Aaron Hernandez is set to go to trial later this month for another murder charge, and New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels may find himself on the stand at some point during the proceedings.
According to Travis Anderson of the Boston Globe, a defense motion filed Wednesday states that prosecutors “intend to call” McDaniels as one of eight additional witnesses. Hernandez has been charged with double murder in the alleged drive-by shooting of two men outside a nightclub in Boston in July 2012.
Hernandez’s tattoos are expected to be a big part of the case, as prosecutors will argue they depict guns that the former tight end used to commit murders. One tattoo shows a six-shot revolver with one empty chamber and the words “God Forgives” and another shows a semiautomatic pistol with a spent shell casing next to it.
It is a third tattoo that Hernandez has that prosectors believe McDaniels may have information about.
“The Commonwealth alleges the defendant sent a text message to Mr. McDaniels showing him another tattoo that he received at the same time … with the letters ‘CBS/WBS/IWBTG’,” the defense filing reads. “According to Commonwealth, it expects Mr. McDaniels to testify [if called] as to the meaning of those letters.”
Defense attorneys for Hernandez have tried to argue that interpreting the tattoos as an admission of guilt would be “rank speculation,” but the judge presiding over the case disagreed. Hernandez has gotten at least one new tattoo since he went to jail for the murder of Odin Lloyd, and that artwork appears to brag about his life sentence (photo here).
McDaniels and the Patriots are preparing to take on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI on Sunday.
