When Aaron Hernandez committed suicide last week in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, he allegedly left behind three notes.
Copies of those notes now will be released to Hernandez’s family following a court ruling Monday.
Less than an hour before Hernandez’s funeral service was scheduled to begin in Bristol, Conn., a Bristol Superior Court judge granted attorney George Leontire’s request to allow the former tight end’s family to “know their loved one’s final thoughts,” according to The Boston Globe and other outlets.
Leontire, who represents Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, called the family’s reading of the suicide notes “necessary as part of the grieving process.” According to the Globe, one of the notes was addressed to Jenkins-Hernandez, and another was addressed to Hernandez’s 4-year-old daughter.
The state edited the notes to “redact any information they believe could impair any ongoing investigation into his death in the maximum security (prison),” the Globe reported, and aimed to deliver them to the family before Hernandez’s funeral, which was set to begin at 1 p.m. ET Friday.
Hernandez, who played three seasons for the New England Patriots before being arrested for and convicted of first-degree murder in 2013, was found dead in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.
Thumbnail photo via The Sun Chronicle/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
