{"id":99105,"date":"2017-04-19T20:47:41","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T00:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=99105"},"modified":"2017-04-19T20:47:41","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T00:47:41","slug":"ex-nfl-star-aaron-hernandez-hangs-himself-in-his-prison-cell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/19\/ex-nfl-star-aaron-hernandez-hangs-himself-in-his-prison-cell\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex NFL star Aaron Hernandez hangs himself in his prison cell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The former NFL star’s death left friends, family and his legal team shocked and in disbelief, searching for an explanation. Just last Friday, Hernandez was acquitted in a separate murder case. (Photo: Jeffrey Beall\/ Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOSTON \u2013Hours before his former New England Patriots teammates were due to visit the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory, prison officials say,\u00a0Aaron\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0tied one end of his bedsheet to a window and the other around his neck and hanged himself.<\/p>\n

In a maximum-security prison outside Boston, about an hour from the stadium where he played alongside stars like Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowsi,\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0jammed the door to his one-man cell lest guards try to stop him and put an early end to the life-without-parole sentence he received for a 2013 murder.<\/p>\n

He was 27.<\/p>\n

It was the last act in the downfall of an athlete who once seemed to have everything, including a five-year $40 million contract extension, and threw it all away.<\/p>\n

The former NFL star’s death left friends, family and his legal team shocked and in disbelief, searching for an explanation. Just last Friday,\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0was acquitted in a separate murder case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no conversations or correspondence from\u00a0Aaron\u00a0to his family or legal team that would have indicated anything like this was possible,\u201d said his attorney, Jose Baez. \u201cAaron\u00a0was 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guards found\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday 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.<\/p>\n

Fallon said he was not aware of any suicide note and officials had no reason to believe\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0was suicidal. Otherwise, he would have been transferred to a mental health unit, Fallon said.<\/p>\n

The Worcester County district attorney’s office and the Correction Department are investigating.<\/p>\n

The Patriots had no immediate comment. At the White House event in the afternoon, Republican President Donald Trump congratulated the Super Bowl champions but made no mention of\u00a0Hernandez.<\/p>\n

A star tight end for the University of Florida when it won the 2008 national championship,\u00a0Hernandezdropped 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 had also come up in an investigation into a shooting.<\/p>\n

Still, he was a productive tight end for the Patriots for three seasons. After catching 79 passes for 910 yards and seven touchdowns in his second year to help the team reach the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

But the Patriots released him in 2013, shortly after he was arrested in the killing of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of\u00a0Hernandez’s fiancee.\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Last week,\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0was acquitted in the 2012 drive-by shootings of two men in Boston. As the jury was deliberating, cameras spied\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0blowing kisses to the young daughter he fathered with fiancee Shayanna Jenkins.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said he gunned the two men down after one accidentally spilled a drink on him in a nightclub.\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0then got a tattoo of a handgun and the words \u201cGod Forgives\u201d to commemorate the crime, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Investigators suggested\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0shot 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\u00a0Hernandez’s estate.<\/p>\n

In the Dorchester neighbourhood where Lloyd grew up, a family friend of the victim wondered if\u00a0Hernandezcould no longer bear the weight of his crime and his squandered potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it got to him _ the guilt,\u201d Mixson Philip said. \u201cEach 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. You can’t say you don’t think about these things. There’s no going around that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami Dolphins centre Mike Pouncey said on Instagram that he spoke with his former college teammate a day earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday my heart hurts as I got the worse news I could have imagined,\u201d he said. \u201cI will forever miss you and love you bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends were also grieving in Connecticut, where\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0was raised.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially after him getting acquitted of the double murder. That was a positive thing in our minds,\u201d said Alex Cugno, who grew up with\u00a0Hernandez\u00a0in Bristol. \u201cI don’t believe that he would have killed himself. It just doesn’t add up. It’s fishy. It makes you wonder what really went on behind those walls in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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