Former NFL Player Aaron Hernandez Indicted on Murder Charges
A grand jury has indicted former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on murder charges for his role in a double slaying in Boston, the Associated Press reports. Police had connected the football player to a double murder that took place in the summer of 2012 on Boston’s South End, when two men in their late 20s were gunned down in their vehicle while stopped at a traffic light by a man in another vehicle. Boston police have an affidavit saying they have probable cause to believe Hernandez “may have been the shooter” and was behind the wheel of the vehicle used in the shooting. Currently, Hernandez is being held without bail after pleading guilty to the unrelated death of semi-pro player Odin Lloyd.
The Aaron Hernandez Murder Case and the 22 Biggest Sports Controversies of 2013
An in-depth 2013 Rolling Stone feature on Hernandez reported that the deaths of Safiro Furtado and Daniel Abreu, the two men whose murders have led to today’s indictment, led Boston police on a months-long search for the silver Toyota 4Runner that the shooter drove. It was discovered a year later in the garage of Hernandez’s Uncle Tito, caked in dust. The murder weapon was found last August, CBS Sports reports, and two months later a man who survived the shooting identified Hernandez as the man who pulled the trigger.
Unrelated to the indictment for those deaths, Hernandez has additionally been accused of a shooting in Miami that caused a man to lose an eye and the shooting death of Lloyd, the arrest for which got him dismissed from the NFL.
Before the Lloyd murder took place, the Rolling Stone feature – which contains interviews with Hernandez’s family friends and high school teammates, as well as sources within the NFL – said Hernandez had isolated himself from family and teammates, instead surrounding himself with gangster-like friends. He had become paranoid and carried a gun with him wherever he went and became a heavy user of angel dust. His drug use allegedly dates back to his college days when his coach may have helped hide faked drug tests.