Real story behind American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez

Aaron Hernandez, a former University of Florida player, was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round. He excelled with Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, signing a $40 million five-year extension. At 23, he played at the Super Bowl XLVI with the Patriots. On June 26, 2013, Hernandez’s NFL career was halted when he was arrested in Attleboro, Mass., for the first-degree murder of Odin Lloyd and five weapon charges, including illegal possession of a firearm, and was dropped two hours later.
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At the time, Lloyd was in a relationship with the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins. “Odin Lloyd is seen at around 2:30 am [July 17] leaving with Hernandez and Hernandez’s friends, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, in a rented silver Nissan Altima,” CNN reported in 2013.
Lloyd’s body was found by a jogger at an industrial park, one mile from Hernandez’s house, with five gunshot wounds to his back and side.
The trial revealed potential connections between Hernandez and a 2012 double homicide, linked to a complaint filed by Alexander Bradley, who claimed Hernandez shot him in the face after an altercation related to witnessing the fatal drive-by shootings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. However, these charges were not admitted as evidence in the Lloyd murder trial.
In 2015, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder of Lloyd and sentenced to life without parole. His trial for double murder of Abreu and Furtado began in March 2017, but he was acquitted on April 14, 2017. Five days later, he was found dead in jail, and was classified as a suicide.
Hernandez’s brain studies revealed a severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), classified as stage 3 by the Boston University CTE Center. The damage involved early brain cell degeneration and large septum pellucidum tears, causing symptoms like aggression, apathy, memory loss, spatial awareness loss, and executive dysfunction.
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