Lawyers for Aaron Hernandez said Tuesday that a car dealership that leased a Toyota 4Runner to the former New England Patriots player should not get the vehicle back until his upcoming double murder trial concludes in Boston.

In a court filing, Charles Rankin, a lawyer for Hernandez, wrote that the jury in the pending case in Suffolk Superior Court should be able to view the 4Runner. Prosecutors say Hernandez was traveling in the SUV when he fatally shot two men in Boston’s South End in 2012.

The trial will likely start later this year after the state’s highest court resolves an evidentiary dispute.

District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office has not taken a position on a motion from the dealership, Fox Toyota of East Providence, R.I., to get the vehicle back now from Massachusetts authorities so it can complete a sale of its business.

Judge Jeffrey Locke presided over a hearing on the matter Tuesday but did not issue a ruling. A lawyer for Fox Toyota could not be reached for comment.

Hernandez, 26, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and other charges in the July 2012 slayings of Daniel Abreu, 29, and Safiro Furtado, 28.

Rankin wrote that a key grand jury witness, Alexander Bradley, testified that he was driving the 4Runner when it pulled up next to a BMW carrying the victims and that he pushed or leaned his seat back while Hernandez stretched across him and fired shots out the driver’s side window.

Additional witnesses testified about what happened inside the 4Runner and where people were seated and their statements contain “numerous contradictions,’’ Rankin wrote.

He said the jury must be able to view the Toyota at trial, including its internal dimensions and mechanisms for moving seats.

Bradley has an immunity deal with prosecutors and is currently jailed in Connecticut on unrelated gun charges, court records show. He recently settled a lawsuit with Hernandez in which he claimed that the former pro athlete shot him in the eye in Florida in February 2013. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Hernandez is already serving a life sentence for the June 2013 fatal shooting of Odin L. Lloyd, 27.

His appeal of a first-degree murder conviction in that case will be heard before the state Supreme Judicial Court.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@ globe.com. Follow him on Twitter@TAGlobe.