Hernandez In More Trouble

Aaron Hernandez ambushed and shot to death two men after a chance encounter inside a Boston nightclub, prosecutors said Thursday as they announced new murder charges against the former NFL star, who was already awaiting trial in another shooting death.

The victims in the 2012 killing, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, were shot to death in a car as they waited at a red light on a July night in Boston's South End neighborhood.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley would not elaborate on what happened in the nightclub, but said that after the men left, Hernandez followed in an SUV, then pulled up alongside the vehicle and fired multiple shots from a .38 caliber revolver into the passenger's side, killing de Abreu and Furtado, and wounding a third man. Two other passengers in the car were uninjured.

Conley said the victims were "ambushed and executed." He said there was no evidence that Hernandez knew the victims prior to that evening.

Weeks later, Hernandez signed a five-year deal worth about $40 million with the New England Patriots and went on to play 12 games as a tight end that season. A spokesman for the Patriots said the team had no comment.

Lawyers for Hernandez, who is awaiting trial in the separate 2013 shooting death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd near Hernandez's North Attleborough home, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment about the new indictment. Hernandez is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder in Lloyd's death.

Conley said the investigation of the Boston killings moved forward after the Lloyd case, which will be tried separately in another Massachusetts court. He noted the discovery in Bristol, Connecticut, of the car Hernandez was driving the night the men died and the recovery of the alleged murder weapon from an unnamed person with ties to Hernandez.

Conley declined to say whether authorities suspected any connection between the Boston and North Attleborough shootings.

Hernandez is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of armed assault with intent to murder, as well as unlawful possession of the gun used in the attack.

Conley said the notoriety surrounding the former NFL star played no role in the way the case was investigated.

"This was never about Aaron Hernandez. This case was about two victims who were stopped, ambushed and senselessly murdered on the streets they called home," he said.

Tanya Singleton, Hernandez's cousin, was charged with criminal contempt of court in the indictment returned by a Suffolk County grand jury. Singleton was given immunity to testify before the grand jury but refused, Conley said.

A message left with Singleton's lawyer was not immediately returned.

Families of the victims have filed civil lawsuits in February against Hernandez seeking $6 million for the wrongful deaths of the two men.

Hernandez was expected to be arraigned on the new charges in Suffolk County Superior Court next week.