Lawyer: Victims' families want to see Aaron Hernandez in court today

Ex-Patriot Aaron Heranandez said, Yo, whats up now, along with a racial slur and then opened fire on a car in Bostons South End two summers ago, murdering two men just because one of the victims accidentally bumped into the burly former Pro Bowl player at a club and spilled his mixed drink, a Suffolk prosecutor said today.

He fired five rounds into the car (with a witness) hearing a clicking noise after all the bullets fired, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan said.

Hernandez previously charged with murder in the June 2013 execution-style shooting of Odin L. Lloyd, 27 pleaded not guilty today at his arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court for the July 16, 2012, South End killings of Daniel de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28.

Haggan said Hernandez was enraged after de Abreu accidentally bumped into him on the dance floor of the Cure Theater District nightclub spilling his drink. A buddy attempted to calm Hernandez down, the assistant district attorney added, but the former Pro Bowl player took out a gun he had hidden in the engine block of his rented SUV and used it in the drive-by shooting of the victims and others.

Surveillance video captured Hernandezs SUV circling the block near the Cure Lounge on Tremont Street and passing the victims at a slow rate of speed before they got into their own car, according to court documents released earlier this year. His SUV then pulled up beside them and Hernandez, in the passenger seat, opened fire with a Smith & Wesson .38, according to prosecutors.

The onetime rising NFL star had felt people in Boston were testing, trying or disrespecting him when he went club-hopping in the city, the prosecutor said.

Our investigation has not uncovered any evidence that these two groups were known to each other, but their chance encounter inside the club triggered a series of events that ended in the murders, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said earlier this month. For us, this case was never about Aaron Hernandez. This case was about two victims who were stalked, ambushed, and senselessly murdered on the streets of the city they called home.

After the murders, Haggan said today, Hernandez watched news accounts of the double-shooting, and stashed the SUV used in the drive-by at his cousins house in Connecticut.

Its beyond my comprehensive ability to understand the kind of person who does that, Quincy attorney William T. Kennedy, who is representing the families in a wrongful-death suit against Hernandez, said today. These two young fellows were pretty good guys, cleaners on a Sunday night off. ... They were good to their families, they were good to the people who knew them. They both supported their mothers.De Abreu was a police officer in his native Cape Verde, and Furtado worked as a tour guide. In this country, they worked as cleaners. DeAbreu was shot multiple times, including in the chest, and Furtado, in the passenger seat, was struck in the head. Family members were in court today.

Hernandez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed assault with intent to murder, and single counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Another passenger was shot in the arm but survived, and two others fled and escaped injury.

Hernandez responded not guilty seven times as the murder and related charges were read in court. His lawyer, who later slammed the DAs office for playing to the media with the reading of the accusations, asked that the handcuffs be removed from his clients wrists.

No, the clerk magistrate said, adding that court officers had requested they remain on. Earlier this month, Hernandez was slapped with charges for allegedly assaulting a fellow Bristol County Jail inmate and threatening a correction officer.

Cops began probing Hernandez in the double-killing after he became a suspect in the June 17, 2013, murder of Lloyd, who was shot to death near Hernandezs North Attleboro manse. Investigators in the double murder remembered seeing Hernandez on surveillance video and were probing a possible connection when a nightclub bouncer called cops and said he had knowledge that the two incidents ... were related, according to court papers unsealed earlier this year.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to Lloyds murder. He is being held at the Bristol County jail.

I think more than anything they wanted accountability and thats happening, certainly, Kennedy said of the DeAbreu and Furtado families. It speaks well for our society, the notion that men are theoretically all equal before the law, even if youve signed a $50 million with the Patriots.

Hernandez was held without bail. His next court date is June 24.

Source: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/05/lawyer_victims_families_want_to_see_aaron_hernandez_in_court