Aaron Hernandez Murder Trial Delayed by Other Aaron Hernandez Murder Trial

Associated Press

Football is a game ruled by the laws of physics. Force is directly proportional to acceleration. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. An object cannot be in two places at once (at least not a wide receiver-sized object).

Regarding that last point: A judge agreed with lawyers for former Patriots star Aaron Hernandez that his trial for the double murder of two Boston men in 2012 needed to be pushed back. Hernandez (or his lawyers, more to the point) are rather busy right now prepping to defend Hernandez in the alleged 2013 slaying of Odin Lloyd. You know things haven’t gone your way in the past year when your conflict with your own murder trial is … your other murder trial.

The Odin Lloyd case is taking up a lot of Hernandez’s lawyers’ time. According to the AP, attorney Charles Rankin said in court that lawyers have to review more than 500,000 pages of evidence. Jury selection begins January 9, at which point, the lawyers will sort through 1,500 potential jurors to find an impartial bunch (a task the lawyers are not so happy about).

Then, though, Hernandez will turn to his Boston trial. He’s accused of shooting Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside the Cure nightclub after one of them spilled a drink on him. Though the slaying came earlier than Lloyd’s, the investigation made developments later, when investigators recovered a gun and car Hernandez allegedly used during the shooting, then later hid in a relative’s out-of-state garage.

Hernandez’s lawyers will likely contest that version of events … just not yet. In murder trials, as in life, it’s best to take things one at a time.