BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A grand jury has indicted former New England Patriots player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez on a witness intimidation charge in relation to the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado.
Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley announced the indictment Monday afternoon after the grand jury handed it down Friday.
The charge is related to a non-fatal shooting of his former associate Alexander Bradley, whom he allegedly shot in the face in Florida in February 2013, after Bradley "made a remark about the homicides" in Boston the previous summer.
The Suffolk DA's office did not identify Bradley as the shooting victim, but the incident has been widely publicized and Bradley filed a civil suit against Hernandez for the shooting.
"Though this shooting took place outside of Massachusetts, it may be prosecuted under Ch. 268, Sect. 13B, of the Massachusetts General Laws as willfully causing physical injury to a witness with the intent to impede a Suffolk County criminal investigation," a statement from the DA's office read.
The witness intimidation charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Hernandez, who was convicted last month of murdering Odin Lloyd in 2013, faces two counts of first degree murder among other charges, for a July, 2012 shooting that left de Abreu and Furtado dead.
Cox Media Group
