Aaron’s jail pal cites syn-pot
Lawyer: Client suspects drug link to ex-Pat’s suicide
The close jailhouse friend of Aaron Hernandez said he wouldn’t be surprised if synthetic marijuana had some part in the disgraced Patriots’ suicide in his prison cell, according to his lawyer.
Larry Army Jr., who represents 22-year-old Kyle Kennedy, said although he has had limited privacy in recent discussions with his client, the topic of synthetic marijuana came up in relation to Hernandez’s suicide.
“One of the things he said to me is, I wouldn’t be surprised if that had something to do with this because that stuff is bad news. That synthetic marijuana, it’s bad news,” Army said on Herald Radio’s “Fargo Street” show co-hosted by Christian Arcand and John Sapochetti.
“When something’s out of character of somebody then you have to look toward other reasons potentially,” the lawyer said.
Army said his client, due to be released in 10 months, remains keen on sharing the details of his relationship with Hernandez, which started as prison pen pals, but deepened when Kennedy was transferred from MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole to the SouzaBaranowski Correctional Center, where Hernandez was held, in Shirley.
Army said the two would see each other daily, and often work out together.
Kennedy said he thought the jail guards were joking with him when they told him April 19 that Hernandez had been found dead in his cell, Army added, and the jail has kept Kennedy on suicide watch ever since.
Army said Kennedy doesn’t need to be on suicide watch anymore and added he has gained some privileges recently.
“For somebody who hasn’t said he wants to hurt himself and for somebody who is continuing to say I don’t want to hurt myself. I don’t have any issues mentally that would make me want to commit suicide,” Army said of his client. “Now we are going onto an extended period of time where they have had him segregated from the world.
“My client is steadfast in his opinion that he doesn’t need to be on suicide watch,” Army added.
Corrections officials yesterday lifted the lockdown at the Souza-Baranowski prison that they issued when Hernandez was found hanging by a bedsheet in his cell more than a week ago.