16 May 2014

NFL star charged with murder

6:54 pm on 16 May 2014

The former National Football League star Aaron Hernandez has been charged with murder in connection with the shooting of two men in Boston in 2012.

The former tight end for the New England Patriots is already in jail awaiting trial on charges he and two accomplices shot a man to death last June.

The Patriots released Hernandez from the team hours after his arrest in that case.

The Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley says the new charges that Hernandez used a handgun to ambush and execute the two men after they had left a Boston nightclub and were driving home.

Investigators linked Hernandez to the double-murder after their investigation of the death of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was found shot to death in an industrial park near Hernandez's house.

The murder charges are a setback for the NFL.

Despite efforts to protect itself from controversy, the league has been dragged into a string of scandals by players stretching from O.J. Simpson's murder trial in 1995 to more recent cases involving dog fighting, injury bounties, spying and gambling.

Hernandez had been seen as a rising star in the league and had a contract with the Patriots worth about $50 million.