The Aaron Hernandez case moved through Massachusetts courts from 2013 to 2019 and produced a first-degree murder conviction for the killing of Odin Lloyd, an acquittal in a separate Boston double homicide, the defendant’s suicide in prison at age 27, a posthumous diagnosis of severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and a landmark ruling that abolished a centuries-old rule of criminal law in Massachusetts.
Hernandez was a former New England Patriots tight end. He was arrested on June 26, 2013, nine days after Odin Lloyd, 27, was found shot to death in an industrial area less than a mile from Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough. Lloyd played semiprofessional football and was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée. The Patriots released Hernandez within hours of the arrest.
The Odin Lloyd Murder Conviction
Prosecutors charged Hernandez with first-degree murder under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265, Section 1, along with five firearm counts. First-degree murder in Massachusetts carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.1General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265 Section 2
The state did not have to prove Hernandez pulled the trigger. It proceeded on a joint venture theory, which allows conviction when a defendant knowingly participates in the crime and shares the intent to commit it.2Mass.gov. Model Jury Instructions on Homicide – II Joint Venture The case was largely circumstantial. Home surveillance footage from Hernandez’s residence showed him holding what appeared to be a handgun shortly after the shooting. Cell records placed him near the scene. Shell casings from a rental car he had used were tied to ammunition recovered where Lloyd’s body was found.
In April 2015, after seven days of deliberation, jurors convicted Hernandez of first-degree murder on a theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty rather than premeditation. The judge imposed the mandatory life sentence without parole.
The 2012 Boston Double Homicide Acquittal
While serving that sentence, Hernandez was tried in 2017 for the 2012 shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were killed in a drive-by outside a Boston nightclub. The indictment included two counts of first-degree murder, multiple counts of armed assault, and witness intimidation. The intimidation count rested on an allegation that Hernandez had later shot a former friend, Alexander Bradley, in the face to keep him from cooperating with police.
Bradley was the prosecution’s central witness and testified that Hernandez fired the shots from the driver’s seat. The defense attacked his credibility, pointing to his own criminal history, a pending civil suit he had filed against Hernandez over the Florida shooting, and inconsistent statements to police. In April 2017, after six days of deliberation, the jury acquitted Hernandez of all murder and witness intimidation charges. He was convicted only of illegal possession of a firearm. The Lloyd conviction remained the sole basis for his imprisonment.
Death in Prison and the CTE Diagnosis
Five days after the acquittal, on April 19, 2017, Hernandez was found dead in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. He was 27. Prison officials determined he had taken his own life.
In September 2017, researchers at Boston University’s CTE Center announced that examination of his brain tissue showed Stage 3 (out of 4) chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease linked to repeated head trauma.3Boston University. BU CTE Center Statement on Aaron Hernandez Researchers described it as the most severe case they had seen in someone his age. CTE can only be diagnosed after death. The disease has been associated with impulsive behavior, aggression, and impaired judgment, though it cannot retroactively explain or excuse criminal conduct.
How the Case Changed Massachusetts Law
Hernandez died with a direct appeal of the Lloyd conviction still pending. His attorneys moved to vacate the conviction under abatement ab initio, a common-law rule holding that a conviction is erased if the defendant dies before appellate review is complete, on the reasoning that the defendant never had a full opportunity to exercise the right to appeal. A trial court judge granted the motion, wiping the murder conviction from the record.
Prosecutors appealed. In March 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Hernandez and abolished the doctrine, describing it as “outdated and no longer consonant with the circumstances of contemporary life, if, in fact, it ever was.” Under the new framework, when a defendant dies while a direct appeal is pending, the appeal is dismissed as moot and the trial record carries a notation that the conviction removed the presumption of innocence but was “neither affirmed nor reversed” because the defendant died.4Justia Law. Commonwealth vs Aaron J Hernandez
The practical effect was that the Lloyd murder conviction was restored to the record. The rule applies prospectively to future Massachusetts cases and ended the use of a doctrine that had existed in some form for centuries in American criminal law.
Civil Wrongful Death Settlements
The victims’ families brought wrongful death actions against the Hernandez estate. Civil claims are decided by a preponderance of the evidence rather than the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so an acquittal does not bar a suit. The estates of Odin Lloyd, Daniel de Abreu, and Safiro Furtado each sought damages for funeral costs, lost future earnings, and the emotional harm to surviving relatives.
The de Abreu and Furtado suits were resolved through confidential settlements. The Lloyd family’s claim also settled, though available assets were limited. Legal fees from two murder trials and the loss of NFL income had substantially reduced the estate, and any remaining distribution was handled through probate. The settlements closed the last open matter tied to the case.