(CNN) -- A Massachusetts grand jury has indicted an
associate of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez in a
shooting death, Bristol County, Massachusetts, District Attorney Sam
Sutter said Friday.
Carlos Ortiz, 27, of
Bristol, Connecticut, was indicted on a single count of accessory to
murder after the fact in connection with the June 17 killing of Odin Lloyd.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty this month to first-degree murder in Lloyd's death.
The indictment comes
after a bail reduction hearing Thursday for another co-defendant, Ernest
Wallace, in Fall River, Massachusetts, revealed new details in the
murder case against Hernandez.
Bristol County
prosecutors, according to spokesman Gregg Miliote, told a judge that
Hernandez was the only one who got out of a car with Lloyd in a deserted
industrial park on June 17, before Lloyd was allegedly shot multiple
times, execution-style, by Hernandez.
That's different from an earlier scenario laid out by investigators.
At first, Ortiz allegedly told investigators that Wallace and Hernandez got out of the car with Lloyd before shots were fired.
Since then, prosecutors say, Ortiz changed his story.
"Initially Mr. Ortiz's
statement was Mr. Wallace got out of the car and now his statement is
that Mr. Wallace stayed in the car," Sutter said outside of court
Thursday.
When asked by a reporter if he was concerned about the fact that Ortiz had changed his story, he replied: "Not at all."
Ortiz's lawyer, John Connors, said it is not uncommon for a witness's story to change.
"Almost every case I've
ever been involved in, the story changes during interrogation," Connors
said. "When a professional interrogation takes place, at the end of it
sometimes you have trouble remembering your own name."
Connors stopped short of using the word credible to describe his client.
"He's a young guy who
got caught up in a situation, and when all this came about, he was
frightened and confused, as you can imagine anyone would be," Connors
said. "I believe he's an honest guy."
Ortiz will enter a plea of not guilty to the new charge, his attorney said.
Wallace also has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder.
At the Thursday hearing,
a judge refused to reduce Wallace's $500,000 bail, despite attorney
David Meier's insistence that his client has "every intention" and
"every incentive to appear at every court hearing."
In court, the district
attorney's office also disclosed that Hernandez allegedly made several
phone calls to Wallace after Lloyd's body was discovered.
"Mr. Hernandez ...
immediately makes cell phone telephone calls to Mr. Wallace upon police
arriving at his house," Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bomberg told
the judge.
Hernandez was not arrested until 10 days after the slaying.
Wallace turned himself
in to police in Miramar, Florida, at his family's home more than a week
later after taking a bus to Florida from Georgia.
During Thursday's bail
hearing, prosecutors told a judge that Hernandez's cousin, Tanya
Singleton, drove Wallace to Georgia, and when her car broke down, bought
him a bus ticket to the go the rest of the way.
Singleton remains jailed
after being indicted for contempt of court. She's been charged with
refusing to testify before a grand jury.
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