New England Patriot star Aaron Hernandez got tattoos of guns and bullets to commemorate each murder he committed, prosecutor claims

  • Hernandez, 27, is alleged to have shot Daniel de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28
  • Abreau and Furtado were in a car with Raychides Sanches when they were shot
  • Sanches identified Hernandez as the shooter in the July 26, 2012, incident
  • This was part of a pretrial hearing ahead of Hernandez's trial on February 13
  • Prosecutors say he shot the men because one of them bumped into him in a club 
  • Hernandez is already serving life for a separate murder that occurred in 2013

By Hannah Parry For Dailymail.com

Published: 20:53 EST, 27 December 2016 | Updated: 10:12 EST, 28 December 2016

Prosecutors in Aaron Hernandez's double murder trial claim he got tattoos of guns and bullets to commemorate each killing.

Defense attorney for the former New England Patriot are battling to keep discussion of his tattoos and text messages sent to his sports agent, out of the murder trial for the deaths of 29-year-old Daniel de Abreu and 28-year-old Safiro Furtado.

The tattoos include a cylinder of a revolver with one empty chamber and five live rounds. Underneath, are the words 'God Forgives,' written backwards so it can be seen while looking in the mirror.

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Prosecutors in Aaron Hernandez's (pictured in court on December 20) double murder trial claim he got a tattoo to commemorate each killing  

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan told the hearing on Tuesday that the ink was meant as a memento of the 2012 drive-by shooting, the Boston Herald reports.

'The Commonwealth will show ballistic evidence that five rounds were fired into the car that killed two men, and there were five wounds to the decedents.'

Hernandez had the tattoos done soon after the victims were killed, Haggan said in court.

Hernandez, already serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin L. Lloyd, has pleaded not guilty to killing de Abreu and Furtado. 

Defense attorney for the former New England Patriot are battling to keep discussion of his tattoos and text messages sent to his sports agent, out of the trial over the deaths of 29-year-old Daniel de Abreu and 28-year-old Safiro Furtado

Prosecutors also say Hernandez shot his former friend Alexander Bradley, who says he claims he witnesses Hernandez shoot the two victims, in the face to try and silence him.

Bradley survived the shooting but lost an eye. 

Hernandez then asked the same tattoo artist to draw a semiautomatic handgun with one smoking, empty shell casing, Haggan said. 

Prosecutors say Bradley was shot with a similar handgun on February 13, 2013, and one spent shell casing was found next to him. 

'The tattoos in question are not relevant,' argued defense attorney Ronald Sullivan, who called the prosecution's theory 'speculation,' and 'inference,' and said allowing jurors to hear about the tattoos would be a violation of Hernandez's constitutional right to a fair trial. 

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Haggan told the hearing on Tuesday that certain tattoos were meant as a memento of the 2012 drive-by shooting 

The tattoos include a cylinder of a revolver with one empty chamber and five live rounds. Underneath, are the words 'God Forgives,' written backwards so it can be seen while looking in the mirror

However, prosecutors argue Hernandez's tattoos all have deeply personal meanings.  

The defense also asked the judge to bar as evidence text messages between Hernandez and Bradley, where his former friend threatens to sue the football player.

The texts were later forwarded to sports agent, and former lawyer, Brian Murphy. 

The defense said the texts are protected by attorney-client privilege.

But the prosecution insist they link him to the crime, and say they should not be protected as Murphy was not acting as Hernandez's lawyer at the time.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke did not immediately rule.

Hernandez is already serving a life sentence for the 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancee's sister.

Prosecutors argue Hernandez's tattoos all have deeply personal meanings 

Prosecutors say Hernandez gunned down the other two victims after one of them bumped into him at Boston nightclub Cure earlier that night. The former tight end has pleaded not guilty.

A witness, Raychides Sanches said he had been in the car on the night ofJuly 16, 2012 when his friends were shot dead.

When asked who the shooter was, Sanches nodded in the direction of the former NFL player. 'Looked like him,' he said. 'Hernandez.'

His trial is scheduled to start in February.

TATTOOS AND GANG CULTURE 

Tattoos are commonly used among criminals to show gang membership and record the wearer's personal history — such as their skills, specialties, accomplishments and convictions.

Certain designs have developed recognized coded meanings. The code systems can be quite complex and because of the nature of what they encode, the tattoo designs are not widely recognized. When Hernandez was first imprisoned his body was examined for gang tattoos by officers from the Bristol County House of Correction's gang intelligence unit.

They also interviewed Hernandez about any past gang affiliations. Hernandez has denied ever being part of a gang and at that time officers determined that none of his tattoos were gang-related 

Dead: Safiro Furtado (left) and Daniel de Abreu (right) were shot dead while in a car with friend Raychides Sanches, who survived. Sanches identified Hernandez in a pretrial hearing

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