A Massachusetts court judge has denied a request to toss out a murder indictment filed against a friend of jailed former NFL star Aaron Hernandez.

According to The Associated Press, Judge Susan Garsh ruled Ernest Wallace must stand trial in the 2013 execution styled killing of Odin Lloyd.

Attorneys for Wallace had argued all charges against their client should be dropped because prosecutors had not shown probable cause and the integrity of grand jury proceedings have repeatedly been called into question. Hernandez is already appealing his life sentence in the case, and fellow co-defendant Carlos Ortiz has yet to go to trial.

Lloyd's bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial park not far from Hernandez's North Attleborough estate. Prosecutors have hinted he may have been killed because of his knowledge of other violent crimes Hernandez is suspected of taking part in.

Almost from the start, attorneys for Hernandez countered that prosecutors were "fixated" on their client because of his celebrity status and thus conducted their investigation in haste without paying much attention to detail.

The 25-year-old Hernandez also faces double murder charges stemming from a 2012 drive-by shooting in downtown Boston. In that incident, authorities speculate he gunned down Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu at a stoplight outside a nightclub.

"Mr. de Abreu and Mr. Furtado were ambushed and executed as they drove home along Shawmut Avenue in Boston's South End in the early morning hours of July 16, 2012," Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in that case and is expected to formally go on trial sometime next year. He is currently being held at the Souza- Baranowski maximum security prison.