As viewers tune into FX and Hulu’s new docuseries American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez, many could also be left questioning: what occurred to Aaron Hernandez, precisely? The ten-episode restricted collection charts the rise and catastrophic fall of the previous NFL famous person, however for these in search of an summary of the occasions that unfolded after the homicide of Odin Lloyd, we’re right here to piece issues collectively.
On June 17, 2013, the physique of semi-professional soccer participant Odin Lloyd was found in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. Within the days following Lloyd’s homicide, suspicion rapidly fell on Hernandez. Lloyd, who was courting the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée, was final seen alive in Hernandez’s firm.
As investigators pieced collectively the occasions of that fateful evening, proof started to mount towards the New England Patriots tight finish. The investigation, and subsequent trial, would set in movement a collection of occasions that may result in Hernandez’s downfall, ending his promising soccer profession and perpetually altering the course of his life.
What occurred to Aaron Hernandez after Odin Lloyd’s homicide?
Picture: Getty Pictures.
Simply 9 days after Lloyd’s physique was discovered, Hernandez was arrested at his residence and charged with first-degree homicide. The Patriots wasted no time in chopping ties with Hernandez. Inside hours of his arrest, the workforce launched him, successfully ending his NFL profession.
Hernandez pleaded not responsible to the homicide cost and 5 associated weapons expenses. As he awaited trial, he was held with out bail on the Bristol County Home of Correction. The trial started on January 29, 2015, almost two years after Lloyd’s homicide. Over the course of greater than two months, prosecutors introduced a case that painted Hernandez because the mastermind behind Lloyd’s killing. They launched proof together with surveillance footage, textual content messages, and testimony from Hernandez’s associates, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz, each of whom had been additionally arrested in reference to the homicide.
Apparently, a definitive motive was by no means established. Nevertheless, regulation enforcement explored numerous theories, together with a very delicate one—the likelihood that Lloyd could have been conscious of Hernandez’s bisexuality. Investigators thought-about whether or not Hernandez, involved about this info changing into public, might need seen Lloyd as a risk to his rigorously guarded private life.
The protection workforce, in the meantime, argued that Hernandez had been current on the scene of the crime however had not pulled the set off. They tried to solid doubt on the prosecution’s case and recommended that Hernandez’s associates had been answerable for the precise homicide. After seven days of deliberation, the jury would ultimately return their verdict: responsible.
What occurred to Aaron Hernandez after the Odin Lloyd trial?
Picture: Getty Pictures.
On April 15, 2015, Aaron Hernandez was convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. The previous athlete, who had signed a $40 million contract extension with the Patriots simply two years earlier, now confronted the prospect of spending the remainder of his life behind bars.
Whilst Hernandez started serving his life sentence for Lloyd’s homicide, his authorized troubles had been removed from over. He nonetheless confronted expenses in a separate case—a double murder that occurred in Boston in 2012. Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez had shot and killed Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado after a nightclub encounter. The trial for this double homicide started in March 2017. In contrast to the Lloyd case, Hernandez was acquitted of those expenses on April 14, 2017. Nevertheless, the victory could be short-lived.
Simply 5 days after his acquittal within the double homicide case, on April 19, 2017, Aaron Hernandez was discovered lifeless in his jail cell on the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Heart. The reason for dying was decided to be suicide by hanging. He was 27 years previous.
Within the wake of Hernandez’s dying, some main developments started to floor. A posthumous examination of his mind revealed that he suffered from a sophisticated type of power traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative mind illness usually present in athletes who’ve suffered repeated head trauma.
The findings from researchers at Boston College had been notably alarming. They noticed that Hernandez’s CTE was, actually, the worst case that they had ever seen in a teen. The severity of his mind harm sparked intense debate about its potential influence on his habits. Dr. Sam Gandy, a neurologist who examined Hernandez’s mind scans, believed it was doable that Hernandez’s actions had been influenced by the situation. “It’s unattainable for me to take a look at the severity of CTE in Mr. Hernandez’s mind and never suppose that that had a profound impact on his habits,” he stated in an episode of the “Gladiator” podcast.
Nevertheless, the hyperlink between CTE and Hernandez’s actions, notably the homicide of Odin Lloyd, stays a topic of controversy. Dr. Bob Cantu, one other BU neurologist, identified an important distinction. Whereas impulsivity is a trademark of CTE, authorities stated the Lloyd homicide was deliberate. Cantu supplied a special perspective on the “Gladiator” podcast, saying, “Of the entire brains that the BU researchers examined, not a type of brains apart from Aaron had been concerned with murder, to my data. All of them have CTE. So I believe I’ll simply depart it at that.”
As consultants continued to weigh in on the results of Hernandez’s mind situation, his case took an surprising authorized flip that may have implications past simply his personal conviction. Initially, as a result of Hernandez died whereas his case was nonetheless below attraction, his attorneys employed an obscure Massachusetts authorized doctrine referred to as “abatement ab initio.” This maneuver quickly vacated his conviction, successfully wiping his document clear within the eyes of the regulation.
Nevertheless, this controversial determination didn’t stand for lengthy. On March 13, 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket reinstated Hernandez’s conviction, albeit with the notation that it was “neither affirmed nor reversed” as a consequence of his dying in the course of the attraction course of. Extra considerably, the courtroom’s ruling marked the top of the “abatement ab initio” doctrine in Massachusetts. The courtroom declared the apply outdated, stating it was “now not consonant with the circumstances of up to date life, if, actually, it ever was,” successfully closing a authorized loophole that had been the topic of a lot debate for years.
American Sports activities Story: Aaron Hernandez is offered to stream on Hulu and airs on FX on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
