Even during Aaron Hernandez trial, Bill Belichick still finds a way to win

quote:

---

BOSTON – Bill Belichick was able to avoid testifying for the defense in Aaron Hernandez’s double-murder trial in part because the golf course community in which he lives made it a challenge for a subpoena to be served to him.

Good blocking, if you will.

Jose Baez, Hernandez’s defense attorney, wanted to call Belichick as, presumably, a character witness for the defense. Hernandez is standing trial for the 2012 murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a 2012 Boston drive-by shooting. The jury is in its fifth full day of deliberations at Suffolk County Court.

While a subpoena to appear was eventually issued to Belichick, it did not occur until the final day of the trial because Baez’s people couldn’t get to Belichick’s home, located around the Black Rock Country Club in Hingham, Mass.

When the papers were eventually served, Belichick had less than 24 hours’ notice to appear in court. The legendary coach failed to do that. With no other witnesses to call, Baez decided against dragging out the trial while searching for Belichick because, as he told Yahoo Sports last week, he did not deem Belichick to be “a big deal to the case.”

However, had Baez been able to issue the order-to-appear papers sooner, Belichick may not have been able to avoid taking the witness stand. It would have likely produced little substantive information on Hernandez’s guilt or innocence, but been viewed as high drama by football fans.

Belichick has won a record five Super Bowls with the Patriots. While no evidence or testimony has ever arisen that he knew anything of Hernandez’s actions, he did draft Hernandez out of the University of Florida in 2010, signed the tight end to a lucrative contract extension prior to the 2012 season and coached him until Hernandez was arrested in June 2013 on a separate murder charge for which he was later convicted and sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole.

---