Five days after Aaron Hernandez was found not guilty of a double murder in Boston, the former New England Patriots tight end committed suicide in prison Wednesday morning by hanging himself with his bed sheet, the Massachusetts Department of Correction announced.
Hernandez was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass., for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez was 27 years old and leaves behind his fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, and a 4-year-old daughter.
Christopher M. Fallon, the Massachusetts Department of Correction’s assistant deputy commissioner of communications, released a statement about Hernandez’s death.
Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in April 2015 for shooting Lloyd in June 2013. Hernandez was released by the Patriots on June 26, 2013, the same day he was arrested.
The double murder for which Hernandez was acquitted Friday was committed in 2012, when Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado were shot in Boston.
Hernandez played three seasons for the Patriots, catching 175 passes for 1,956 yards and 18 touchdowns. He signed a seven-year, $39.52 million contract just 10 months before his arrest on the charge of murdering Lloyd.
Thumbnail photo via The Sun Chronicle/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
