BOSTON (AP) - A spilled drink in a Boston nightclub led former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez to kill two people in a drive-by shooting because he felt he'd been disrespected, prosecutors said Wednesday.
"I think I got one in the head and one in the chest," Hernandez said to a friend as they fled the intersection where the victims were shot in their car, prosecutors said at the former gridiron star's arraignment.
Hernandez, already charged with killing another man last year, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to seven charges - including two counts of first-degree murder - in the 2012 shooting that killed Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. A third man was wounded.
In the months before the killings, Suffolk County first assistant district attorney Patrick Haggan told the court Hernandez had become increasingly convinced people "had been testing, trying or otherwise disrespecting him when he frequented nightclubs in the area."
The night de Abreu and Furtado were killed, Haggan said Hernandez and a friend drove from Connecticut to a Boston nightclub called Cure. They were standing at the edge of the dance floor when de Abreu accidentally bumped into Hernandez, smiled at him and did not apologize, according to prosecutors. Haggan said de Abreu and his friends did not appear to recognize Hernandez and had no idea he was upset.
Hernandez became increasingly agitated and told his friend de Abreu had deliberately bumped into him and "was trying him," Haggan said.
Hernandez's lawyers have said he is looking forward to proving his innocence.