FALL RIVER, Mass. – The cousin of Aaron Hernandez who was charged with criminal contempt after refusing to testify before the grand jury that indicted the former New England Patriot intends to change her plea to guilty, her attorney said Monday.
Tanya Singleton, of Bristol, Connecticut, had pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say she was granted immunity but declined to testify.
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E. Peter Parker, her attorney, said during a brief proceeding in Fall River Superior Court that she will change her plea at the trial scheduled for Aug. 12.
Hernandez, 24, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player from Boston who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee. The ex-NFL tight end has also pleaded not guilty, in a separate case, to the shooting deaths of two men in Boston in 2012.
Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney Samuel Sutter, said sentencing for criminal contempt is at the judge’s discretion. He would not comment on what prosecutors will recommend.
Singleton pleaded not guilty to a contempt charge in connection with the Boston case after refusing to testify before a Suffolk County grand jury. Parker is seeking to consolidate the contempt cases in Fall River and said Monday that his client intends to plead guilty in the Boston case, too.
Singleton also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit accessory after the fact in the Lloyd case. She isn’t changing her not-guilty plea in that case, Parker said.
Prosecutors allege Singleton helped Hernandez’s “right-hand man” Ernest Wallace travel to Florida after Lloyd was killed. They also say she discussed helping Carlos Ortiz, another Hernandez associate, flee to Puerto Rico and got rid of a cellphone that Wallace had used. Wallace and Ortiz have both pleaded not guilty to murder and accessory charges.
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