Massachusetts court officials on Friday released the letter that Aaron Hernandez wrote to his fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, before he killed himself last month.
Massachusetts court officials on Friday released an excerpt of the letter that Aaron Hernandez wrote to his fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, before he killed himself last month.
“Shay, you have always been my soul-mate and i want you to live life and know I’m always with you, ” Hernandez wrote. “I told you what was coming indirectly! I love you so much and know you are an angel — literally! We split into two to come change the world! … I love you! Let [redacted] know how much I love her! Look after [redacted] and [redacted] for me — those are my boys. (YOU’RE RICH) “
The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanging from a bedsheet in his cell on April 19 in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts, where he was serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder. His suicide came just five days after he was acquitted in a 2012 double slaying.
Newly released documents related to the investigation into his suicide also showed that Hernandez was a member of the Bloods street gang.
A death report released Friday lists the Bloods under Hernandez’s “gang profile” and says Hernandez was once disciplined for having “STG” paraphernalia. In prison, STG stands for “Security Threat Group, ” a euphemism for gangs.
The Bloods is a violent gang that started in California but made its way across the country to the East Coast and claims to have thousands of members.
Editor’s Picks Police: Hernandez had ‘John 3: 16’ on forehead
Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez wrote a reference to a biblical passage in ink on his forehead and in blood on the wall of his prison cell before he hanged himself with a bed sheet, state police
Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. released the report Friday in response to a public records request from The Associated Press.
The report says that while Hernandez was housed in a Bristol County jail awaiting trial in the 2013 case, he was disciplined for five violations, including threatening to kill a corrections officer and his family; submitting a urine sample that tested positive for Neurontin, an anti-epileptic drug that is also used as a painkiller; committing an aggravated assault; refusing to obey a direct order; and possessing gang paraphernalia.
Friday’s report follows a pair of reports Thursday that detailed Hernandez’s mindset according to other inmates and revealed that “John 3: 16” was written in ink on his forehead and in blood on the wall of his cell when he was found dead.
Hernandez’s lawyers in his double-murder trial have said he showed no signs he planned to kill himself and have pledged to conduct an independent investigation into the death. The defense team also blasted state officials for leaking information contained in the reports to the media.
Hernandez, who grew up in Bristol, Connecticut, played three seasons for the Patriots before he was released by the team hours after his arrest in June 2013 in the killing of Odin Lloyd, a semiprofessional football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder in that case and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
