Trial date set for ex-Patriots star Hernandez in 2 slayings

Former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez (L) and his attorney Charles Rankin listen as prosecution witness Alexander Bradley is questioned by the prosecution without the jury present at Bristol County Superior Court in Fall River, Massachusetts April 1, 2015.

Authorities say that Hernandez shot de Abreu, Furtado and one other man after one of them spilled a drink on him at a nightclub.

On Tuesday, a judge scheduled his trial to begin on February 13, 2017, giving Baez plenty of time to memorize his client’s name.

Prosecutors say Hernandez sprayed the auto the men were riding in with gunfire, because he was eneraged after Abreu, who was dancing, bumped into him.

He smiled and nodded at his new
legal team, which includes Jose Baez, best known for successfully defending Casey Anthony when she was charged with murdering her daughter in 2011.

“Hernandez strongly maintains his innocence, and I plan to establish that before a jury of his peers”, Baez said in a statement, per Reuters.

They were shot about six weeks before Hernandez signed a five-year, $40 million contract with the Patriots. According to MA prosecutors, the former tight end killed two men in 2012 essentially because he felt disrespected by one of them. He is due back in court October 3 for a status conference.

The former Patriots star, 26, is already serving a life sentence for murder and faces two more counts of murder in a separate 2012 shooting.