Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Aaron Hernandez Part II

 


2007 Gainesville double shooting

On September 30, 2007, someone approached a car containing Randall Carson, Justin Glass, and Corey Smith on foot and fired five shots while they were waiting at a Gainesville traffic light after having left a nightclub. Smith was shot in the back of the head, and Glass was shot in the arm. Both men survived. Carson, a back-seat passenger, was unharmed and told police that the shooter was a "Hawaiian" or "Hispanic" male with a large build weighing about 230 lb (100 kg) and having many tattoos. He picked a photo of Hernandez out of a police lineup.

The police told Meyer's personal assistant that they wanted to see Hernandez and two teammates immediately. Detectives "kept pushing coaches" to bring the players to the station, but they did not arrive for four hours. In the interim, the players spoke with Johnson, the attorney who often represented players. The other players cooperated with police, but Hernandez invoked his right to counsel and refused to talk to police. When police walked into the room to speak to Hernandez, the last of the players to be interviewed, they found him with his head down on the table and sleeping, a posture they said was unusual for someone in the middle of a shooting investigation.

No charges were filed at the time but, due to his 2013 arrest and subsequent conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd, Massachusetts authorities contacted police in Florida to try to determine whether Hernandez was suspected to have a role in the 2007 shooting. Detective Tom Mullins, who was assigned to reinvestigate the shooting, concluded that Hernandez was not the triggerman. Although Carson initially identified Hernandez as such, other witnesses that night described the shooter as looking like a black male, possibly with cornrows. When Mullins re-interviewed Carson, Carson rescinded his statement of the shooter matching Hernandez and said he never saw Hernandez at the scene, but assumed he was the shooter because "they had words earlier at the club".

2011 Plainville fight

At 3:45 a.m. on April 30, 2011, police responded to a fight in front of Hernandez's rented townhouse in Plainville, Massachusetts. A high school friend had been pulled over earlier in the evening after driving Hernandez home from a Boston bar. The driver was weaving in and out of lanes and traveling at 120 miles per hour in a work zone and on a highway with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour. The Massachusetts State Trooper who pulled the car over did not arrest the driver because he recognized Hernandez in the passenger seat. The Plainville police also recognized Hernandez, and told the two to go indoors.

2012 Boston double homicide

Hernandez was investigated in connection with a double homicide that took place on July 16, 2012, near the Cure Lounge in Boston's South End. Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Teixeira Furtado, 28, both immigrants from Cape Verde and living in Dorchester, were killed by gunshots fired into their vehicle. Witnesses testified that Hernandez's silver SUV pulled up next to the victims and someone from his car yelled racial epithets towards the victims. Someone from the car then fired five shots, killing the two immigrants. Police immediately identified Hernandez, who was then playing for the Patriots, in the club's security camera footage, but thought it was a coincidence that Hernandez happened to be at the club that evening.

On May 15, 2014, Hernandez was indicted on murder charges for the killings of de Abreu and Furtado, with additional charges of armed assault and attempted murder associated with shots fired at the surviving occupants in the vehicle. The trial began March 1, 2017. The prosecution case was strongly based on testimony by Bradley; a known drug dealer who had been feuding with Hernandez since Hernandez allegedly shot him in the face and left him to die. Hernandez and Bradley each claimed that the other person pulled the trigger.

Jose Baez, Hernandez's attorney, argued that the proposed motive was implausible, and Hernandez was a suspect of convenience too close to two unsolved murders. Bradley alleged that Hernandez was infuriated after the victims spilled a drink on him at a nightclub several hours before the shooting and killed them in retaliation. Security camera footage confirmed that Hernandez was in the club for less than ten minutes. Around that time, he calmly posed for a photo with a fan, and left by himself – contradicting Bradley's testimony that he departed with Hernandez. Furthermore, Baez characterized the police investigation as extraordinarily sloppy (e.g., the victims' bodies were kept in their bullet-riddled vehicle as it was towed away from the shooting scene, a major protocol violation) with no physical evidence tying Hernandez to the murders.

According to The Boston Globe, there was "powerful evidence that [Hernandez] was at the scene and played a role in their deaths". On April 14, 2017, Hernandez was acquitted of the murders and most of the other charges but found guilty of illegal possession of a handgun.

2013 traffic stop

In January 2013, Hernandez and Bradley partied at Cure again. At 2:20 a.m., Bradley was pulled over on the Southeast Expressway after his vehicle was seen speeding at 105 miles per hour. According to the State Police he was "wobbly drunk". Hernandez tried to get his friend out of trouble by saying, "Trooper, I am Aaron Hernandez. It's okay." However, Bradley was still arrested for drunk driving.

2013 Miami shooting of Alexander Bradley

In February 2013, Hernandez, Bradley, and several others visited a Florida strip club where they rang up a $10,000 bill. Hernandez began to worry about two men sitting across from them, thinking they were plainclothes Boston police officers. Bradley later recalled telling Hernandez that they were probably tracking the pair as part of their investigation into the double murder outside the Cure.

Hernandez and Bradley had a troubled relationship at this point. Bradley claimed that on February 13, 2013, during the same trip, he woke up in a car with Hernandez pointing a gun at his face. The next morning, police found Bradley lying in a parking lot and bleeding from a bullet hole between his eyes. Bradley survived, but lost his right eye. He did not cooperate with police, but instead sought revenge.

The pair would trade more than 500 text messages in the next three months, which included death threats and attempts at extortion. Bradley told Hernandez that he had "semiautomatic weapons, bulletproof vests, and a crew that ran six deep". Hernandez's agent tried, unsuccessfully, to settle the matter quietly. Bradley demanded $5 million to keep his silence, and Hernandez countered with $1.5 million. Bradley then asked for $2.5 million. Hernandez did not respond, but instead went to see his lawyer.

On June 13, 2013, Bradley filed a civil lawsuit for damages against Hernandez in a Florida federal court. He withdrew the suit four days later, giving the two a chance to work out a settlement without the media knowing about it. On September 3, 2013, Hernandez's lawyers filed a postponement request in federal court until his murder charges were resolved. In February 2016, Hernandez reached a settlement with Bradley over the lawsuit. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

On May 11, 2015, Hernandez was indicted for witness intimidation in relation to the Bradley shooting, since Bradley was reportedly a witness to the 2012 Boston double homicide. The intimidation charge for Hernandez carried a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. This charge was included in Hernandez's trial for the double homicide, which began on March 1, 2017. During the trial, it was revealed Bradley texted his lawyer about the shooting in a deleted text message, which read: "Now u sure once I withdraw this lawsuit I wont be held on perjury after I tell the truth about me not recalling anything about who shot me."

Hernandez was later acquitted of the charge of witness intimidation by a jury on April 14, 2017. They also acquitted Hernandez of all other charges in the murders of de Abreu and Furtado, except for finding him guilty on one count of illegal possession of firearms.

2013 California incidents

Hernandez traveled to California with Jenkins and their young daughter in 2013 to have shoulder surgery. While there, Jenkins called the police twice in less than a week, claiming that Hernandez was drunk and violent. In the first incident, Hernandez put his hand through a window. Hernandez's brother and friends later said that there were drugs and guns in the rented apartment, but police determined that Jenkins and the child were not in danger and never searched the premises. D.J. Hernandez found his brother alone on the roof of the building one night, looking defeated and rubbing the barrel of a gun against his face.

Murder of Odin Lloyd

On June 18, 2013, police searched Hernandez's home in connection with an investigation into the shooting death of a friend, Odin Lloyd, whose body was found, with multiple gunshot wounds to the back and chest, in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez's house.

The following day, Hernandez assured Patriots head Coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft that he had nothing to do with the shooting. Despite this, Hernandez was "barred" from Gillette Stadium lest it become "the site of a media stakeout". The team also decided, a week before his eventual arrest, to sever all ties with Hernandez if he was arrested on any charge related to the case.

On June 26, 2013, Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder, in addition to five gun-related charges. The Patriots released Hernandez from the team about ninety minutes later, before being officially informed of the charges against him. Two other men were also arrested in connection with Lloyd's death.

On August 22, 2013, Hernandez was indicted by a grand jury for the murder of Lloyd; he pled not guilty on September 6, 2013. On April 15, 2015, he was found guilty of murder in the first degree, a charge that in Massachusetts automatically carries a sentence of life in prison without any possibility of parole; he also was found guilty of five firearm charges. A motive for the murder was never definitively established. Police investigated the possibility that Lloyd may have learned of Hernandez's bisexuality and that Hernandez was worried that Lloyd might out him to others.

Release from team and aftermath

Hernandez's arrest and subsequent termination by the Patriots resulted in financial and other consequences. He automatically forfeited his 2015–18 salaries, totaling $19.3 million, which were not guaranteed. The Patriots voided all remaining guarantees, including his 2013 and 2014 salaries, on the terms that those guarantees were for skill, injury, or salary cap room, and did not include being cut for "conduct detrimental to the best interests of professional football". The team planned to withhold $3.25 million of Hernandez's 2012 signing bonus that was due to be paid in 2014, and to recoup the signing bonus already paid. The NFL salary cap allows teams to pro-rate signing bonuses over the life of a contract or a five-year period, whichever is shorter. By releasing Hernandez, the Patriots accelerated all of Hernandez's remaining guaranteed money into the 2013 and 2014 salary caps: the team took a $2.55 million hit in 2013, and another $7.5 million in 2014.

Since Hernandez had not completed his fourth season in the league, the Patriots were required to place him on waivers after releasing him. He went unclaimed. After Hernandez cleared waivers on June 28, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that, while charges against Hernandez were pending, the NFL would not approve any contract signed by Hernandez until Goodell held a hearing to determine whether or not Hernandez should face suspension or other action under the league's Personal Conduct Policy. In prison phone calls, Hernandez expressed distress at his treatment by Belichick and the Patriots.

Within hours of Hernandez's arrest, employees at the team's official pro shop at Patriot Place were instructed to remove all his memorabilia and merchandise, and to remove these items from its website as well. The Patriots ProShop exchanged about 2,500 previously sold Hernandez jerseys for other jerseys, destroying and recycling the Hernandez jerseys for a loss of about $250,000.

CytoSport and Puma terminated their endorsement deals with Hernandez. EA Sports announced that Hernandez's likeness would be dropped from its NCAA Football 14 and Madden NFL 25 video games. After visitor complaints, a prize-winning photo of Hernandez from his rookie season, depicting him triumphantly high-stepping into the end zone in front of Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields, was removed from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Panini America, a sports memorabilia and trading-card company, removed stickers of Hernandez from approximately 500,000 sticker books that had not yet been sent to collectors. The company replaced the stickers, as well as trading cards, with cards depicting Tim Tebow.

The University of Florida removed Hernandez's name and likeness from various locations at its football facilities, including a stone that had his name and "All American" inscribed upon it. Bristol Central High School also removed all his awards and gave them to his family.  Pop Warner removed his name from a list of award recipients.

Hernandez gave power of attorney to his agent, and instructed him to provide his fiancée with $3,000 a month and to help her find more affordable housing. He also set aside $500,000 for his fiancée and their daughter, and $120,000 for a close friend. After his arrest, his vacant house fell into "extreme disrepair", including suffering burst pipes and mold.

Appeal and conviction

After Hernandez's death, on April 25, 2017, his lawyers filed a motion at Massachusetts Superior Court in Fall River to vacate his murder conviction. The request was granted May 9, 2017; therefore Hernandez technically died an innocent man, due to the legal principle of abatement ab initio. Under Massachusetts law, this principle asserts that when a criminal defendant dies but has not exhausted all legal appeals, the case reverts to its status "at the beginning"—the conviction is vacated and the defendant is rendered "innocent". At the time of his death, Hernandez was in the process of filing an appeal for his 2015 conviction in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

As of May 9, 2017, the date of the judge's ruling to vacate, the Bristol County district attorneys stated they planned to appeal the ruling, to the Massachusetts Supreme Court if necessary. The Lloyd family was disappointed with the ruling, but their attorney did not believe it would affect the wrongful death civil suit which the family had filed.

The appeal was heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in November 2018, a year after Hernandez's death, by six justices. The attorney representing the Lloyd family, Thomas M. Quinn, III, argued that Hernandez was rightfully convicted of Lloyd's murder and that the conviction was unfairly wiped out. Quinn also argued that Hernandez killed himself knowing of the technicality that would get his conviction thrown out, and that, "He should not be able to accomplish in death, what he never would have been able to do in life."

On March 13, 2019, the Supreme Judicial Court reinstated Hernandez's conviction, but stated that the trial record would note that his conviction was "neither affirmed nor reversed"; the appeal was rendered moot because Hernandez died while the case was on appeal. The Court, in their ruling, also officially ended the practice of abatement ab initio, ruling that it was outdated, never made sense, and that it was "no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, if, in fact, it ever was." After the ruling, Hernandez' estate vowed to appeal the ruling further.

Prison

The Boston Globe described Hernandez as being "strangely content" while in jail, an attitude that confounded his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins. He told his mother that, "I've been the most relaxed and less stressed in jail than I have out of jail." He was, however, punished on multiple occasions for breaking prison rules, including screaming and banging on his cell door. Over the course of his four years behind bars, he increasingly turned to the Bible and became more religious.

The Globe said that prison officials "seemed to turn a blind eye to Hernandez's drug use [and] neglected to safeguard their famous inmate".[84] A fellow inmate reports multiple instances of Hernandez needing medical attention after smoking too much K2, which was rife at the prison at the time.[70]

 

Hernandez could speak to Jenkins on the phone, and often did twice a day, but she was facing perjury charges related to his arrest. He only saw his daughter when Jenkins' mother brought her to visit. While in prison, he reconciled with his own mother, from whom he had been estranged for many years.

While being held at the Bristol County Jail, Hernandez was kept in a segregated unit, an "especially grim section" that normally housed the mentally ill and violent. He asked to move out of segregation, but Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson would not allow it. Hernandez believed that Hodgson exploited his incarceration for publicity.

After his conviction for the murder of Lloyd, Hernandez was transferred to cell 57 of the G-2 block at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum security prison where inmates typically spend twenty hours a day in their cells. In the two years he spent in the prison, Hernandez was disciplined dozens of times. His lawyer claimed that he was taunted relentlessly by guards. According to Keiko Thomas, who was serving 17–19 years with Hernandez on a manslaughter charge, the former NFL star "was seen as a fraud by many and a god by some". While in prison, Hernandez continued to work out and anticipated returning to the NFL.

When the news of his acquittal on the charges of murdering de Abreu and Furtado were read on the news, the inmates gathered around the television in the prison cheered. They kicked their cell doors and cheered when Hernandez returned to the prison that night. In the nine days between his acquittal and his death, Hernandez gave his food and books, and even a television, to his fellow prisoners but gave no indication that he intended to take his own life. Gifts such as these were rare in prison, but not unusual for Hernandez, according to a fellow inmate.

Two days before his death, reporter Michele McPhee appeared on the Kirk and Callahan sports radio show, during which she and the two hosts used innuendo to imply that Hernandez was gay. It has been suggested that this outing may have played a role in Hernandez's suicide.

Death

On April 19, 2017, at 3:05 am EDT, five days after Hernandez was acquitted of the 2012 Boston double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, correction officers found Hernandez hanging with bed sheets from the window in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He was transported to UMass Memorial Hospital-Leominster, where he was pronounced dead at 4:07 am. He had been smoking K2, a drug associated with psychosis, within thirty hours of his death. A fellow inmate told investigators that he had spent much of the previous two days smoking the synthetic cannabinoid.

State Department of Correction spokesman Christopher Fallon first said that no suicide note was found in the initial search of the two-person cell, which Hernandez occupied alone. On April 20, 2017, investigators reported that three handwritten notes were next to a Bible opened to John 3:16 and that "John 3:16" was written on his forehead in red ink.

Shampoo was found covering the floor, cardboard was wedged under the cell door to make it difficult for someone to enter, and there were drawings in blood on the walls showing an unfinished pyramid and the all-seeing eye of God, with the word "Illuminati" written in capital letters underneath. The drawings were references to the Nation of Gods and Earths, a Black supremacist movement. Hernandez learned about the Nation of Gods and Earths, a movement influenced by Islam, through hip hop culture while in prison. He also expressed an interest in Christianity, telling fellow prisoners that "we all have Jesus Christ inside of us".

Jose Baez, Hernandez's attorney, reprinted the contents of the notes in his 2018 book Unnecessary Roughness. One short letter was addressed to Baez, thanking him for securing the acquittal in the double homicide and anticipating an appeal in the Odin Lloyd case. In addition, he asked Baez to pass along thanks to specific musicians whose songs Hernandez found inspiring. The other two notes were addressed to Hernandez's fiancée and daughter. He told Jenkins "You're rich," which prosecutors in the Lloyd case believed was a reference to abatement ab initio, the legal doctrine that vacates convictions if a defendant dies before his appeals are exhausted.

In contrast to the straightforward letter to Baez, the lawyer described the other notes as written in a disjointed and markedly "ominous" tone. The letter to his daughter was described by The Boston Globe as "strange, rambling, mystical, and tender". In these notes, Hernandez described entering a "timeless realm" and announced he would see his family in heaven.

Prison officials had not observed any signs that Hernandez was at risk for suicide, so he had not been put on around-the-clock watch. Upon completion of the autopsy by the medical examiner, the death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging. At the request of his family, Hernandez's brain was released to Boston University to be studied for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive degenerative disease found in people who have had a severe blow or repeated blows to the head, including football players. Baez quickly disputed any claim of suicide and stated that he would initiate his own investigation of the death. However, in 2018, Baez wrote that he was initially suspicious of the suicide finding, given Hernandez's optimistic demeanor after the acquittal in the double homicide. However, he later came to believe Hernandez had taken his own life, with CTE being a major contributing factor. After his brain was removed, Hernandez's body was cremated and the ashes were given to his family.

Personal life

Relationships

In 2007, Hernandez began dating Shayanna Jenkins, a girl he had known since elementary school. Their daughter Avielle was born in 2012, the same month that the couple became engaged; also the month that Hernandez purchased a $1.3 million, 8,130-square-foot (755 m2), four-story home with an in-ground pool in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, where the family lived together. Jenkins moved in with Hernandez in 2011, during his second season with the Patriots.

After she discovered him cheating on her, Jenkins moved out but returned in the summer of 2012. During Hernandez's trial for the murder of Odin Lloyd, it was claimed that Hernandez had flirted with and kissed the nanny who took care of his daughter. Jenkins testified in court that she wanted to make their relationship work, and that it required her to compromise on some of his behavior. She told police that she cooked and cleaned and she knew her role. Hernandez and Jenkins never married.

Sexuality

Following Hernandez's death, a high school teammate, Dennis SanSoucie, described a secret homosexual relationship between the two between the 7th and 11th grades. The teammate stated that Hernandez had many sexual partners during this time. Hernandez's brother D.J., mother Terri, and attorney George Leontire report that Hernandez came out as gay to his mother and ex-girlfriend while in prison. Leontire, who is also gay, said his client "clearly was gay" and described the "immense pain that it caused him" and the self-hatred that came from growing up in a culture that was anti-gay, According to Leontire, Hernandez believed that the sexual abuse he experienced as a boy caused him to become gay. A college girlfriend said that "he never dealt with [the sexual abuse]. It led to issues in his sexuality." SanSoucie stated that Hernandez was terrified that his father would find out about his homosexuality.

After listening to more than 300 recorded phone calls, The Boston Globe reported that Hernandez was "prone to going on homophobic rants" and that, in one phone call, he admitted he was attracted to men and said it made him "angry all the time". Patriot’s receiver Brandon Lloyd said that he had been warned by teammate Wes Welker that Hernandez would expose his genitalia and talk about gay sex.

Prosecutors intended to raise the issue of his sexuality during the 2012 double homicide trial, a prospect that frightened Hernandez. He wished to keep his sexuality a secret. After his death, his fiancée Jenkins stated that she saw no indication that he was gay. She said, "I wish I had known how he felt, just so we could have talked about it. I wouldn't have disowned him. I would have been supportive. I can't fault him if he was feeling that way. When you love someone so much you just want to be there to support them. The fact that he felt he couldn't come out to me or he couldn't tell me these things hurts, because we had that bond. I've accepted that he may have been the way he was said to be, or that it may not be true. Regardless, I won't know."

Paranoia

D.J. described Hernandez as growing increasingly paranoid as an adult, believing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and others were out to get him. D.J. said that Hernandez slept with a large knife by his bed and collected a large number of weapons for his protection. After the 2013 shooting of Alexander Bradley, Hernandez hired a friend from Bristol to serve as his bodyguard 24 hours a day. He also installed a sophisticated surveillance system in his home. Shortly thereafter, Hernandez approached Coach Bill Belichick "in a state of deepening paranoia", saying he feared for his family's safety. Hernandez's agent testified that Hernandez requested the meeting because he was in fear for his life. Hernandez requested a trade to a team on the other side of the country, but the request was denied.

In April 2013, Hernandez purchased a used car with two handguns and two rifles inside. He also purchased a Chevrolet Suburban that had been outfitted as an armored car. He had secret compartments installed in vehicles to store firearms. When being driven, he refused to travel in cars without tinted windows for fear that one of his enemies might see him. Teammates said that Hernandez was prone to wild mood swings and became more agitated as time went on. He was said to go from being hyper-masculine to talking about cuddling with his mother. As a Patriot, he smoked large quantities of marijuana and used other drugs, including cocaine.

Brain damage

After his death, researchers at Boston University studied Hernandez's brain and diagnosed him with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), stage 3 of 4, and described Hernandez's brain as a classic case of the pathology. CTE is caused by repeated head trauma. Hernandez had two confirmed concussions since he began playing football at eight years old, but the Boston Globe believed "he undoubtedly took other punishing hits to the head that were never recorded." CTE is associated with cumulative injuries. In a phone conversation recorded in prison, Hernandez said "I'm like a grandpa. All my bones are so sore."

The researchers suggested that the CTE, which results in poor judgment, lack of impulse control, or aggression, anger, paranoia, emotional volatility, and rage behaviors, may have explained some of Hernandez's criminal acts and other behavior. Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York said, "It's impossible for me to look at the severity of CTE and Mr. Hernandez's brain and not think that that had a profound effect on his behavior." Hernandez experienced migraines in prison, and had trouble with memory. Jose Baez wrote that he saw symptoms consistent with CTE from his earliest meetings with Hernandez: Hernandez sometimes showed keen insight and observational skills, while other times he had gaps in memory that were highly unusual for a young person.

After release of the Boston University statement, Hernandez's fiancée and daughter sued the Patriots and the NFL for causing Hernandez's death and depriving his daughter of her father's companionship, arguing that Hernandez's NFL career had caused what researchers described as "the most severe case of [CTE] medically seen" in a person at his age. The suit was dismissed in February 2019 because the deadline to opt out of a class action suit against the league had been missed. Hernandez was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with CTE.

In other media

Hernandez's arrest, conviction, and death attracted a great deal of media attention, especially because of increasing concerns about CTE in athletes. His life was the focus of a 2018 Boston Globe Spotlight Team investigation and a podcast called "Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez & Football, Inc."

A Netflix documentary entitled Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez was released on January 15, 2020.

The FX series American Sports Story is centered on Hernandez's rise in the NFL before his downfall, with Josh Andrés Rivera playing Hernandez.

Hernandez, his crimes, conviction, and suicide were referenced during the Netflix special The Roast of Tom Brady.

 

 

 

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