Third suspect in Aaron Hernandez case held without bail

BRISTOL, Conn. -- A Florida man who authorities say is the third suspect in the Aaron Hernandez murder case was ordered held without bail in court Saturday morning.

Ernest Wallace surrendered in Florida on Friday, authorities said, hours after a Bristol resident was extradited to Massachusetts.

Wallace, 41, was charged with accessory after the fact to a murder. He is also expected to be extradited to Massachusetts.

On Friday, Carlos A. Ortiz appeared briefly in Superior Court in Bristol before Massachusetts police took custody. He later appeared in court in North Attleborough, Mass., and pleaded not guilty to a gun charge. He will be held until a July 9 hearing.

Wallace turned himself in at about 1:30 p.m., Miramar police said. Massachusetts state police were on their way to pick him up. Wallace, a Miramar resident, told police he saw his name in news reports and knew he had a warrant for his arrest.

The criminal complaint against Wallace alleges that he helped Hernandez avoid law enforcement after the slaying of Odin Lloyd. The affidavit in support of the complaint was sealed.

Ortiz has told police he was in possession of a gun on the morning of June 17, the date investigators say Lloyd, 27, a Dorchester, Mass., resident, was shot to death.

Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star and Bristol native, has been charged with murder in Lloyd’s death. Ortiz was apparently one of two men Hernandez told to meet him in Massachusetts on the day of the shooting.

District Attorney Sam Shutter said Friday that all three men who were in a car with Lloyd on the night he was shot are in custody.

Multiple media reports surfaced that the former NFL star is being investigated in connection with a 2012 double homicide in Boston.

According to a report from the Boston Globe, officials said investigators now believe Lloyd may have had information about Hernandez’s role in the double slaying. At the hearing Thursday, Judge Renee Dupuis asked prosecutors about a possible motive, but Assistant District Attorney William McCauley did not mention the Boston murders in his response.

Hernandez is also being sued by a Connecticut man who alleges that Hernandez shot him in the face after the two left a Florida strip club in February, leaving him without the use of one eye.

Hartford Courant staff writers Suzanne Carlson and Don Stacom contributed to this report.

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