Notes found by Hernandez’s body turned over to family
Lawyer vows to conduct his own investigation
BOSTON, April 25, (Agencies): Three handwritten notes found by the body of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez following his suicide in a Massachusetts prison cell last week were handed over to his family on Monday, an official said.
The order by a state judge in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to turn over the notes to the former National Football League player’s family came on the same day as Hernandez’s funeral, which was held in his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut, a spokesman for the Worcester County district attorney’s office said.
Some of the notes “could be considered suicide notes,” Daniel Bennett, Massachusetts’ secretary of public safety, told reporters.
The notes, found near a Bible, were handed over in full, the district attorney’s spokesman said.
Hernandez was found hanged by a bed sheet in prison last Wednesday in what Massachusetts officials have ruled a suicide. Hernandez had been a rising star with a $41 million NFL contract when he was arrested in June 2013 and charged with murdering an acquaintance in an industrial park not far from the Patriots’ stadium.
He was serving a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole after being found guilty of that murder when he hanged himself, according to state officials. Hernandez’s death occurred just days after his acquittal of a separate 2012 double murder.
“We wish to say goodbye to Aaron in a private ceremony and thank everyone in advance for affording us a measure of privacy during this difficult time,” the family said in a statement ahead of the funeral.
The lawyer who successfully defended the 27-year-old former athlete in the double-murder trial has vowed to conduct his own investigation into the circumstances of Hernandez’s death at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts, west of Boston.
Aaron Hernandez’s family and friends bid farewell to the former NFL star at a private funeral Monday, and a judge ordered that three suicide notes he left be turned over to his fiancee by the time he is buried.
Dozens of mourners turned out for the invitation-only service in Hernandez’s hometown of Bristol, including his mother and fiancee, several of his defense attorneys, and friends from his playing days with the University of Florida and the New England Patriots.
Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, hanged himself in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on April 19. Only days earlier he had been acquitted of murder charges in the shooting deaths of two men in Boston in 2012.
At the request of Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, a Massachusetts judge ruled that the district attorney must provide the family with copies of three notes Hernandez left next to a Bible before killing himself. An attorney for Jenkins Hernandez said authorities had refused to share the contents of the notes until the investigation into Hernandez’s death was complete.
The judge said Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office can redact information from the notes before producing copies to protect the ongoing investigation.
At the funeral home, two men in suits checked IDs as guests drove up the driveway. Police closed a street outside to traffic, and television news crews were stationed in a lot across the street. At one point, Hernandez’s mother, Terri Hernandez, stepped out ahead of the service to smoke a cigarette on the funeral home’s front porch.
The guests included twin NFL players Mike and Maurkice Pouncey; football player Brandon Spikes; and prominent medical examiner Dr Michael Baden, whom Hernandez’s family retained to perform an independent autopsy, and his wife, Linda Kenney Baden, a defense attorney.
Maggie Amaya, of Bristol, was turned away from the service because she did not have an invitation. She said her nephew was a friend of Hernandez’s at Bristol Central High School. She and other Bristol residents said they were disappointed there wasn’t a public service.
“We love this kid regardless of what happened,” Amaya said. “I’d just rather remember the kid who represented the Patriots.”
A spokeswoman for the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association says the family is planning to have Hernandez’s remains cremated. The family in a statement asked for privacy as they mourn and thanked people for offering condolences.
Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the slaying of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee.
After the Massachusetts medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, Hernandez’s brain was taken to Boston University, where scientists will study it for any signs of repeated trauma suffered during his years of playing football.
A judge on Friday ordered key evidence in the prison suicide preserved, granting a request from Hernandez’s fiancee so the family can investigate the circumstances of his death.