Former NFL star sentenced to life in prison for murder

A court in Massachusetts sentenced former NFL star Aaron Hernandez to life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder of a semi-pro football player two years ago.

Former NFL player Aaron Hernandez stands with his defence lawyers as he hears his verdict in his murder trial at the Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, Massachusetts, April 15, 2015. Reuters/Dominick Reuter

The trial lasted four months and marks the end of a promising career for Hernandez, who once had a 35-million-euro, five-year contract with the New England Patriots.

The victim, Odin Lloyd, was a 27-year-old semi-pro football player whose body was found in North Attleboro, Massachusetts on June 17, 2013, less than a mile from Hernandez's luxury home.

Lloyd had been dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.

The 12-person jury needed seven days to reach the unanimous verdict.

The murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence, imposed shortly after his conviction.

Two co-defendants, friends of Hernandez, will go on trial separately for Lloyd's murder. The former NFL star also faces murder charges for the shooting of two men in Boston in 2012.

Lloyd's mother Ursula Ward told the court that she felt her heart "stop beating for a moment" when she laid her son to rest, but that she had managed to forgive his murderers.

Prosecutors called more than 130 witnesses in an effort to prove Hernandez pulled the trigger on the handgun that killed Lloyd. He and friends Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz drove with Lloyd to an industrial park in North Attleboro, where Lloyd was shot multiple times and left for dead.

Hernandez has the right to appeal the conviction.