Massachusetts authorities are expected to execute an arrest warrant at some point for New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez for obstruction of justice in connection with a homicide investigation, sources tell ABC News.
The warrant was prepared after police discovered that the security system at Hernandez's home, along with his cellphone, were destroyed, sources told ABC News.
Hernandez returned home Friday, driven by his lawyer, Michael Fee.
Police were at Hernandez's home again Thursday with another search warrant based on evidence that Hernandez "destroyed his home security system," an investigator close to the case told ABC News.
The investigator and other law enforcement sources confirmed the security system was smashed intentionally. Hernandez's cellphone was handed over to investigators "in pieces" by his attorneys, sources added. Police also want to know why a team of house cleaners was hired on Monday to scrub Hernandez's mansion, sources told ABC News.
"There's a federal statute in every state that you cannot knowingly destroy evidence. And what [authorities] believe has happened here is that the home surveillance system was destroyed, the cellphone was destroyed, the house was cleaned, and the police think there was evidence that was destroyed because of that," ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack said.
"Now the problem of course is that nobody knows what was in that home surveillance, so in some ways it's difficult for the police to make their case."
Surveillance video from the North Attleborough, Mass., neighborhood of Hernandez shows him with Odin Lloyd and two other people hours before Lloyd was killed earlier this week, sources confirmed to ABC News late Thursday.
In addition, the Boston Globe reported that video images appear to show Hernandez and Lloyd together on Fayston Street in Boston early Monday morning.
Hernandez, 23, has been at the center of the investigation since the body of Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player, was found shot in the back of the head Monday in an industrial park near Hernandez's home in North Attleborough.
Lloyd's uncle, Ishmael Andrew, told The Associated Press on Friday that Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez's girlfriend. Family members have said Lloyd was never in trouble.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been refiled in Florida against Hernandez by a man the tight end allegedly shot in South Florida in February. The lawsuit contends Alexander S. Bradley was shot in the arm but the bullet traveled to his head, causing him to lose his right eye.
