12 Crimes of Christmas - "FROM SUPER BOWL TO SUICIDE: AARON HERNANDEZ'S FALL FROM NFL STAR TO CONVICTED MURDERER"

0:03 Callarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Thursday, January first, twenty twenty six. Happy New Year, Welcome to the final stretch of our twelve Crimes of Christmas series, and today the NFL star who had everything and threw it all away. June seventeenth, twenty thirteen, North Attleborough, Massachusetts, an industrial park early morning, a jogger finds a body riddled with gunshots five wounds. The victim is faced down less than a mile from a one point three million dollar mansion owned by New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. The victim Odin Lloyd, twenty seven years old, semi pro football player for the Boston Bandits, dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.

0:55 Lloyd's final text to his sister, sent hours before his death, did you see who who I am with? His sister responded. Lloyd replied, NFL. Then one more message, just so you know, just so you know, Like he knew something bad was coming, like he wanted someone to know who he was with when the worst happened. Nine days later, Aaron Hernandez was arrested at his home, charged with first degree murder. Ninety minutes after his arrest, the New England Patriots released him. The forty million dollar contract signed just eleven months earlier, was worthless, but Odin Lloyd wasn't Hernandez's only alleged victim.

1:35 Prosecutors would later charge him with a twenty twelve double murder two men shot dead over a spilled drink at a Boston nightclub. Six weeks after those killings, Hernandez signed his massive contract and played another full season in the NFL. April twenty seventeen, Hernandez was acquitted of the double murder. Five days later, he hanged himself in his prison cell with a bed sheet. He was twenty seven years old. His brain showed stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy, one of the worst cases of CTE ever found in someone his age. I'm reed, Carter. This is celebrity trials today, Aaron Hernandez, from Super Bowl to suicide, from NFL star to convicted murderer.

2:24 Someone has to say their names. Aaron Joseph Hernandez was born November sixth, nineteen eighty nine, in Bristol, Connecticut. His father, Dennis, was of Puerto Rican descent. His mother, Terry, was Italian American. By all accounts, Dennis Hernandez was a complicated man, former high school football star, pushed his sons hard in athletics, also allegedly abusive. Aaron's mother threw Dennis out of the house multiple times, but always let him back. But Dennis kept Aarin focused, kept him out of trouble, kept him on the football field, where his talent was undeniable. Aaron was a star at Bristol Central High School, all styed in football, also played basketball, had college scouts watching him by sophomore year. Then in January two thousand and six, Dennis Hernandez died unexpectedly during routine hernia surgery. He was forty nine, Aaron was sixteen. That death changed everything. Without his father's discipline, Aaron started running with a rougher crowd, started making decisions that would eventually destroy his life. But first football. Aaron Hernandez enrolled at the University of Florida in two thousand and seven. Played tight end under legendary coach Urban Meyer, teammate of quarterback Tim Tebow. The Gators were a powerhouse, won the BCS national championship in two thousand and eight. Hernandez was electric, fast, physical, could catch

3:55 anything thrown near him. In two thousand and nine, his junior year, he won on the John Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end. Projected first round NFL draft pick, but there were red flags failed multiple drug tests for marijuana, implicated but never charged in a two thousand and seven bar shooting in Gainesville. Questions about his associates, his judgment, his temper. Teams noticed. When the twy ten NFL draft came around, Hernandez fell first round nothing, second round nothing, third round nothing. The New England Patriots grabbed him in the fourth round, pick number one hundred thirteen, a steal for a player with his talent, a risk for a player with his baggage. Head coach Bill Belichick was famous for getting the most out of troubled players he thought he could control. Hernandez thought the Patriots way would straighten him out for a while. It seemed to work. Twenty ten, Hernandez's rookie season forty five catches five hundred sixty three yards six touchdowns, impressive for a fourth rounder. Twenty eleven, even better, seventy nine catches nine hundred ten yards, seven touchdowns.

5:09 Pro Bowl selection Hernandez and fellow tight end Rob Gronkowski formed the most dangerous receiving duo in football. Gronk and Hernandez the two headed monster that terrorized NFL defenses. February fifth, twenty twelve Super Bowl forty six Patriots versus New York Giants, Hernandez caught eight passes for sixty seven yards. The Patriots lost twenty one to seventeen, but Hernandez had played on the biggest stage in sports. He was twenty two years old, superstar tight end, Super Bowl veteran, endorsement deals, celebrity girlfriend, living the dream. August twenty twelve, the Patriots signed Hernandez to a five year contract extension worth forty million dollars twelve point five million dollars guaranteed. He was set for life.

6:02 Except six weeks before he signed that contract, Aaron Hernandez allegedly murdered two men over a spilled drink, and eleven months after he signed it, he allegedly murdered Odin Lloyd. July sixteenth, twenty twelve, Boston Cure Lounge nightclub in the Theater District around one thirty am. Aaron Hernandez was there with his friend Alexander Bradley. They had VIP access were only inside for about ten minutes. Also at the club Daniel Deebro twenty nine, and Saphiro Fertado, twenty eight, immigrants from Cape Verde, close friends who'd attended high school and served in the military together before coming to America, working class guys out for a night of dancing. According to prosecutors, dea Bro accidentally bumped into Hernandez on the dance floor, spilled his drink, then smiled at him. That was it.

7:05 A spilled drink and a smile. Hernandez took it as disrespect. Surveillance video showed Bradley trying to calm down and agitated Hernandez as they left the club, but Hernandez wasn't calming down. He was hunting. For two hours, Hernandez and Bradley drove around the theater district looking for dea Bro, looking for revenge. Around two thirty am, they found him. Dia Bro was driving a BMW with Furtado in the passenger seat and three other friends in the back. They stopped at a red light at the intersection of Shaalmud Avenue and Harald Street. Bradley, driving a silver Toyota four Runner pulled up alongside the BMW, rolled down his window. According to Bradley's testimony, Hernandez leaned across him called out yo DEA bro looked over. Hernandez called again, what's up now? N word? Then Hernandez fire five shots into the BMW. Daniel Debreu was hit in the chest died at the scene. Saphiro Fortado was hit in the head died at the hospital. A third man, Aquilino Frere, was shot in the arm but survived. Bradley drove away. Hernandez wiped down the gun, threw it and the shell casings out the window, had his cousin, Tanya Singleton, pick up the fore Runner and hide it in her garage.

8:25 Two men dead over a spilled drink and aaron Hernandez went home like nothing happened. Six weeks later, he signed his forty million dollar contract. Played the entire twenty twelve season, caught fifty one passes, scored five touchdowns. Nobody knew but Alexander Bradley knew, and in February twenty thirteen, Bradley made a remark about the double murder that Hernandez didn't like, so Hernandez allegedly shot Bradley in the face. They were leaving a strip club in Miami. Hernandez pulled a gun, shot Bradley in the forehead, dumped him in an industrial park off in ninety five near Riviera Beach, left him for dead. Bradley survived, lost his right eye has a massive scar across his face to this day. He didn't go to police. Initially he was a drug dealer with his own legal problems, but when Hernandez was arrested for odin Lloyd's murder four months later, Bradley started talking became the prosecution's star witness in the double murder trial. The gun used in the daa Bro and Fertado killings was never found, but prosecutors pointed to Hernandez's tattoos as confessions.

9:32 One tattoo showed a revolver with exactly five bullets, the same number fired into the BMW. Another showed a gun from a head on view, the angle Bradley would have seen before Hernandez shot him in the face. Next to both tattoos the words God forgives. That is not random, that is not art, that is evidence. Prosecutor Patrick Hagen told the jury that is a confession, but the jury disagreed. April fourteenth, twenty seventeen, Aaron Hernandez was acquitted of the double murder, found guilty only of illegal gun possession, an additional four to five years on top of his existing life sentence. The families of Daniel dea bro and Saphiro Fortado sobbed in the courtroom. Two working class immigrants shot dead for bumping into a celebrity at a nightclub, and their killer walked on those charges. Daniel dea Brou was twenty nine years old, Saphiro Fortado was twenty eight. They came to America for a better life, found death at a stoplight. Rest in peace. We'll be right back with the murder of Odin Lloyd, the crime that finally brought Aaron Hernandez down. Odin Lloyd was born November fourteenth, nineteen eighty five, in Saint croix Us, Virgin Islands. Moved to

11:07 the Dorchester section of Boston with his mother, Ursula. Ward played football at John Do o'bryant's School of Mathematics and Science. Enrolled at Delaware State University to play college ball, but left within days. By twenty thirteen. Lloyd was twenty seven years old. Played linebacker for the Boston Bandits, a semi pro team in the New England Football League. Worked a regular job, dreamed of bigger things. He met Aaron Hernandez through a family connection. Lloyd was dating SHANEA. Jenkins. Her older sister. Scheyanna Jenkins was Aaron Hernandez's fiance. The two couples spent time together. Lloyd and Hernandez became friends, or so Lloyd thought. Hernandez hooked Lloyd up with perks, tickets to Patriots games, access to the celebrity world. Lloyd was starstruck hanging out with an NFL's are, living a life he'd only dreamed about. But on June fourteenth, twenty thirteen, something went wrong. Lloyd and Hernandez went together to Rumor nightclub in Boston. A witness later claimed Hernandez appeared upset at Lloyd in the club and stormed out. Prosecutors suggested Hernandez was angry because Lloyd was talking to people associated with the victims from the twenty twelve double murder. Maybe Lloyd knew too much, maybe he said something to the wrong people. Maybe Hernandez was just paranoid, whatever the reason.

12:34 Three days later, Odin Lloyd was dead June sixteenth, two thy thirteen. The night before the murder, Hernandez texted two friends from Bristol, Connecticut, you can't trust anyone anymore. Then he invited them to come to Massachusetts. Around two thirty am on June seventeenth, Hernandez, Carlos Ortiz, and Ernest Wallace picked up Odin Lloyd in a rented silver Nissan Altema. Lloyd got in the car willingly thought he was hanging out with his famous friend, but Lloyd sensed something was wrong. He texted his sister Shania, did you see who I am with? She responded, he replied nfl then ominously, just so you know, those were Odin Lloyd's last words to his family, Just so you know, like he wanted someone to know where he was, who he was with, in case something happened. Hernandez drove Lloyd to an industrial park less than a mile from his own mansion, secluded dark, nobody around. What happened next was captured partially on surveillance video from Hernandez's home security system and reconstructed through witness testimony.

13:48 Lloyd was shot five times back and side execution style. Left face down in a gravel pit, Hernandez and the others drove back to his house. Valence footage showed Hernandez holding something consistent with a glock pistol as he entered. The gun was never found. Hernandez allegedly destroyed it, but Hernandez made mistakes, lots of them. He'd rented the Nissan Altima in his own name. Surveillance cameras tracked his movements. All night shell casings found at the murder scene matched ammunition found in the Altema. Lloyd's phone records showed he was with Hernandez when he died, and Hernandez destroyed evidence, sloppily smashed his own cell phone, tried to destroy his home security system, but the footage was already backed up.

14:35 Thought he'd gotten away with it. On the morning of June seventeenth, a jogger found Lloyd's body. Police immediately started investigating, and Hernandez's name came up fast. June eighteenth, police searched Hernandez's home. June twenty sixth, Aaron Hernandez was arrested at his front door, charged with first degree murder. Ninety minutes later, the New England Patrints released him. His forty million dollar contract was voided. His NFL career was over all for Odin Lloyd, a semi pro football player, a man whose only crime was knowing Aaron Hernandez Ursula Ward. Odin's mother asked one question, why why did Aaron Hernandez kill her son?

15:20 Prosecutors never established a clear motive, Something about trust, something about the nightclub, something Hernandez was afraid Lloyd might tell someone. We'll never know for sure, because Aaron Hernandez never explained, never admitted, never apologized. Odin Lloyd was twenty seven years old, semi pro linebacker, devoted son, loving boyfriend. Should be playing football today, should be building a life with SHANEA. Jenkins. Rest in peace, Odin. Someone has to say your name. January twenty ninth, twenty fifteen, Fall River, Massachusetts, Bristol County Superior Court, the trial of Aaron Hernandez began. Prosecutor William McCauley laid out the case. The text messages, the surveillance footage, the shell casings, the rental car, the destroyed evidence, everything pointing to Hernandez as the killer. The defense tried to blame.

16:20 Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, the two men in the car with Hernandez that night, said there was no direct evidence Hernandez pulled the trigger, no murder weapon, no eye witness, but the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. March twenty seventh, twenty fifteen, Shyanna Jenkins, Hernandez's fiance, testified under immunity. She admitted Hernandez told her to dispose of a box from their basement. She drove it to a dumpster and threw it away without looking inside. Prosecutors believed that box contained the murder weapon. Seyanna Jenkins, the mother of Hernandez's daughter, disposing of evidence for a murderer. That's love, I guess. April fifteen, twenty fifteen, after seven days of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict guilty first degree murder, all weapons charges. Aaron Hernandez showed no emotion as the verdict was read. His mother sobbed odin.

17:22 Lloyd's family wept with relief. The sentence was automatic under Massachusetts law, life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hernandez was transported to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison located just one point five miles from Gillette Stadium, where he'd played for the Patriots. From Super Bowl to prison a fifteen minute drive later, he was transferred to the SUSA Bearanowski Correctional Center to serve the rest of his life sentence. Carlos Ortiz eventually pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact, sentenced to four and a half to seven years. Ernest Wallace was acquitted of murder but convicted of accessory after the fact, same sentence four and a half to seven years. Tanya Singleton, Hernandez's cousin, who hid the fore runner used in the double murder, was convicted of contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury. She died of cancer in twenty fifteen. Aaron Hernandez was twenty five years old when he was convicted.

18:25 Faced spending the next fifty or sixty years in prison, no parole, no second chance, no way out unless he found another way. April fourteenth, twenty seventeen, Boston Erin Hernandez was acquitted of the double murder of Daniel debrou and Sephiro Fertado. He wept when the verdict was read Finally some good news. The acquittal didn't change his life sentence for killing Odin Lloyd, but it lifted a weight. His attorney, Jose Bias, was already planning an appeal in the Lloyd case. There were our guments about trial errors, about Judge Susan Garsh's comments suggesting Hernandez appeared guilty before the verdict. Biaz believed they had a real shot at a new trial.

19:11 Five days later, Aaron Hernandez was dead. April nineteenth, twenty seventeen, three five a M. Correctional officers at Suza Baranowski found Hernandez hanging in his cell. He'd tied a bed sheet around his neck and attached it to his window. Cardboard jammed in the door track to prevent guards from entering quickly. He was twenty seven years old, same age as Odin Lloyd when Hernandez killed him. Hernandez left three notes, one to his attorney thanking Biaz for the acquittal, one to his fiancee Shayana, one to his daughter Aviel, who was four years old. The note to Shayana reportedly said you're rich. Prosecutors believed this was a reference to abatement. Ab initio, a Massachusetts legal doctrine that vacates convictions if a defendant dies before their appeals are exault hosted by killing himself while his appeal was pending, Hernandez's murder conviction would be wiped away. He'd die legally innocent, and his family might be able to collect on insurance or lawsuit settlements that would be blocked if he died a convicted murderer. On May ninth, twenty seventeen, a judge vacated Hernandez's murder conviction under abatement ab initio. Legally, Aaron Hernandez died an innocent man.

20:26 Odin Lloyd's family was devastated the killer of their son was now officially innocent, But prosecutors and the Lloyd family appealed, and in March twenty nineteen, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned the entire doctrine of abatement ab initio. Hernandez's conviction was reinstated. He was once again posthumously a convicted murderer. Justice. Eventually, after Hernandez's death, his family donated his brain to Boston University's CTE Center. The results were shocked. Aaron Hernandez had stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy out of four stages, one of the most severe cases of CTE ever found in someone under thirty. CTE is a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma, common in football players. Symptoms include aggression, impulsivity, depression, memory loss, poor judgment. Doctor Ann McKee, the neuropathologist who examined Hernandez's brain, said the damage was extensive degeneration in the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls decision making and impulse control, large tiers in his septum pellucidum, significant protein deposits associated with the disease. Did CTE cause Aaron Hernandez to kill? Did football damage his brain so badly that he became a murderer? His attorney, Jose Biaz thinks so. Biaz wrote that CTE was a major factor in Hernandez's decline and eventual suicide, but other experts disagree.

22:01 Doctor Bob Cantu, a neurologist, pointed out that of all the brain's BEU researchers have examined with CTE, only Hernandez's was associated with homicide. Thousands of football players have CTE, they don't all become murderers. CTE might explain impulsivity, but the murder of Odin Lloyd wasn't impulsive. It was planned. Hernandez texted friends beforehand, rented a car, drove Lloyd to a secluded location, shot him five times, destroyed evidence. That's not impulse. That's premeditation. CTE doesn't excuse murder. It might explain some behavior, but Aaron Hernandez made choices, terrible choices, and three men at minimum are dead because of him.

22:49 That's our Aaron Hernandez episode, Happy New Year. Aaron Joseph Hernandez born November sixth, nineteen eighty nine, University of Florida, Star, New England Patriots, tied end and Super Bowl veteran, forty million dollar contract dead at twenty seven. Convicted murderer, brain ravaged by CTE. July sixteenth, twenty twelve, Daniel Deebru twenty nine and Saphiro Fortado twenty eight, shot dead over a spilled drink. Hernandez was acquitted, but the families know who killed their sons. June seventeenth, twenty thirteen, Odin Lloyd, twenty seven, shot five times in an industrial park. His final text, just so you know he knew something was wrong. He texted his sister so someone would know who he was with, and then Aaron Hernandez killed him. April fifteenth, twenty fifteen.

23:45 Convicted of first degree murder, life without parole. April nineteenth, twenty seventeen, found hanging in his prison cell, suicide, age twenty seven. His conviction was vacated, then reinstated heed a murderer. His fiancee, Shyanna Jenkins, has moved on. His daughter, Aviel, is now twelve years old, growing up without a father because her father killed a man over what trust paranoia. We still don't know. CTE is real. Brain damage from football is real, but lots of people suffer from CTE without becoming killers. Aaron Hernandez made choices, and those choices destroyed lives, including his own. Tomorrow, Michael Peterson, the novelist who may have killed two women on staircases decades apart, Part one of two. I'm Red Carter, lock your doors, watch who you trust, and remember sometimes the people closest to you are the most dangerous. This is celebrity Trials