Aaron Hernandez will spend the rest of his life behind bars after his murder conviction.
But his legal trouble isn’t over.
The ex-NFL star is still under indictment on two counts of first-degree murder in a drive-by shooting outside a Boston nightclub. He is accused of firing his .38-caliber revolver into a BMW — over a spilled drink.
That was in July 2012, while Hernandez was still a tight end for the New England Patriots. That fall, he caught 51 passes, scored five touchdowns and helped the team to another AFC East title.
In June 2013, Hernandez was arrested in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd in a Massachusetts industrial park. The next day, investigators suggested that he could be connected to the nightclub shooting, too.
A jury convicted Hernandez of first-degree murder in the Lloyd case on Wednesday, a verdict that carried an automatic life sentence without parole.
Hernandez was indicted in the drive-by shooting last year. Prosecutors have said that Hernandez and the two victims — Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado — crossed paths randomly at Cure, a club in the South End neighborhood of Boston.
Prosecutors have said that de Abreu irritated Hernandez by bumping into him at the club and spilling his drink.
De Abreu, Furtado and three other friends got into the BMW, and Hernandez tailed them, prosecutors have said. When they stopped at a red light, the SUV pulled up alongside, and Hernandez fired, prosecutors say. One other man in the BMW was shot and survived. The two others were unarmed. Besides the two murder counts, Hernandez is charged with attempted murder and weapons possession. Hernandez’s lawyers have accused prosecutors of trying the case in the press. They say he’s innocent. A trial date has not been set. The judge in the Lloyd case did not allow prosecutors to talk about the drive-by case, ruling that it was speculation.
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