Aaron Hernandez found with Bible verse written on forehead, reports say

Cant Do The Time..Don"t Do The Crime: Aaron Hernandez vs. Steve Stevens

When corrections officers found Aaron Hernandez hanging from a bedsheet in his Massachusetts prison cell on Wednesday, the words "John 3:16" were written on his forehead and the wall, according to reports.

The words were written with a red marker and a Bible was left open to the lines,sources told Fox 25. The verse says: For G*d so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

FRESNO SHOOTING RAMPAGE: POLICE SAY SUSPECT IN "HATE CRIME" SHOWING NO REMORSE

Guards found the former New England Patriots star shortly after 3 a.m. at the state prison in Shirley, Correction Department spokesman Christopher Fallon said. The former tight end was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead about an hour later.

Officials spent Wednesday gathering evidence from the cell. They reviewed surveillance video and spoke to the prison staff.

VIDEO: MANHUNT FOR FACEBOOK KILLER ENDS

A suicide note wasn"t found in the cell and officials said there was no indication that Hernandez was suicidal.Otherwise, Hernandez would have been transferred to a mental health unit, Fallon said.

"There were no conversations or correspondence from Aaron to his family or legal team that would have indicated anything like this was possible," said his attorney, Jose Baez. "Aaron was looking forward to an opportunity for a second chance to prove his innocence. Those who love and care about him are heartbroken and determined to find the truth surrounding his untimely death."

The apparent suicide left friends, family and his legal team shocked and in disbelief. Many were searching for an explanation to the tragic end of a young man whose football skills at one point earned him a five-year, $40 million contract extension with the NFL"s top franchise.

Hernandez, 27, died five days after a jury acquitted him in the 2012 shooting deaths of two men whom prosecutors alleged he gunned down after one accidentally spilled a drink on him at a Boston nightclub. He was already serving a life sentence for the 2013 slaying of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez"s fiancee ShayannaJenkins.

The Patriots had no immediate comment on Wednesday, and President Donald Trump made no mention of Hernandez at the White House event.

Hernandez was a star tight end for the University of Florida, but was dropped to the fourth round of the NFL draft because of trouble in college that included a failed drug test and a bar fight. His name also had come up in an investigation into a shooting.

Still, he was a productive tight end for the Patriots for three seasons. He caught 79 passes for 910 yards and seven touchdowns in his second year to help the team reach the Super Bowl.

But the Patriots released Hernandez in 2013, shortly after he was arrested in Lloyd"s murder.

Last week, Hernandez was acquitted in the 2012 drive-by shootings of two men in Boston. As the jury deliberated, cameras spied Hernandez blowing kisses to the young daughter he fathered with Jenkins.

Investigators suggested Hernandez shot Lloyd to keep him quiet about the two earlier killings. A lawyer who represents Lloyd"s mother said she"s moving forward with a wrongful-death lawsuit against Hernandez"s estate, which includes a home valued at $1.3 million.

In the Dorchester neighborhood where Lloyd grew up, a family friend of the victim wondered if Hernandez could no longer bear the weight of his crime and his squandered potential.

"I just think it got to him the guilt," Mixson Philip said. "Each man has to live with himself. You can put on an act like nothing happened, but you"ve got a soul. You"ve got a heart."

Friends also were grieving in Connecticut, where Hernandez was raised.

"Especially after him getting acquitted of the double murder. That was a positive thing in our minds," said Alex Cugno, who grew up with Hernandez in Bristol. "I don"t believe that he would have killed himself. It just doesn"t add up."

Click for more from Fox 25.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/04/20/hernandezs-lawyer-says-family-looking-for-answers-after-death.html

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NFL world reacts to Aaron Hernandez not guilty verdict

Aaron Hernandez Trial Verdict 04/14/17

aaron hernandez was found not guilty in the double-murder trial where he was alleged to have murder two men outside of a Boston nightclub in 2012, a jury announced on Friday.

The former New England Patriots tight end was given a 4-5 year sentence on a gun charge, but ultimately dodged the major crimes in this case.

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Upon the announcement the NFL world took to social media to react to the news.

Here"s a look at some of the raw reaction.

For more Patriots news, follow Tyler Sullivan on Twitter: @TylerSully

Source: http://nep.247sports.com/ContentGallery/NFL-world-reacts-to-Aaron-Hernandez-not-guilty-verdict-52307328

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Aaron Hernandez" lawyer blames Russian hackers for leaked jailhouse calls

Aaron Hernandez "The Killer" (Minutes After Lloid Is Killed).Mp4

NECN A lawyer for aaron hernandez suggested tuesday that Russian hackers could have been responsible for accessing the former New England Patriots stars jailhouse phone calls.

It could be a Russian hacker, with all respect, like WikiLeaks, who was able to backdoor into the system, attorney George Leontire said during a pretrial hearing. We dont know.

Much of the discussion at Tuesdays hearing in Suffolk County Superior Court centered around Securus Technologies, a Dallas-based company that allowed an unknown person to access Hernandezs jailhouse phone calls as he was awaiting his first murder trial.

Specifically, Hernandezs legal team expressed concern that attorney-client communications may have been improperly accessed.

We know these phones were hacked. We still dont know who hacked them, Leontire said.

The unauthorized access into a telephone database operated by Securus occurred during the summer of 2014, shortly after Hernandez was transferred to Boston to be closer to his attorneys who were representing him in the Bristol County murder of former semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd. Hernandez has filed a lawsuit against Securus.

Nice try, Aaron Hernandez lawyers.

They dont know who hacked the phone but it had to have been Russians. Its very en vogue right now to blame Russian hackers for things and these lawyers couldnt waste this opportunity to jump on the trend.

This hacking is very unfair to Hernandez, let him go.

Source: http://mashup.weei.com/sports/2016/12/21/aaron-hernandez-lawyer-blames-russian-hackers-for-leaked-jailhouse-calls

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Former NFL Player Aaron Hernandez Sentenced To Life In Prison

Former New England Patriot Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after being found guilty of first degree murder in 2013.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Aaron Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots, was found guilty today of first degree murder. The judge immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Craig LeMoult was in court today and has covered the case for WGBH. Craig, welcome to the program.

CRAIG LEMOULT, BYLINE: Thank you.

CORNISH: The victim was named Odin Lloyd, and his family was in the courtroom. The family of Aaron Hernandez was in the courtroom. And it seemed very emotional. Talk about what happened.

LEMOULT: It was emotional when the verdict came out. Hernandez's fiancee, whose name Shayanna Jenkins, was sobbing. She'd actually testified earlier in the trial. Prosecutors said she had gotten rid of the murder weapon at Hernandez's request. And then across the courtroom was her sister, Shaneah, and she was the victim, Odin Lloyd's girlfriend; that's how Lloyd and Hernandez knew each other. And throughout the trial, there's been this sort of weird dynamic of these two sisters on opposite ends of the case. Shaneah was surrounded by Lloyd's family, who have been a consistent presence in the courtroom throughout the trial. And, of course, they were also very emotional.

CORNISH: What kind reaction was there from Aaron Hernandez?

LEMOULT: Not much of any really - he was pretty much stone-faced as he waited for the jury to read the verdict. And then when they said he was guilty of first-degree murder, his expression just didn't change at all. It was pretty much the same emotionless demeanor that he showed throughout the trial when the jury was present in the room.

CORNISH: Craig, Odin Lloyd's mother actually spoke. She gave a statement before sentencing. Tell us what she had to say.

LEMOULT: Yes, she spoke powerfully about how much she loved her son, how much she missed him, what a wonderful person he was. And remarkably, she had this to say about the people who killed him.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

URSULA WARD: I forgive the hands of the people that had a hand in my son's murder, either before or after. And I pray and hope that someday everyone out there will forgive them also.

LEMOULT: Again, that's the victim's mother, Ursula Ward. And her daughter was asked if she also forgive Hernandez. And she said she's not as strong as her mom is, but she said maybe someday she will be.

CORNISH: Craig, afterwards, the jurors actually got together and held basically a press conference. How did they feel about the verdict?

LEMOULT: Yes, they were there to give a statement, and they wound up taking questions. And it was actually kind of a funny feel to that press conference, because, I think, they were all just really relieved it was over. They seemed like a pretty cohesive group, and they actually laughed about a number of moments throughout the trial. They said they felt strongly that they'd made the right decision.

During the trial, Patriots owner Robert Kraft testified that Hernandez told him shortly after the killing that he hoped that the time of the murder would come out, because he was in a club then. But the jury members said they didn't understand how he could know where he was if the time of the murder hadn't come out. They said they were also really surprised when the defense acknowledged in their closing argument that Hernandez was at the scene of the murder. And they didn't buy the claim that two other men charged in the murder killed Lloyd when they were high on PCP and that Hernandez was in shock and didn't know what to do about it.

CORNISH: What's next for Aaron Hernandez?

LEMOULT: Well, he faces life in prison without parole, but he's actually not done with court yet. He's facing charges in a 2012 double murder in Boston. That trial is being rescheduled right now, and he's actually also facing a civil lawsuit from a former friend who says Hernandez shot him in the face when he was in Florida.

CORNISH: That's Craig LeMoult of WGBH. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

LEMOULT: You're welcome.

Copyright 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2015/04/15/399937672/former-nfl-player-aaron-hernandez-sentenced-to-life-in-prison

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Former neighbor describes Aaron Hernandez as 'unpleasant and unfriendly'

FALL RIVER Shortly after the two men moved into the two-bedroom apartment next door, Carol Martin Bailey detected a pungent smell in the hallway. She wasnt surprised the Franklin apartment complex where she lives is near woods and had attracted wild animals before.

Oh, the skunks must be back, Bailey recalled thinking to herself. But when she consulted with some of her younger neighbors, they rolled their eyes.

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Thats weed, they told the retired biology professor.

Bailey was called to the stand Thursday in the Bristol Superior Court murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who moved into the Franklin apartment complex in May 2013. There, he and his longtime friend, Ernest George Wallace, were often seen.

Bailey, who has lived in the brick housing complex since the 1970s, was their next-door neighbor until June 2013, when Hernandez and Wallace were arrested in the murder of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semiprofessional football player, whose bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial yard in North Attleborough. Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, another Hernandez associate, will be tried separately for the June 17, 2013, killing. They have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

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Live video of the murder trial

Testimony resumes in the case against Hernandez, who is accused in the 2013 death of Odin Lloyd.

The trial of Hernandez has introduced jurors to stone-faced detectives, fingerprint analysts, and cellphone experts. On Thursday, jurors heard from a state trooper who said the rear tire of the Nissan Altima Hernandez drove that night matched a track left at the crime scene, and from a T-mobile representative who testified about the location of Lloyds cellphone.

Steven Senne/Pool

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Todd Girouard held a piece of film with an imprint of a tire track during Aaron Hernandezs trial Thursday.

Baileys testimony, which prosecutors used to show the relationship between Hernandez and Wallace, was an example of how far-reaching the case has become. She is one of about 300 people the prosecution has put on its witness list. Her testimony also gave a glimpse into Hernandezs days in the Franklin apartment, which he rented for $1,200 a month even though he shared a home in nearby North Attleborough with his longtime girlfriend. Prosecutors have said he wanted that apartment to conduct illegal activities like storing guns. The defense has tried to cast Hernandez as a young, fun-loving man with money to spare who partied at the apartment with friends and women.

On the stand, Bailey was restrained by Judge E. Susan Garsh on how much she could say. For example, she could not speculate about the source of the skunky smell.

In a telephone interview after her testimony, Bailey recalled meeting Wallace while she was reading in the courtyard of the complex.

He introduced himself as her new neighbor, George, she said, shook her hand, and told her he was moving in with his cousin, who was with the Patriots. The next day, she saw a tall, well-built man heading to the third-floor apartment. Despite the warm weather, he wore sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt pulled tight around his face.

Steven Senne/Pool

Judge E. Susan Garsh prevented a witness from speculating about the source of a skunky smell coming from Aaron Hernandezs Franklin apartment.

I said, Hello, you must be my new neighbor. ... You must be Georges cousin, Bailey recalled. He just looked at me and grunted and went in. That was the most ever I got out of him a grunt.

Wallace, however, was solicitous and warm, she said. He often came over to ask for things such as an electrical cord or directions to places in town. When he saw her lugging groceries, he would rush to help. One day, Wallace asked if it would be OK if he placed an air freshener and scented sticks in the common hallway.

It did not help mask the smell of what her neighbors later said was marijuana, but Bailey did not complain.

Im a neighbor who tries to live and let live, she said.

Occasionally, when she passed by their door, Bailey would hear loud male voices yelling expletives and making crude remarks. They said nothing alarming, she said, just the kind of male talk she heard when she was in college and went by the mens locker room.

Residents in the complex, which is made up mostly of retired professionals like Bailey or young couples with children saving for their first house, recognized Hernandez but left him alone.

Around late June, Bailey stopped smelling the skunk-like odor, she said. Then, she saw on television that both her neighbors had been arrested.

I was particularly shocked about George because he had been so cordial, so friendly, so neighborly, she said. Aaron Hernandez had always been sort of unpleasant and unfriendly. That probably was just because he didnt want it to be known who he was. He didnt want a fan club.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @globemcramer.

Source: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/05/hernandez/ZaOSDyvEP9ZRAJRK73cPkL/story.html

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