Hernandez house sale falls through
NEW BEDFORD — The sale of the late Aaron Hernandez’s longvacant mansion has crumbled, but his estate has been boosted by the discovery of $217,000 in retirement funds, the lawyer for the feeble fortune reveals.
Attorney George Leontire yesterday told Bristol Probate and Family Court Judge Richard J. McMahon investigators have dug up two assets in the past three months: one, a 401(k) plan valued at approximately $167,000; the other, an account totaling $50,000. No beneficiary was named, he said.
Meanwhile, a purchase-andsale agreement struck for Hernandez’s $1.3 million home in North Attleboro “fell through, so we’re back to trying to sell the home,” said Leontire, who served on the legal dream team when Hernandez was acquitted of a double murder five days before his April 19 jailhouse suicide.
The 7,100-square-foot property has been subject to a courtordered attachment by the estate of Odin L. Lloyd since 2013. Hernandez, 27, was found guilty of killing Lloyd and sentenced to life, but because the case was under appeal when he died, the trial judge vacated the conviction. The Bristol District Attorney’s Office is fighting that decision before the state Supreme Judicial Court.
Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward, has a wrongfuldeath suit pending against Hernandez’s estate, as do the families of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, the two men he was acquitted of murdering in a 2012 drive-by shooting.
“Frankly, I told all these plaintiffs that we need to sit down and try to — whatever assets we come up with — try and find a way to deal with this, because with all these various actions pending, the estate’s got to pay a lawyer to defend against them, to settle them, whatever,” Leontire said.
In another development, Leontire filed an emergency motion with the court to extend the appointment of Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, as the estate’s special personal representative. Her role as SPR expired Friday.
But attorney Marlee Cowan, who represents the Lloyd estate, pressed McMahon to appoint an “independent” co-SPR, arguing Jenkins Hernandez is “unfit” to handle the job alone, in part because her daughter is the estate’s primary beneficiary.
“There is a conflict,” Cowan stressed. “How can she be impartial to creditors when she apparently has an interest in (not paying) creditors for the benefit of the child?”
McMahon took both requests under advisement.