BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts prisons report says, formr University of Florida and New England Patriots star, Aaron Hernandez was outwardly elated after his acquittal in a double murder trial and did not appear to have thoughts of suicide in the days before he killed himself in his prison cell.
The state Department of Correction report released Thursday also says there were no drugs in Hernandez’s system when the former NFL star hanged himself at the Souza-Baranowski prison on April 19 while serving a life sentence.
The 132-page report was separate from a state police investigation also released Thursday. That report said Hernandez wrote a reference to a biblical passage in ink on his forehead and in blood on the wall.
The prisons department report says Hernandez knew a prisoner’s convictions could be erased if he dies during his appeal, as Hernandez did.
In addition, Hernandez did not have drugs in his system when he was found naked hanging from a bedsheet in his prison cell, according to a death investigation from Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester County district attorney.
Correction officers found Hernandez amid a gruesome scene, with drawings on the wall and “John 3:16” markings written in a substance consistent with blood, the investigation found.
Hernandez’s attorney, Jose Baez, did not dispute the conclusions of the report, but in a statement vowed “a thorough and independent investigation into this tragic death.” He blasted government officials for their “total lack of professionalism” during the process for not sharing information with the family and for numerous leaks that were reported in the media.
Hernandez had been serving a sentence of life in prison for the June 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez’s death came just days after he was acquitted of two murder charges related to a July 2012 drive-by shooting outside a Boston nightclub.