( CNN ) After deliberating for more than 35 hours over parts of seven days , listening intently to the testimony of more than 130 witnesses and reviewing more than 400 pieces of evidence , the teary-eyed men and women of the jury exchanged embraces . Since late January , their work in the Massachusetts murder trial of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez had consumed their lives . It was nothing like `` Law & Order . '' The days were long and tedious . Now it was over . `` It 's been an incredibly emotional toll on all of us , '' Lesa Strachan told CNN 's Anderson Cooper Thursday in the first nationally televised interview with members of the jury . A day earlier , Strachan , the jury foreperson , announced the first-degree murder conviction in the 2013 shooting death of Hernandez 's onetime friend Odin Lloyd . Strachan said she was struck by the viciousness of multiple gunshots . `` You shot him once but you kept going and you shot him six times . There 's no need for that and there 's no need to use a gun . Period . '' Before the trial , at least one juror -- Rosalie Oliver -- had n't heard of the 25-year-old defendant who has now gone from a $ 40 million pro-football contract to a term of life without parole in a maximum-security prison . But Kelly Dorsey watches the Patriots every Sunday during the football season . She said so on her jury questionnaire . `` I knew of him as a football player , not a person , '' she said . It did n't affect her vote to convict , she said . It did n't matter that he was a football player , she said . Nor did it matter whether he actually pulled the trigger in the murder . `` To leave your friend on the ground , knowing that he 's not there anymore -- he 's either dead or he 's going to die -- that 's indifference , '' Dorsey said of Hernandez . `` He did n't need to pull the trigger . '' That word -- `` indifference '' -- was used multiple times by members of the jury . Jon Carlson said he was struck by testimony and video evidence that Hernandez and two co-defendants were sunbathing poolside hours after the slaying , drinking smoothies . Hernandez at times left his then-8-month-old daughter with the two men . That indifference `` surprised a lot of us , '' Carlson said . He stressed the fact that Hernandez played football for a living did n't influence the jury 's decision . `` It does n't matter how much money you have or how much money you make . We 're all people , and we 're all equal , and we all deserve the same fair trial , and that 's what we wanted to make sure we gave him , '' Carlson said . Lloyd was seen June 17 , 2013 , around 2:30 a.m. with Hernandez and Hernandez 's friends , Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace , in a rented silver Nissan Altima . Later that day , a jogger found his body . He had been shot six times , according to prosecutors . Wallace and Ortiz , who were also charged with murder , have pleaded not guilty and will be tried separately . What 's next for Aaron Hernandez ? Rosalie Oliver -- the juror who had n't heard of Hernandez before the trial -- said that , for her , the first shot was enough . `` There was no need for the other five , '' she said . `` One shot for me is cruelty . '' Oliver and other jurors said they were surprised to receive calls from friends congratulating them after the verdict . `` Who won ? '' she asked `` Odin Lloyd did n't win . ( His mother ) did n't bring back her son . Did Mr. Hernandez win ? No , because he 's going to serve the rest of his life in jail and he 's 25 years old . The worst part for me is : How about that little girl that 's never going to see her father again ? '' What prison life will be like for Aaron Hernandez . Oliver recalled making eye contact with Hernandez at one point during the months-long trial . `` He actually nodded to me one time , '' she said . `` You come in that room every day and you see this person and it 's hard to come to that decision at the end because -- like three months with them -- it 's almost like they 're part of you . And then , all of a sudden now , you 've got to make that decision to either put him away or let him go . '' The jurors declined to talk about the dynamics inside the jury room , choosing instead to keep the focus on the evidence presented during trial . They conveyed a sense of gravity about their task . `` You see , you know , 'Law & Order ' and all these different TV shows and it 's just nothing like that at all . It 's just very serious , '' Carlson said . 5 things to know about the jury .
` ` We 're all equal , and we all deserve the same fair treatment , '' ` one juror . The months - long murder trial of Aaron ` brings us together . ` : ` ` It 's been an incredibly emotional toll on all of us ''