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FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Massachusetts prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to drop a perjury charge against the fiancee of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez as part of an immunity deal.
Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case against Shayanna Jenkins, citing her testimony against Hernandez during his recent trial. The former Patriots tight end was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last month for the death of Odin Lloyd, who was dating Jenkins' sister.
A hearing in Jenkins' case is scheduled for Friday in Bristol County Superior Court.
"Her testimony at the trial concerned transactions and matters that are the subject of this indictment," Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bomberg wrote in the filing. "As a result, the Commonwealth may not further prosecute the defendant on the above-captioned indictment and this indictment should be dismissed."
Jenkins, who grew up with Hernandez in Bristol, Connecticut, and was his high school sweetheart, previously pleaded not guilty to the perjury charge. She was accused by prosecutors of lying nearly 30 times to a grand jury investigating Lloyd's death. She was compelled to testify at Hernandez's trial under a grant of immunity by the court.
In her testimony in March, Jenkins said she removed a box from the basement of their home in North Attleborough at his request the day after the slaying but never looked inside before she dumped it in a random trash bin.
She also said the box smelled skunky and she thought it contained marijuana, undercutting prosecutors' attempts to suggest the box contained crucial evidence — or even the weapon used to kill Odin Lloyd.
The testimony contradicted in part what she told the grand jury, saying then that no one told her to remove the box and that it wasn't important to her to do it. She said then that she did not remember where she threw it away.
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