industrial park.

Prosecutors say Hernandez orchestrated Lloyd's killing because he was upset at him for talking to people Hernandez had problems with at a nightclub days earlier. They say Hernandez, Wallace and Ortiz picked Lloyd up at his home in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood early on June 17 and then drove to the industrial park.

Shortly before his death, authorities say, Lloyd sent his sister text messages asking if she had seen who he was with. "NFL," he wrote. "Just so you know." Moments later, authorities say, Lloyd was dead after gunshots rang out near a warehouse after he apparently got out of the car for what he thought was a bathroom break.

Authorities have not said who fired the shots, but according to court documents, Ortiz told police in Florida that Wallace said it was Hernandez.

Wallace earlier pleaded not guilty in district court to a charge of accessory to murder after the fact. Ortiz pleaded not guilty to the firearm charge. A judge ordered Wallace held on $500,000 bail and Ortiz held without bail.