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Hernandez associate held on $500k bail

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) – A man charged as an accessory to murder in the case involving former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has been held on $500,000 bail.

Ernest Wallace appeared before a judge at Attleboro District Court Friday morning.

Wallace has pleaded not guilty to a charge of being an accessory to murder after the fact in the killing of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of Lloyd, a 27-year-old Boston semi-professional football player whose body was found June 17 in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez's home.

At Friday's hearing, prosecutors said that Wallace was with Hernandez when he picked Lloyd up in Dorchester in the early morning hours of June 17. Prosecutors said that later that morning, Wallace and Hernandez discussed recovering weapons and could be seen going into the basement of Hernandez's home on Hernandez's home security system.

Prosecutors also said that the next day Hernandez and Wallace returned a rental car and picked up a new one before Wallace went to Hernandez's Franklin "flop house." They said Wallace eventually left the apartment, shut his cell phone off, dumped the car and fled to Florida with the assistance of Hernandez's aunt.

Prosecutors originally asked that Wallace be held on $1 million bail, saying that he has a list of past drug and motor vehicle charges. Prosecutors argued that Wallace has no home, family or job and that he was a flight risk. They said that Hernandez was his sole source of income.

Prosecutors say Hernandez orchestrated Lloyd's killing because he was upset at him for talking to people Hernandez had problems with.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.