BRISTOL, Conn. (AP/WHDH) — Aaron Hernandez’s family and friends bid farewell to the former NFL star at a private funeral Monday.
Dozens of mourners turned out for the invitation-only service in Hernandez’s hometown of Bristol, including his mother and fiancee, several of his defense attorneys, and friends from his playing days with the University of Florida and the New England Patriots.
Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, hanged himself in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on April 19. Only days earlier he had been acquitted of murder charges in the shooting deaths of two men in Boston in 2012.
At the request of Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, a Massachusetts judge ruled that the district attorney must provide the family with copies of three notes Hernandez left next to a Bible before killing himself.
At the funeral home, two men in suits checked IDs as guests drove up the driveway. Police closed a street outside to traffic, and television news crews were stationed in a lot across the street. At one point, Hernandez’s mother, Terri Hernandez, stepped out ahead of the service to smoke a cigarette on the funeral home’s front porch.
The guests included twin NFL players Mike and Maurkice Pouncey; football player Brandon Spikes; and prominent medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden, whom Hernandez’s family retained to perform an independent autopsy, and his wife, Linda Kenney Baden, a defense attorney.
Maggie Amaya, of Bristol, was turned away from the service because she did not have an invitation. She said her nephew was a friend of Hernandez’s at Bristol Central High School. She and other Bristol residents said they were disappointed there wasn’t a public service.
“We love this kid regardless of what happened,” Amaya said. “I’d just rather remember the kid who represented the Patriots.”
The burial will be private at an undisclosed location; the timing was unclear. Hernandez’s family in a statement asked for privacy as they mourn and thanked people for offering condolences.
Ronald Sullivan, one of Hernandez’s lawyers, read a statement Monday thanking people for their “thoughtful expressions of condolences.”
Sullivan said Hernandez’s family appreciates being able to say their final goodbyes in privacy. He said “they love him and they miss him.”
A spokeswoman for the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association says Hernandez’s family opted to have him cremated.
Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the slaying of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee.
After the Massachusetts medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, Hernandez’s brain was taken to Boston University, where scientists will study it for any signs of repeated trauma suffered during his years of playing football.
A judge on Friday ordered key evidence in the prison suicide preserved, granting a request from Hernandez’s fiancee so the family can investigate the circumstances of his death.
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