Attorneys representing Aaron Hernandez in the former NFL star’s double-murder trial attacked the credibility of a key witness Wednesday, accusing him of being a “killer” and violent drug dealer who was lying in court.
“Your intent was to get money from Aaron Hernandez,” defense attorney Jose Baez told Alexander Bradley, the prosecution’s star witness, referring to Bradley’s civil lawsuit against Hernandez.
“You wanted to kill him, too,” Baez said. “Because you’re a killer.”
It was the second day of cross-examination of Bradley, a former friend of the onetime New England Patriots star.
Bradley testified on Monday that Hernandez, angry after a clubgoer bumped into him and spilled his drink, shot and killed two men outside a Boston nightclub in July 2012.
Months later, a “paranoid” Hernandez shot Bradley in the face and left him in an industrial parking lot in Florida to die, Bradley testified. Bradley lost his right eye in the shooting but survived and vowed revenge, he testified.
That firsthand testimony was the most dramatic and important in the trial thus far. Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, two immigrants from Cape Verde, were killed in the shooting.
This case is the second major murder trial for Hernandez, who was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the July 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.
Changing memory?
On cross-examination Wednesday, Baez pointed out several times that Bradley’s testimony had changed from his original police statement in October 2013.
Bradley had told police that Hernandez had fired “about six” shots, yet he told the jury on Monday that Hernandez shot five times.
Police said they recovered five bullets from the shooting scene, and Baez argued Wednesday that Bradley had changed his story to better fit the police narrative. Bradley admitted that his earlier statement “may have been a discrepancy, a mistake,” but that his memory of five shots was accurate.
“So your memory gets better with time, right?” Baez asked.
“Oh it does, absolutely,” Bradley said.
Baez then noted that Bradley had told police in 2013 that he had bought a gun for Hernandez from a man named Jamar. Yet on Wednesday, Bradley testified that he could not recall the name of the man who sold him the gun.
“In this specific instance, your memory didn’t get better with time, did it, Mr. Bradley?” Baez asked.
“Apparently not, Mr. Baez,” Bradley said.
Bradley’s criminal past
Baez, whose probing and unconventional lawyering was made famous in 2011 when he defended Casey Anthony against charges that she killed her toddler daughter, often attempted to needle Bradley with his questions. Baez referred to Bradley as “Rocky,” a name only his family calls him. He also mockingly called the immunity agreement that Bradley signed the “deal of a lifetime.”
Baez began his cross-examination of Bradley on Tuesday, when he accused Bradley of “completely making up” the story of Hernandez’s spilled drink. He brought up a jailhouse phone call prior to the immunity agreement in which Bradley said he didn’t know “s**t about that s**t” with regards to the 2012 Boston shooting.
Baez is expected to touch on Bradley’s personal criminal past during cross-examination. Bradley is currently serving a five-year sentence for charges related to shooting up a nightclub in Hartford, Connecticut, on February 3, 2014, according to court records.
That incident came months after Bradley provided sworn testimony to a grand jury as to Hernandez’s involvement in the July 2012 shooting. Bradley pleaded no contest to felony criminal possession of a firearm, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief.
