Bad Boys: Aaron Hernandez

0:52 I'm given call n oh no. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite. I'm your host Jim Chapman, and today I am bringing you a brand new subject in the bad Boy series, and that is the rise and fall of NFL tight End Aaron Hernandez.

1:42 Now, this is the second bad. Boy we have covered with this series, the first being former UFC Fighter war Machine. And ever since I dropped that series, many of you have been asking for more. So here is one you are. Not gonna leave. Let's get into it now. Aaron Hernandez was born in Bristol, Connecticut, in nineteen eighty nine. His dad's side of the family, they were Puerto Rican and his mother's side of the family was of Italian descent, which made for an interesting and sometimes explosive dynamic. His dad was kind of a local legend in the Bristol, Connecticut area in the seventies. He was actually a big time football star in the area and after high school he went to play for Yukon the University of Connecticut.

2:35 So he was very well known and respected in the area, so much so that his nickname was the King, and he just looked intimidating. He stood only about five foot ten, but even in his forties, this dude was muscular. He was kind of built like a brick shitouse, if you will. Now, Aaron's parents were married about three when Aaron was born, following just a few years behind his older brother DJ. Now, as you may expect, athletics a big deal in the Hernandez household, and Aaron's dad expected perfection. Although his dad, Dennis had a spotless reputation publicly, privately it was a totally different story. His dad would get physically violent, especially when he drank, with both Aaron and DJ, and even Aaron's mother. He would hit the kids for underperforming in athletics or academics. And to put it how it was, his mom and dad just did not get along. There were verbal fights almost on a daily basis, and Aaron's brother DJ wrote a book several years ago talking about that, talking about how horrible the abuse was in that house.

3:55 It would get so bad that in nineteen ninety one, when Aaron was just two years old, his parents divorced. Then in nineteen ninety six, when Aaron was seven years old, they got married again, and as both Aaron and his brother DJ got older, it was obvious they were both gifted on a football field. DJ would graduate high school. He would go on to follow in his dad's footsteps and accept a scholarship to Yukon, and Aaron, at just fourteen years old and a freshman in high school, was also offered a scholarship at Yukon at fourteen, which he committed to the college that day, the day that they offered him. And life seemed to be great for Aaron outside of that physical abuse until it wasn't. Now, when Aaron was sixteen, his life would change drastically when his dad went into the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine surgery for a hernia, but sadly, due to complication during that surgery, his dad would die that day. Now, by all accounts, this totally devastated Aaron. In particular, despite his dad's harsh treatment, Aaron idolized him and he would never really get over his father's death. Now, his father was also the authority figure in the Hernandez household, and he would keep Aaron accountable. So this lack of an

5:26 authority figure, his dad passes away and there's no one there really to keep Aaron accountable that would spell trouble for him going forward. Now, it was not. Long after his father's death when his immediate family was really hit hard. After it came out that Aaron's. Mother was having an affair with his older cousin, Tanya Singleton's husband, Jeff, and that infuriated Aaron and he instantly had hate for his mom over this affair. To complicate things, this guy moves into the family home that Aaron lived in. Imagine that you're in high school, shortly after your dad passes away, who you were enamored by. This guy moves in and he's cooking eggs every morning.

6:16 In your kitchen. Well, it was not long after that that Aaron had had enough and he moves in with his older cousin, Tanya Singleton, who he really looked at like a second mom. And Tanya Singleton, of course, her husband was having an affair with his mother. So he moves in with Tanya and at school he continued to thrive athletically. In addition of football, Aaron Hernandez was also an amazing basketball player. He was a track star, and he was also extremely popular. As you might imagine, good looking kid, six foot two two hundred and twenty five pounds, and it was in high school that he would start dating Sanna Jenkins, who he had known since elementary school. Now, even at sixteen, Aaron had already had his vices, including smoking weed before school, during school, after school, at practice games, he was a weed chainsmoker. Now, Aaron was also known to drink excessively at this time in his life.

7:23 He would drink at parties. He would become very aggressive. But he was so gifted athletically that as a senior, he becomes Connecticut's Gatorade Player of the Year, even with all these vices already developing in his life, and in addition to that, he was named a first team All American. In high school, making him one of. The top football players in the country. Now, remember that I told you earlier. Aaron had committed at just fourteen years old to play football for Ukon Wells a He wanted to at least get a taste of the college football recruiting experience, and this led him to visit the University of Florida. So he only did this because he thought it would be fun. He didn't really think he was going to commit to the University of Florida. His brother DJ was still playing. He was in fact a starter at Yukon, but while he was visiting Florida, he got an idea of what it was like to play SEC style football, and shockingly to everyone, he decommits from Yukon and he commits to the Florida Gators. To add to that, Urban Meyer, who was the head coach of the Gators during this time, he actually flies to Connecticut and he somehow convinces the principle of Aaron's high school to allow him to graduate a semester early. Now, physically

8:56 Aaron here named Es could handle that. He was a big boy by this time, but maturity wise and mentally, no way was. He ready for that. To be away from home like that, have no one looking over him outside of the coaching staff at Florida, and this would be start of a big spiral for Aaron. Now. On the field in college, he was known as a hard worker. He was very focused. But off the field, totally different story with this guy. In his freshman year of college, two men are actually shot in Gainesville. Florida, and four Florida. Gators are questioned, including Aaron Hernandez. So as the story goes the two men in a front of theirs had left a bar and they were in their car. They were stopped at a red light and shots rang out. Hernandez, at this time was seventeen. Apparently he and some of the other Florida Gators had an altercation with these guys at the bar they were at. In some my witness described her named as to a t as being involved in that shooting, but nothing ever came of it, and there were several other incidents in college that were troubling.

10:10 His sophomore year, he was actually suspended for failing a drug test. But you can't hide talent, and Aaron. Was a beast on the football field, so good in fact, that his junior year he became a first team College All American and he wins what's known is the John Mackie Award for being the best tight end in college football period. So he foregoes his senior season and he enters the NFL Draft, and although he should have went in the first round, his off the field bullshit caused him to slip into the fourth round, where he's drafted by Tom Brady's New England Patriots. He was signed to a two million dollar contract, and that was in twoenty ten. Now, in July of twenty twelve, two men are killed in the drive by shooting in Boston. Why am I bringing this up, Well, keep that in your back pocket for now, and I'm going to circle back to it a.

11:14 Little later on today. So, by August of twenty twelve, Hernandez was a bonafide star for the Patriots, and he signs a contract extension for forty one million dollars, which at that time was the second most for a tight end. Then in February twenty thirteen, a man by the name of Alexander Bradley, he's found shot in Riviera Beach, Florida. And that is around the Miami Beach area. This is just hours. After spending an evening with Hernandez and a Miami strip club. And that's another one I want you to keep in your pocket for now, and I'll get back to it.

11:57 Time moves on. Then, on June seventeenth of twenty thirteen, a high school junior, in a hurry to get home from the gym, he decides to cut through a grivel pit and he makes what I can only imagine to be a horrific discovery, he sees a bullet riddled body lying in that pit. He calls police and investigators arrive on the scene and they identify that deceased body as that of Odin Lloyd. Now, Lloyd had. Been shot six times, so police they start investigating, and first they needed to find out who the heck Odin Lloyd was. They discovered that he was twenty seven years old.

12:39 He was a linebacker for a semi pro football team in the Boston area, and he was thought of very highly in his community. He had a lot of friends and family who loved him deeply. He had a steady girlfriend. So they worked the crime scene. They really get a mountain of evidence that they end up sending off to the Boston crime Lab. They're going to get that tested. That will come into play later on because there's a lot of evidence there. And they also find keys inside the pocket of Odin Lloyd, but no car was at the scene and these keys were from a rental company. So they have that lead and they're going to chase down that lead. But in the meantime, they start interviewing the family of Odin Lloyd, and they discover that Lloyd's girlfriend and the girlfriend of Aaron Hernandez or sisters. They also discovered those keys they found in Odin's pocket were to a car that was rented by Aaron Hernandez. There was also what I consider a big early key to this case, a giant piece of evidence surface when police theorized Odin. Lloyd knew something bad was going to happen that night, and he text his sister.

13:54 Did you see who I'm with? And when she responded who, he replied in l Just so you know, police know they need to talk to Aaron Hernandez. So they drive to that home and they're sitting out in front of that home. They're trying to secure a search warrant, and they want to talk to him. They've got a lot of evidence already on this guy, but more than anything else, they want to make sure he didn't just disappear. Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana.

14:34 You know what, we should do a podcast about it. And with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts. Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast. In the meantime, other detectives they search the cell phone of Oden Lloyd and they discover the night he died, Aaron and Odin had communicated late that night. So Aaron he notices on his security cameras cops outside his house and they were in an unmarked car, but Aaron knew they were cops, so he calls his agent, who is also his attorney, and he says, Heymrph, there's cops outside my house.

15:33 What should I do? And Murph is like, well, if you've done anything wrong? And Aaron's like no, and Mrph said, well, go out there and ask them why they're sitting out in your front yard. So he does and two detectives they see Aaron her Nanez coming out and they get out and they kind of meet him halfway. They identify themselves to Aaron, and one detective asked him, did you rent a blok Lack suburban, to which Hernandez says, yes, I rented it from my friend. Oh. The detective said, who's oh, and Aaron says Odin. The detective then says, how do you know Odin? And this kind of goes back.

16:15 And forth between the. Detective and Aaron, and Aaron's starting to get frustrated with all these questions. He answered that when he said Odin's girlfriend is my girlfriend's sister, that's how we know each other. He then cuts off the conversation completely and he says, look, I'm gonna check with my attorney. Y'all are asking too many questions, and he walks away. Aaron goes back in his house and the detectives are following close behind. He goes inside, shuts the door and locks it. They's standing there for a minute or so. He opens the door back up and he hands the detectives a business card for his lawyer, and the detectives they kind of hurriedly say, we're investigating a out and at that point Aaron just shuts the door, doesn't say a word, and likes it again.

17:05 Now to me, that's the biggest red flag of all. What innocent person do y'all know that would not at the very least upon hearing that say who died? And I believe it was a test by the detectives, and I believe that Aaron Hernandez failed that test with flying colors. So the officers head back to their car and they make a call to an assistant DA in the area and they inform him of Aaron's representation. If you will, they read him off the business card, and at that point he tells the officers just sit tight because he knew Aaron's lawyer. They actually knew each other very well, had known each other for years. And the assistant DA calls Aaron's lawyer and he lets him know, hey, the police they need to talk to Aaron, and the lawyer in turn calls Aaron, and I don't know what was said during that conversation, but if a few minutes later, Aaron emerges from the house. He has his girlfriend and his child in two and he tells the officers he'll follow them to the station to talk. So his girlfriend is driving. She pulls up to the front of the station.

18:16 She lets Aaron out because his intention is he's going to wait for his lawyers to get there and she's gonna go ahead and drive back home, but as she's leaving, the two detectives that met him at his house pull her over and they start asking her questions in the parking lot. They proceeded to ask her if she knew who Odin Lloyd was, and she said, well, I don't know him that well, he dates my sister. They asked her the last time she saw Odin and she answered it was this past Saturday morning. She gave the officers at that point aaron cell number because they asked for it. And then the officers asked, well, when was Aaron home and when was he not home this past weekend? She said he was home all day Sunday, but was gone when she went to bed that night, and that was the night that Odin Lloyd died. And it was about this time that Aaron must have seen her from inside the police station, because he called her on her cell and he said, hey, look, Murphy, which is his lawyer, said, did not talk to detectives about anything. She relays that message and they let her go. So inside the station, Hernandez's lawyers arrive and he confers with them back and forth, but he goes outside to do that. As a matter of fact, he walks to their car, gets in the car with the attorneys and they're conferring, and police are watching this. They're located on an upper level floor in this police station, and they can actually see Aaron inside

19:48 of the car, and they see him pull out his cell phone and remove his battery, which Aaron was known at this time for being paranoid that people listen to his conversations through his iPhone. He would tell a lot of his friends that. So Aaron and his attorneys, they get done conferring, they get out of the car, they go back into the police station, and his attorneys, while Aaron is standing there, says he's decided that he doesn't want to interview at this time. So police say, okay, well, can we see his cell phone and make a copy of it and then we'll give it back to him, And the attorney's basically said not without a warrant. That was it. They turn around and they leave and they bring Aaron back to his house. Now word of gotten around.

20:33 Quickly in Boston. By this time, everybody. Knew Aaron Hernandez in Boston, very popular New England patriot, and in that time flight. The Patriots even heard, and I'm talking to the upper level. I'm talking the owner of the Patriots had heard, and they promptly bar him from the stadium until he is cleared of any wrongdoing in this case. Now, the same day that police attempted to question her Nandez, they were also able to secure a search warrant for his house and they searched it for nearly four hours. They also asked for a cell phone again, which this time it was given to them in pieces form one of his attorneys. He smashed it.

21:23 They get a. Hold to a security video from his residence and they discover Aaron had tried to destroy the entire video, but he screwed up and he didn't delete a big part of it. We're going to get to that a little later because it had some really damning footage on it, including Aaron walking around the house with a gun. So they gather all this. Evidence and on June twenty sixth of twenty thirteen, Aaron is arrested at his home and he's charged with the murder of Odin Lloyd. In that very same day, the New England Patriots release him from his contract. Aaron was charged with first degree murder, and he was also charged with some weapons offenses, a total of five in all, and he was placed in suicide watch when he got to the jail. Now that's standard for high profile inmates for several reasons. First, you don't want other inmates trying to make a name for themselves by attacking a high profile inmate before a trial. And second, guys like Aaron Hernandez lateral millionaires. They're not used to confinement and being told when to eat, shower and all these sort of things.

22:41 And these inmates, if they're going to kill themselves, it's going to be early on. So while Aaron was being booked and introduced to his new home, something else hit the news that was even more shocking. Aaron Hernandez was a suspect in a double murder in boss a year prior to his arrest. On July sixteenth of twenty twelve, three friends went out for a night on the town. At the end of the night, two of those friends were dead. A guy by the name of George Abro and a guy by the name of Supirio Fortado were found shot and killed at a red light in Boston after leaving a bar they were twenty eight years old.

23:29 A third man was also shot. But he survived that drive by sheitting. Now, not only did police suspect Aaron Hernandez was the one who killed him, they had a witness that was willing to testify to it. So We're going to fast. Forward a little bit and I'm going to give you a bit of a timeline up to the trial. On June twenty eighth of twenty thirteen, police recover a silver Chrysler they believe Aaron and two other men were. In the night of the shitty. Who were those two other men? A guy by the name of Carlos or Tees and another guy by the name of Ernest Wallace. Now these two guys were bad news and not the type of people that Hernandez would typically hang out with. Basically a couple of want to be thugs. So I mentioned the car, and it was interesting not only how they found it, but where.

24:26 They found it. So the house side of that is they had plenty of video with these two guys and Aaron together with Odin Lloyd, and I'm talking surveillance video from street cameras, etc. The night he was murdered, they were riding around in the exact car. They even had video of Hernandez stopping and getting gas. With all three of them. Hernandez actually went inside of a store and he bought some blue bubbleishes gum that would play big role in this case later on. But the wear as it relates to this car that they found is even more intriguing. Remember Aaron's older cousin, Tanya Singleton, who he.

25:09 Looked at like a mother. They found out Tanya was the person he trusted most in the world. They secured a search warrant to search her home, knowing some sort of evidence may be there, and sure enough, in the garage covered with a tarp was a Nissan Ultima. And not just that, five forty five caliber shell casings fired from the same gun that killed Odin Lloyd were found. Fingerprints of both Hernandez and Odin Lloyd were found on that car as well, and it's important to note that Tanya at this point she had stage four cancer. So on July ninth of twenty thirteen, police released text messages between Lloyd and Hernandez on the night of the murder, in which Hernandez texted Lloyd quote, do you want to meet up? I want to step out for a little Odin texted quote we still on which that text was sent at twelve thirty in the morning on the night Odin died. On July thirtieth of twenty thirteen, police divers they search a lake in Bristol, Connecticut after they got an anonymous tip, and they're looking for that murder weapon. But nothing turned up in that lake. However, the next month, police in Springfield, Massachusetts, they find a weapon which just so happens to be the gun used

26:41 in the twenty twelve double murder in Boston. Then in September of twenty thirteen, Ernest Wallace and Carlos Ortiz they are indicted in the murder of Odin Lloyd. They have gathered enough evidence to tie three up them to this. But it shortly after that that Hernandez is fighting a lawsuit against another shooting victim. Now, this victim alleged he was shot in the face, and that guy's name is Alexander Bradley. So let's talk about this guy, Alexander Bradley, because he tells a wild story about his relationship with Aaron Hernandez. So they were friends and Alexander Bradley not the type of guy to be played with, kind of a gangster.

27:30 Now. Bradley contends that he and Aaron go out one night, this is in February of twenty thirteen, to a strip club in Miami called Tootsis Cabaret. They leave the. Club early that morning, and they were having conversation about an incident that I touched on earlier. And I'll give you the details later, but let's just say for now that it involved that double shooting I've already mentioned. So it's during the conversation and Hernandez gets more in more pissed off at Bradley. Hernandez pulls out a gun, shoots Bradley in the face, and leaves him for dead in the wee hours of the morning in an industrial park.

28:12 What Aaron didn't know is that another car was in that industrial park at the time, and the occupant of that car drives to where he hears a gunshot and he sees a body laying in the road. He calls an ambulance and he literally saves the life of Bradley, who was severely injured gunshot to the face. Right police show up at the scene. Detectives go to the hospital to interview Bradley, but he ain't talking. I mean, he's a street guy, right, and he wants to handle this himself. So he ends up from the. Shooting being blind in one eye.

28:53 Now what's crazy is Aaron after he shot Bradley. Later on, come to find out he actually called Bradley's girlfriend and he asked her she had heard from Bradley. He acted like he and Bradley never showed up at that club. The problem was plenty of surveillance footage of this from street cameras, etc. At that point, he did not realize that Bradley had survived, and it would not be long before he would realize that Alexander Bradley did indeed survive. When Bradley himself as soon as he was able to calls Aaron her Nan does, Aaron picks up the phone and Bradley says, what up? And Aaron's response to that was who is this? Which he knew exactly who it was.

29:45 But long story short, on that, Alexander Bradley files a civil suit regarding Hernandez shooting him. So all this becomes public. So what was that shooting all about? Well, they get into an argument because as Alexander Bradley told him, quote, you need to settle down before you pull some stupid shit like those two guys you killed in Boston. That's right, folks. Not only did Alexander Bradley know about Hernandez being responsible for that double murder in Boston in twenty twelve, he witnessed it. So let's get into the details. On July sixteenth of twenty twelve, Daniel Brew and Superior for Tito.

30:31 They go to a club and according to. Bradley, it was the same club in Boston that he and Aaron went out to. Now, everyone's having a good time that night until completely on accident in this jam pack club, one of the men accidentally spills his drink in just a little bit of it splashes onto Aaron Hernandez. But this dude's got a short temper. He gets pissed off pretty quick. So Bradley said that that point forward, Hernandez whole demeanor chain. It was like he went from happy to piste off in two seconds flat, like most psychopaths would do. Right well, just as they are pulling out of the club, because he decides, hey man, we need to get out of here. Her Nandez spots the guy in a vehicle that drives right past him in Alexander, and he tells Alexander, hey follow that vehicle. They follow these people. They pull up side by side of the red light, and according to Bradley, before he knew anything was happening, Hernandez pulls out a gun and just starts firing into that other vehicle, and he killed the two occupants in the car, injured a third, and I believe there was a fourth in the car that was not injured.

31:53 And he and Alexander sped away right before the trial is starting for the Oden Lloyd case. He gets indicted for that double murder, but that trial for that double murder would have to wait, so Aaron at this point he's in jail. He's a waiting trial for the Odin Lloyd murder, and work gets out that he is not playing well with other inmates. On February twenty fifth of twenty fourteen, as he was out of his cell, another inmate who was also out totally by mistake, he sees Aaron and in an attempt to make a name for himself, they throw down, but by most accounts, Aaron gets the best of him in this altercation. Also around that time, it comes out that Aaron also threatened to beat the shit out of a jail worker, So jail by.

32:47 This time is getting to him. Then, finally, on June twenty ninth of twenty fifteen, the trial in the murder of Odin Lloyd. And I'm going to pick up in the next episode with the details of that trial. But I bet you thought when I started this when I wasn't going to tell you this guy was a just about a legit serial killer, Aaron her nand is just a really sad story. Is we get deeper into it. Thank you so much for listening today. Check out the Patreon we got commercial free early releases. I know these commercials can get aggravating for people sometimes, so we do offer that option. Patreon dot com slash Exposed podcast files. We also do bonus episodes on there.

33:39 We do quarterly merch all kinds of different things. Check it out. Also check out Crime Wire Weekly. I do that with award. Winning host Unspeakable Zonwn Kelly Jennings. She is the queen of true crime in my opinion, and we talk about true crime headlines from throughout the week. We dropped this air every Friday, just kind of give you a crime news sypnasis if you will, of the trending news, so check that out as well. And until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love,