The judge and jury in Aaron Hernandez’s double-murder trial heard what allegedly happened the night Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado were killed after the prosecution called its star witness to the stand Monday.
Alexander Bradley, a former friend of Hernandez, was with the former New England Patriots tight end on the night of the murder, and he took the stand Monday to recount his side of the events that took place on July 16, 2012. Bradley said Hernandez believed the victims were taunting him at the Cure Lounge nightclub in Boston and ordered him to drive his 4Runner up to Abreu and Furtado’s car at a stoplight before firing five shots from a revolver into the vehicle.
“He said ‘I hit one in the head and one in the chest,’” Bradley said, per The Boston Globe. “He was panicked. … It wasn’t a bragging tone, it was more like shock. I was panicked as well.”
Bradley testified that Hernandez wiped off the murder weapon and threw it out the window on the way to Bradley’s girlfriend’s apartment in Manchester, Conn., where Hernandez waited for his cousin, Tanya Singleton. Hernandez allegedly told Singleton to clean the 4Runner and hide it before leaving in her car.
After that, Hernandez allegedly became suspicious of everyone and believed the police were after him.
“He assumed everybody was a detective,” Bradley said, per The Globe. “His paranoia was heightened.”
Bradley was a victim of Hernandez’s paranoia, too, as he said Hernandez shot him in the right eye and left him for dead after Bradley brought up “the stupid (expletive) you did in Boston” while they were in Florida in 2013. Hernandez is being charged with witness intimidation for shooting Bradley in addition to murder and has pleaded not guilty to both.
Bradley testified under an immunity agreement, as he currently is serving in a Connecticut prison for shooting up a Hartford nightclub in 2014. The defense is arguing that Bradley shot de Abreu and Furtado over a drug deal.
Thumbnail photo via The Sun Chronicle/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports Images
