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Car had Hernandez fingerprint, trooper says

Testifies Lloyd, 2 others also tied to rental

Trooper David Mackin, the State Police fingerprint analyst, testified in the trial of Aaron Hernandez Tuesday.Associated Press

FALL RIVER — A state trooper told jurors Tuesday in the murder trial of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez that the athlete left a fingerprint in the vehicle that carried the victim, Odin L. Lloyd, to his death.

Trooper David Mackin, a State Police fingerprint analyst, said he determined that Hernandez left the print on the inside handle of the driver’s door of the car, a rented Nissan Altima. The fingerprints of Lloyd and the prints of Hernandez’s alleged accomplices, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, were also found in the Altima, Mackin testified.

Prosecutors say Hernandez was driving the Altima when he, Wallace, and Ortiz picked up Lloyd outside his Dorchester residence early on June 17, 2013, and drove him to a North Attleborough industrial park, where he was shot to death. A teenage jogger found Lloyd’s body later that day in the industrial yard, which is near Hernandez’s $1.3 million home.

Hernandez, Wallace, and Ortiz have all pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Lloyd’s slaying. Wallace and Ortiz will be tried separately.

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During cross-examination, defense attorney James Sultan attacked Mackin’s credentials as a fingerprint expert, noting that the trooper is not certified as an analyst by the International Association for Identification, a member organization for forensics professionals.

Mackin said in response that he had to complete State Police training and pass proficiency tests before he could begin working as an analyst, but Sultan kept up the attack, arguing that print identification is not an exact science.

He asked Mackin at one point if subjectivity is “an inextricable part” of his work, and Mackin said, “It can be.”

“Inextricable is a big word,” Sultan continued, asking if Mackin agreed that inextricable means “unavoidable.” Mackin disagreed, and when Sultan asked him to provide his own definition of the word, the trooper said, “I don’t have one.”

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Also Tuesday, Glaucia Dos Santos, one of Hernandez’s house cleaners, testified that she saw him fiddling with a home security camera in his basement the day after Lloyd’s murder. Prosecutors say Hernandez’s home security system captured him carrying a gun inside the residence soon after Lloyd was shot.

Investigators have not recovered the .45-caliber firearm used to kill Lloyd.

“He was using his hands for three to five minutes on that camera,” Dos Santos said Tuesday through an interpreter, adding that she made a noise to alert Hernandez to her presence in the basement, so she could continue her work.

Dos Santos told defense attorney Michael Fee that she did not see what Hernandez was doing when he touched the camera. She also conceded that she told a grand jury she was nervous when she made the noise, but testified on Tuesday that she did not feel nervous at the time.

She elaborated when questioned on redirect examination by prosecutor William McCauley. “I was nervous because of the considerable minutes he was there,” Dos Santos told McCauley. “My work was stopped. . . . His house is enormous, and we didn’t want to be delayed in finishing our work.”

Two other cleaners have testified they saw guns in Hernandez’s home during the weeks leading up to the murder. Dos Santos did not mention firearms.

Separately on Tuesday, defense lawyers filed a written opposition to a prosecution request to allow the government to introduce evidence that Hernandez allegedly shot a former friend, Alexander Bradley, in Florida four months before Lloyd’s slaying.

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“Hernandez is not on trial for his lifestyle or character traits,” the defense filing stated. “He has been accused of a specific crime, the murder of Odin Lloyd, and he vigorously denies that allegation.’’

It was not clear Tuesday when Bristol Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh will rule on the matter, or if Bradley, who is jailed in Connecticut on unrelated gun charges, will take the stand.

Aaron Hernandez talked with attorney Charles Rankin during the murder trial on Tuesday.Aram Boghosian/Pool
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Graphic by CHIQUI ESTEBAN/Globe Staff


John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at tandersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.