The brother of former NFL-star-turned convicted murder Aaron Hernandez is set to testify at his second murder trial, currently underway at the Suffolk County District Court in Boston.
Hernandez, formerly a New England Patriots tight end, is facing double murder charges for the 2012 slaying of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside of Cure lounge, a Boston nightclub. He is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.
Early this week, the suspect’s brother Jonathan “D.J.” Hernandez is expected to testify as a witness for the prosecution. It is unclear what First Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Patrick Haggan has in store for the elder Hernandez, a former college football star himself, but one legal expert told the Boston Herald he does not expect that bringing the suspect’s brother in as a witness to backfire on the prosecution.
Haggan has “too much experience to call someone who could be ‘too loose a cannon,’ or who might say something he’ll regret the jury hearing,” Defense attorney Brad Bailey, who is not associated with the case, told the Boston Herald.
“Two reliable rules of thumb: Never ask questions to which you don’t know the answers; never call a witness you can’t control,” Bailey added.
On Monday, the prosecution called NFL player Deonte Thompson to the stand. Thompson, who played college football with Hernandez at the University of Florida, had invited Hernandez to Florida to visit him the week Hernandez is accused of shooting his former best friend Alexander Bradley, who was with him the night of the Boston double murders. On top of the murder charges, Hernandez is facing a charge of intimidating a witness in relation to Bradley’s non-fatal shooting.
According to the Boston Globe, Thompson has nothing but good things to say about Hernandez — calling him “my guy” and putting his fist to his chest when he walked by the suspect on the way out of the courtroom.
Of that week in Florida when Hernandez allegedly shot Bradley in order to silence him, Thompson did not have much to say at all.
“It’s kind of a blur,” he reportedly said, explaining that he had been drinking heavily while celebrating a recent Super Bowl win. “Those days all stack up.”
As of Monday, Hernandez’s double murder trial is in its 17th day.
Photo: Associated Press
