Ex-NFL Star Hernandez To Face Charges Tied To 2012 Double Murder

[May 28, 2014]  BOSTON (Reuters) - Former National Football League star Aaron Hernandez is due in court on Wednesday to face charges of the 2012 murder of two men he met in a Boston nightclub.

The former New England Patriot, who is already in jail awaiting trial on charges of murdering a semi-professional football player in June 2013, was charged earlier this month in the 2012 killing of Cape Verdean nationals Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado.

Prosecutors said that after leaving the nightclub, Hernandez followed the car that Abreu and Furtado were riding in, pulled up alongside and shot the two men dead with a handgun. There was no evidence that he had previously known his victims or that the pair was involved in any criminal activity, prosecutors said.

Investigators linked Hernandez to the double-murder after the death of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was found shot to death in an industrial park near Hernandez's house in South Attleboro, Massachusetts, last June. Hernandez was previously charged in Lloyd's murder and is being held at the Bristol County Jail awaiting trial.

Hernandez had been seen as a rising star in the league and had a contract with the Patriots worth about $40 million. The team dropped him hours after his arrest.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.