Prosecutors to focus on hunt for killer in Hernandez trial
Prosecutors are expected to keep Aaron Hernandez’s jury focused today on the lengths that investigators went to in 2012 to find the drive-by killer of two Cape Verdean immigrants as the trial enters its fourth day of testimony.
The double-homicide case left off Friday with the defense team’s cross-examination of Zeid Nabulsi, a manager at Cure Lounge in the Theatre District, where Daniel de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28, two office cleaners from Dorchester, spent their last night alive.
Nabulsi was already the 13th witness called against Hernandez, 27, by Patrick Haggan, first assistant Suffolk District Attorney, and Mark Lee, the office’s chief of homicide investigations.
The jury — a demographics medley of nine women and six men — were escorted Friday to see the nightclub where prosecutors say Hernandez hatched his plan to kill the men because Abreu accidentally spilled a drink on the Pro Bowler while Abreu was dancing. Jurors also saw the intersection of Herald Street and Shawmut Avenue, where prosecutors say Hernandez opened fire on Abreu’s borrowed BMW, killing him and Furtado and wounding a passenger, Aquilino Freire.
The families of both men still have wrongful-death civil suits pending against Hernandez in Suffolk Superior Court, where his criminal trial will unfold over the next several weeks.
Boston police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley have been fending off blistering criticism by the former Patriots tight end’s attorneys that officials didn’t care about the July 16, 2012, South End murders until they saw a chance to bag a rising NFL star.
“They got themselves a fallen Patriot in front of the bright lights and all the cameras. And that’s what it’s all about — a notch on your belt,” Miami-based attorney Jose Baez said in his opening statement last week.
Hernandez is already serving life with no chance of parole for the 2013 murder in North Attleboro of his friend Odin L. Lloyd.