It’s been a little while since we checked in on Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriot star charged with first-degree murder in the apparent execution-style killing of a semi-pro football player last year. As his old team preps for this weekend’s AFC Championship game in Denver, things are looking a good deal darker for the former Pro Bowler. Here’s the Boston Globe with the latest revelation from police who now also suspect Hernandez may have been the shooter in a 2012 double murder:
A Connecticut judge today unsealed a search warrant affidavit filed by police requesting permission to search and analyze a seized silver SUV located at the Bristol, Conn., home of Hernandez’s uncle — a vehicle police believe was used in the July 16, 2012, drive-by shooting of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado.
Boston police were hoping to find gunshot residue that may have still been in the vehicle and were also hoping to recover a duffle bag they believed contained the clothing Hernandez was seen wearing in surveillance camera footage taken the night of the shooting. There is “probable cause to believe that Aaron Hernandez was operating the suspect vehicle used in the shooting homicides of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado, and may have been the shooter,” investigators wrote.
For those who need the refresher: The double murder of Abreu and Furtado isn’t the case that landed the former NFL star in jail. That was the June 20, 2013 slaying of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old who had been dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. The ex-Patriot has pleaded not guilty in that case, and is currently in a Bristol County jail awaiting his trial.
Hernandez had previously been loosely linked to the 2012 slayings but has not been charged in connection with them, and the affidavit marks the first time that authorities have suggested publicly that former NFL player was the gunman. If the police’s suspicions are true—a relatively decent-sized if for now given they’ve yet to file charges—that would mean that Hernandez played the entire 2012-2013 NFL football season after he had committed murder.
***Follow @JoshVoorhees and the rest of the @slatest team on Twitter.***
