Aaron Hernandez Indicted In Boston Double Slaying
BOSTON (AP) -- Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, who already faces a murder charge in a man's shooting death last year, was indicted Thursday on new murder charges in an unrelated 2012 double slaying in Boston, police said.
The victims in that killing, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, were shot to death as they sat in a car in Boston's South End on July 16, 2012. Police have said they were shot by someone who drove up alongside in an SUV with Rhode Island license plates and opened fire.
Hernandez was seen on surveillance footage in the same nightclub as the victims the night of the attack, authorities have said. Prosecutors planned a news conference late Thursday morning to discuss new details in the shooting deaths.
Lawyers for Hernandez, who is awaiting trial in the separate 2013 shooting death near his home of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd in North Attleborough, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Hernandez is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder in Lloyd's death.
Boston police wrote in an affidavit last year there is probable cause to believe that Hernandez was driving a vehicle used in the 2012 double shooting and "may have been the shooter." The affidavit was filed as police sought to search an SUV involved in the shooting and found at Hernandez's uncle's home in Bristol, Connecticut.
The SUV was covered in dust and cobwebs and had a dead battery, leading police to believe it had remained untouched in the garage for close to a year, according to the court document.
Survivor Aquilino Freire told police an SUV pulled up next to them while they were stopped, and he saw someone in the SUV's back seat laughing, according to the affidavit. Then, several gunshots were fired from the rear passenger seat into the car, Freire told police. Two other people in the car ran away, Freire said.
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