The Suffolk County, Massachusetts, district attorney announced new witness intimidation charges for Aaron Hernandez today based on a grand-jury indictment on Friday.
“The victim of that non-fatal shooting is a former associate of Hernandez who was present for the 2012 murders in Boston’s South End,” the Suffolk County DA’s office maintains in a press release. “Hernandez allegedly shot him in the face on the morning of Feb. 13, 2013, and left him to die on the side of the road in Riviera Beach, Florida, after the witness made a remark about the homicides. Though this shooting took place outside of Massachusetts, it may be prosecuted under Ch. 268, Sect. 13B, of the Massachusetts General Laws as willfully causing physical injury to a witness with the intent to impede a Suffolk County criminal investigation.”
The DA’s office notes that as a matter of procedure they don’t identify witnesses of violent crimes. But by narrowing down the date to February 13, 2013, and the location to Florida, the case appears to involve the shooting of Hernandez friend Alexander Bradley, who now displays a bum eye and contends in a civil suit that the former New England Patriots tight end shot him in the face on that date in Florida.
After obtaining an indictment in the drive-by double-murder case one year ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley called the killings of Cape Verdean immigrants Daniel deAbreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, an “ambush” and an “execution.” He noted witness accounts contending that the killer let out laughter after letting loose lead. “Aaron Hernandez,” he said, “fired a 38 caliber revolver multiple times.”
An argument in a nightclub over a spilled drink allegedly precipitated the murderers.
The DA’s office did not respond to specific questions from Breitbart Sports regarding whether introducing this evidence at the upcoming murder trial becomes easier should they first obtain a conviction in this witness intimidation case, or, conversely, if obtaining a conviction in this case becomes harder with the double-murder case still pending.
The DA’s office notes that the witness intimidation offense carries a maximum penalty of ten years in jail. Hernandez currently serves a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a slaying possibly motivated, like the Bradley shooting, by an effort to cover up the initial double murder.