Prosecution's Star Witness Faces Cross-Examination From Aaron Hernandez Defense
BOSTON (CBS) -- Defense attorneys in the Aaron Hernandez double murder trial cross-examined a former friend of the ex-NFL star on the witness stand Tuesday.
Alexander Bradley, Hernandez's ex-best friend and former drug dealer, testified Monday that he witnessed Hernandez shoot and kill Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu in Boston's South End on July 16, 2012.
Bradley said Hernandez killed the men because they spilled a drink on him in a Boston nightclub and "disrespected" him. But Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in the murders--and defense attorneys say Bradley killed the two men over a drug deal.
Hernandez's defense attorney Jose Baez dove into Bradley's criminal history during the cross-examination.
The day began with the prosecution finishing their questioning of Bradley. Jurors viewed photos from a police recreation of Bradley's account of the shooting.
They show the position Bradley said Hernandez took when firing from his SUV on the men in their BMW.
Bradley said he leaned back in the driver's seat as Hernandez leaned over him and fired out the open driver's side window.
Bradley also read texts he exchanged with Hernandez in the months after Bradley says Hernandez shot him in the face in Florida just months after the killing of Abreu and Furtado.
Prosecutors say Hernandez shot him because he knew too much as a witness to that shooting.
Hundreds of messages exchanged between the two showed an emotional fallout between the two former friends.
The texts also show Bradley was seeking compensation from Hernandez for the shooting.
"I'm not gonna allow you to go on living this high live without compensating me," read in one text Bradley sent Hernandez, which he read in court Tuesday. "I love you to death but what you did was wrong and on that note I'm done."
Baez later attempted to show in his cross-examination that Bradley was lying in those text messages about having a lawyer, and said he left out instances in which he texted Hernandez threateningly about kinds of guns that he owned.
Bradley said Monday that he initially chose not to tell the police Hernandez shot him because he wanted to get revenge himself--but said Tuesday he finally decided to cooperate in the larger case against him.
"When it came down to it at the end, I just wasn't going to go down for something that he did," said Bradley. "I probably would have prior, but I had no more loyalty to him after what he did to me."
He was given immunity in exchange for his testimony. He is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for an unrelated shooting.
Hernandez is already serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player who was dating Hernandez's fiancee's sister at the time.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports
