Sadly, convicted killer and former New England Patriots star Aaron J. Hernandez was found hanged inside his cell at the state’s maximum security prison in Shirley early Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
The Boston Globe reports that he apparently commited suicidè five days after he was acquitted of two additional killings. Last Friday, a Suffolk Superior Court jury acquitted Hernandez of killing Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a July 2012 drive-by shooting in the South End.
He was found hanging from a bedsheet attached to a window in his cell in Unit G-2 of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center at about 3:05 a.m., the state Department of Correction said in a statement. The agency said Hernandez had tried to block the door to prevent officers from entering.
Prison officials said Wednesday that Hernandez was taken to UMass Memorial-HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster. He was pronounced dead at 4:07 a.m., the Department of Correction said. The state medical examiner’s office has since taken custody of Hernandez’s body. An investigation will be overseen by Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office.
The medical examiner’s office will conduct an autopsy at its Boston facility, according to Early’s office.
Hernandez’s lead defense attorney, Jose Baez, said his office will conduct its own investigation into the death. He is the 27th recorded suicidè in Massachusetts state prisons since 2010 and the second this year, according to state records.
Hernandez’s legacy in Boston sports will be one of profound tragedy.
In latest news, a Superior Court judge on Tuesday vacated the first-degree murdèr conviction of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez in light of his suicidè last month, but state prosecutors immediately vowed to fight the decision all the way to the state’s highest court.
In erasing Hernandez’s conviction for the 2013 shooting of Odin L. Lloyd, Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh cited a centuries-old law that states if a defendant dies while the conviction is on direct appeal, it is as if the prosecution never happened. Read more at The Boston Globe.