If the current schedule holds, former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez will stand trial on three murder charges in fewer than eight months.
Earlier this week, a judge in Boston picked May 28 as the date on which Hernandez will face a jury for the July 2012 shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado.
Hernandez currently is scheduled to be tried on October 6 for allegedly killing Odin Lloyd in June 2013.
Judge Jeffrey Locke made it clear on Tuesday that the double murder case won’t take a back seat to the Lloyd trial.
“Don’t consider this case suspended until October,” Locke said, via the New York Daily News.
It also would be unwise to consider that both trials will occur as scheduled. Delays are the norm not the exception when it comes to criminal trials, regardless of the profile.
Judge Locker also was asked to impose a gag order in the de Abreu and Furtado cases. A ban on leaks to the press previously was issued in connection with the Lloyd prosecution.