Judge orders jail notes turned over to family

A judge has ordered letters written by disgraced exPatriot Aaron Hernandez before his suicide be turned over to his family — including one reportedly sent to a friend who remains locked up in the same prison where the former NFL tight end took his life.

Bristol Superior Court Judge Thomas F. McGuire told Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. yesterday to release the letters to Hernandez’s attorneys “in time for the Hernandez family to have them at the time of his burial,” court documents state. His funeral was yesterday in Bristol, Conn.

The Herald reported last week that one letter was for his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, and another for their 4-year-old daughter, according to a source.

A lawyer for Kyle Kennedy — an inmate at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley where Hernandez was found dead Wednesday — also released a statement saying a letter was for his client.

Attorney Lawrence Army Jr. also acknowledged his client and Hernandez were friends, but neither he nor Kennedy has seen the note.

“My client is obviously saddened by the loss of his friend, Aaron Hernandez. ... I will be meeting with Kyle more in the coming days and will provide updates as information develops,” the lawyer said in a statement released to the press.

State officials have declared Hernandez committed suicide last week by hanging himself in his cell at the supermax prison.

Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety Daniel Bennett, who oversees state prisons, attended some of yesterday’s emergency hearing.

He told reporters outside court when asked if the Hernandez letters could be classified as suicide notes: “I would say, some of them are suicide notes.”

Bennett didn’t disclose specifics regarding Hernandez’s writings, and also declined to say if any correctional officers have been placed on leave after Hernandez’s death.

Bennett also disclosed that up to 96 inmates could be interviewed pertaining to the investigation into Hernandez’s last hours.

When asked if he’s confident Hernandez killed himself, he said, “I’m fully confident that it was a suicide.”

Jose Baez, Hernandez’s defense attorney who helped get the 27-year-old cleared of double murder charges last week in a 2012 drive-by shooting in Boston, has said he’s conducting his own probe into his client’s death.