BOSTON (WHDH) - A book written by Aaron Hernandez’s defense attorney highlights the final moments before the former New England Patriots tight end and convicted murderer committed suicide in his jail cell.
Jose Baez’s “Unnecessary Roughness: The Life and Death of Aaron Hernandez,” written with the cooperation of Hernandez’s fiancee Shayanna Jenkins, hit shelves on Tuesday.
The final hours of Hernandez’s life are played out across three suicide notes published in the book.
One of the notes was addressed to Jenkins, detailing his love for his fiancee.
“You have always been my soul-mate and I want you to love life and know I’m always with you,” he wrote. “I told you what was coming indirectly! I love you so much and know you are an angel.”
Hernandez ended this four-page letter by saying, “IT’S TIME!!! The Real Live Forever.”
A second note written his daughter is just as ominous.
“Daddy will never leave you! I’m entering the timeless realm in which I can enter into any form at any time because everything that could happen or not happened I see all at once,” he exclaimed.
Baez says he talked to Hernandez the night of his suicide and recalled that Hernandez seemed happy and excited for the future.
The third letter addressed to Baez had a more upbeat tone.
“I want you to know you have me forever like you never understood and time will reveal that I’m not perfect by my love and loyalty is like you’ve never seen,” Hernandez wrote.
He also thanked Baez for his work in defending him through his second murder trial.
Hernandez was acquitted of murder in April 2017. His legal team was in the process of appealing his first murder conviction.
He hung himself in his prison cell days later at 27 years old.
Researchers at Boston University found Hernandez suffered from a severe case of CTE, a type of brain damage that often results from head injuries.
They say the type of brain damage Hernandez had is usually seen in people 20 years older.
Doctors have found cases of CTE in the brains of many other NFL players who have died.
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