Yahoo Sports Aaron Hernandez's attorney suggests CTE to blame for suicide
The attorney who defended Aaron Hernandez during Hernandez’s trial for double murder is releasing a book in which he purports to offer details of that trial and Hernandez’s life; he also reveals the suicide notes Hernandez left for his fiancee and young daughter before he hanged himself inside his Massachusetts prison cell in 2017.
It all seems to be about as gross a money-grab as you could imagine from the attorney, Jose Baez.
‘Maybe the disease CTE knows’
In an interview with Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, Baez said he tries to paint an accurate picture of his client in “Unnecessary Roughness: Inside the Trial and Final Days of Aaron Hernandez,” but Volin writes that Baez instead portrays Hernandez in a positive light.
In the book, Baez says rumors of Hernandez being in a gang are nonsense (documents show he was a verified member of the Bloods), and that Hernandez’s gun tattoos were simply “symbols of strength.”
And to Baez, the fact that Hernandez bought guns in Florida and not his native Connecticut was a sign of Hernandez as a criminal novice (Connecticut is one of the most difficult states in which to buy a gun, while Florida is one of the easiest, and call us crazy, but that likely played a bigger role).
In addition to casting light on whether Hernandez actually killed himself, because he claims it took those in his life by surprise, Baez suggests that perhaps it was Hernandez’s CTE, which the tight end was confirmed posthumously to have.
“When did Aaron decide this would be his last night on earth? Maybe the disease CTE knows,” Baez writes. He also said, “You can’t hold anyone with a serious brain disease responsible for their actions any more than you can a four-year-old child who pulls the trigger of a gun and kills a sibling.”
Baez critical of Patriots organization
Hernandez was found guilty in the 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd and was serving a life sentence for that when he was acquitted in the 2012 drive-by shooting that killed Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu; Baez was Hernandez’s attorney in the Furtado and de Abreu trial.
Just days after his acquittal, Hernandez was found dead in his cell, having used his bedsheet to hang himself.
Lloyd was killed on June 17, 2013; nine days later, after Hernandez had told Patriots coach Bill Belichick he was “absolutely not” involved in the shooting, police arrested Hernandez and charged him with murder.
The Patriots released Hernandez that day.
Unbelievably, Baez is critical of the Patriots for the transaction.
“You’re innocent until proven guilty in this country, but not in that organization,” Baez said.
Baez writes that New England quarterback Tom Brady tried to talk sense into Hernandez, but the younger player didn’t listen.
According to the attorney, Hernandez said Brady wanted to know where he was at all times.
“He would always tell me, ‘Stop hanging with those guys, get your [expletive] together’,” Baez writes Hernandez told him. “One of the things I regret is not listening to him more.”
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