>> you can't come here and act reckless and do your own stuff and you get changed by the

patriot way and now that i'm a patriot, i have to start living like one and and making the right aaron hernandez is living the american dream. he has a $40 million contract with the new england patriots. a devoted fiance and a brand new baby girl at home. but his seemingly perfect life is shattered when a brutal murder takes place, and hernandez is the prime suspect. could the nfl superstar, with everything to lose really be the killer? was there another explanation? >> the answer, as it turns out, was far more complicated and tragic than anyone could have imagined. this is how it really happened

through an industrial park in north attleboro he's running through the park, he sees a body lying face up riddled with bullets the window, saying he saw somebody laying down, not moving them. my boss and i went down there and i saw a guy dead. dead there. he was not buried. he was just lying there as if he was either dropped there or killed there. >> it was just a shocking scene. >> daniel lippman shot five times. the police get called in. >> he's wearing a boston red sox cap. he also still has his wallet. so right away, they know that this is not a robbery. this is something

else. >> investigators it was. a guy named odin lloyd man living pretty unassuming life with his mother. he had a girlfriend. he was very close to. he was very close to his family. he was a semiprofessional football player i took the phone and he says, um said yes. i said, did my son okay there's people i know people i know that this could have happened to. and it would have been like i seen it coming, you know. odin never seen anything like this happening ever

>> and he also has two sets of keys. they went about trying to figure out who these keys belonged to because there was a body and two sets of keys, but no car. and they very quickly were able to track down the keys to a rental car. >> the car was registered to aaron hernandez so that was like whoa, you know what's going on here aaron hernandez, the football player 23 playing as a tight end. he has a contract reportedly worth $40 million. >> the guy who played in the super bowl and has this whole career ahead of him

every once in a while you get this player every ten years, every 20 years, every 25. and aaron was that every 25 year player the family is well known in bristol that his dad was a high school star athlete when aaron and his brother came along he basically tried to live his athletic career through them. he pushed them to be good athletes and that was his dream. and they followed along that path. they adored their father. you know, they were the kinds of kids who did whatever he told them to do. >> aaron's dad was always at the game. somebody you knew and he would like you know, put his arm around me and, you know, give me advice and everything. >> not only did dennis want them to be good athletes, but they wanted he wanted them to do well in school. as aaron and d.j. both did, he wanted to be,

you know, well respected people out, probably the best of the hernandez clan and the fact that he was so big yet he could still was like faster than everybody. >> and just agile. it was just ridiculous. he didn't spend his time you know, messing around. he was working hard every day. >> he was one of the best players that connecticut has ever seen as a senior, the connecticut state player of the year broke all kinds of state records. he was clearly talented enough to play college football. he was heavily recruited half the family wanted to go here. >> half my family's told me to go to notre dame michigan, miami florida is just, you know, a top five college football program. and if you want to exceed your expectations and reach the nfl that's that's the place to go. i just had heard from a friend that he was going to be leaving school early. he was going to

the university of florida. >> it was pretty surreal seeing him on tv playing a plane with these guys. >> he won the john mackey award after a dominant junior year at the university of florida, and that award goes to the nation's best collegiate tight end. >> his future is kind of limitless at this point a pats fan growing up, hernandez came out of the university of florida a year early to enter the draft. the patriots invested in him, giving him a long term lucrative contract. >> it's a lifelong dream, and i'm still kind of surreal, but, um take it in over the next few days months, years and uh, just it's a blessing and, uh hopefully i make the right decisions with it and have a good life. >> news of aaron hernandez, even being questioned in connection with this case was obviously huge. >> detectives were met with a strange reaction from the former star tight end after

discovering odin lloyd's body and that was the the wow moment episodes of how it really happened. there are six capsules missing there are three people dead. >> what possibly could have happened to these very young, very healthy people? it wasn't just about tampering, it was about evil. >> new york city became so enthralled with this case. >> mother and son murdering people. >> why did they do it this pathological how it really happened. >> tomorrow at nine on cnn red lobster across the nation got a new menu celebration. look, we got a lobster pasta crab, bacon, shrimp for the taking. 500 locations, seven new creations. >> come taste it still have symptoms from moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease. >> after a tnf blocker like humira or remicade put them in

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victim of homicide found dead in this industrial park. less than a mile away from the 23 year old star. football player's home so when police first found odin lloyd's body, they found keys to a car that aaron hernandez had rented in his pocket. so, naturally, they go to his house to speak with him pretty uncooperative person. detectives were met with a strange reaction from the former star tight end after discovering odin lloyd's body. mr. hernandez became argumentative. the documents read, and asked, what's with all the questions? >> police learned that odin lloyd had the keys to the car that hernandez had rented because hernandez had loaned him the car to let him use it so one of the first questions in the investigation was, how did these two men know each other that lloyd was dating this sister of hernandez's

fiance? >> so odin lloyd and aaron hernandez met through the sisters. at the very least, they had a casual friendship. >> according to police, officers told him it was a death investigation and, quote, mr. hernandez slammed the door. >> you would think that he might have some questions or it might be a higher level of concern news of aaron hernandez even being questioned in connection with this case was obviously huge media neighbors and tourists flood the streets outside his north attleboro home. >> you had stationed in this nice neighborhood position looking right at his house, just waiting for any type of activity. i think people thought that, hey, maybe this was just some sort of mistake and this was just some weird connection. >> this is the first time we're seeing the new england patriots tight end aaron hernandez, outside his massachusetts home. >> the public didn't know

exactly why hernandez was being questioned. they did know that a dead body had been found not far from his house the biggest piece of information that we had was from a law enforcement source who told us that hernandez was driving this nissan altima, that he had rented the night that odin lloyd was killed, four guys were in this car, including odin lloyd. >> that car's out for a couple of hours when it returns to aaron hernandez's home. only three guys are in that car and odin lloyd isn't one of them that piece of information really got everyone thinking, okay what's going on here? what happened in this time frame where odin lloyd was with these guys? then all of a sudden, he's not there people were very careful because he was a member of the revered new

england patriots. not to start making him a criminal or a suspect no one was thinking that he was the murderer. but then another twist sometime the next day was when aaron hernandez returns the rental car to this enterprise dealership near his house. police learned after talking to the employee at enterprise who had cleaned out the car after hernandez returned it, that she had found some items in the car that perhaps were cause for concern items that the woman at enterprise had subsequently thrown in the dumpster dumpster diving. they found a bullet casing the bullet had traces of blue bubblicious gum on it the shell casing matched the shell casings that were found at at the murder scene near odin. >> lloyd's body

together what may have happened morning that several police cars came up. a lot of officers all in business attire, knocked on the door and hernandez opened the door and did not appear to be expecting them. had just rolled out of bed they went inside the house, cuffed him coming out and that picture, you know, you can't forget in the white t-shirt and the handcuffs behind his back that was the the wow moment he was at the top of the world. >> really so all of a sudden be a suspect and a murderer think for a lot of people it was it was pretty surprising. within hours of his arrest, the

patriots released him. >> it's really a sad day on so many levels. having someone in your organization that's involved in a murder investigation is a terrible thing after consultation with ownership we acted swiftly and decisively jenkins, was seen carrying a big heavy trash bag and did he indicate to you what was inside no yeah. a real pain is a story of these two cousins, david and benji. >> we were born three weeks apart. we used to be joined at the hip all right. david is convinced that he's something about being around benji, it sort of shakes his foundation. >> i love him and i hate him and i want to be him. >> it's a film about family and love and the relationships that bring us closer.

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before they're gone. >> shop law.com today. >> the story we're following tonight, aaron hernandez, is being held without bail. charged with first-degree murder. >> it wasn't an accessory charge. they were saying no. aaron is the guy that pulled the trigger. he's the murderer county jail locked up in a cell similar to this one. aaron hernandez when he came into our facility could interact with anybody to a point where you go, hey, i want to go out and grab a beer with this guy. and within a matter of a day he acclimated and transitioned seamlessly as though it weren't a big deal police had id'd the other two guys who were in the car with aaron hernandez that night, and they were also charged with odin lloyd's murder carlos ortiz and ernest wallace were friends

of hernandez. >> both of these guys had criminal records from various charges back in connecticut, where they had met hernandez that was back in his high school days when then 16 year old hernandez was hit with this unexpected family tragedy hernandez was very close to his father. >> as a father, dennis was the best. there was a special closeness they had because dad was a football player. also his father had gone into the hospital for a routine surgery they were complications. >> he bled to death. and shockingly died and all of a sudden he loses his father, who had been his guiding light and his mentor. >> and the person he looked up to most. all of a sudden, he was gone that was the one thing that really impacted his life in a very difficult way. >> everyone was sad for aaron and dj and the rest of their

family, and it was just heartbreaking. >> that's a pivotal point in your life. 16 in high school, you need dad there for support and guidance. and he lost that. his mother remarried maybe a year later. >> you might expect when the father passed away that she would grow closer to aaron. but they actually began to grow apart then hernandez started staying at this cousin's house in bristol, and it was there that he met carlos ortiz and ernest wallace some of his friends were, you know, not not guys you want a potential professional football player hanging around with. there were some that had been arrested on drug charges. >> right now. is this former nfl team prepares to play in the super bowl. aaron hernandez goes on trial for murder. opening statements are scheduled for today we are here

because the police and the prosecutors targeted aaron from the very beginning. as soon as they found out that aaron hernandez, the celebrity football player. the new england patriot, was a friend of odin lloyd's. >> aaron never had a chance. >> in june of 2013. >> aaron hernandez had the world at his feet. aaron hernandez was planning a future, not a murder. >> in this day and age, there are surveillance cameras everywhere. and that was extremely evident in this trial. >> investigators say they built their case against hernandez using cell phone tower tracking, text messages and surveillance tapes at hernandez's home. and elsewhere. >> the prosecutors strategy was very painstaking, very thorough. they put each piece of the puzzle together for the

jury and thread this timeline to prove that hernandez was the one that killed lloyd first. >> aaron texts his two friends to come to his house in north attleboro. >> there were friends from back in the bristol area. it was not unusual for them to come, you know just spur of the moment. >> then he sends odin lloyd, a text telling him he's going to come pick him up the three of them get into the rental >> it's all on the video from his security cameras at his house they were leaving to go pick up odin lloyd on the way to pick up lloyd. >> hernandez had stopped to get gas at a gas station not too far from lloyd's house. hernandez is seen filling up the car. everybody's a gum the same kind of bubblicious gum that was found in the dumpster and on a piece of the bullet there was a camera that caught a car going down the street

picking up odin lloyd up in the wee hours of the morning. >> investigators say lloyd was last seen leaving his boston home with hernandez in a silver nissan altima so they could put lloyd with hernandez. within hours of his murder they also had surveillance from cameras around the industrial park, footage that showed headlights going into the industrial park where where lloyd was found. but you couldn't identify the car itself from the headlights but that was where other crime scene evidence came in. >> tire tracks that they found in the industrial park where odin lloyd's body was found. and through the crime scene analysis, they managed to match those tire tracks to the nissan altima that hernandez was driving that night and then there's video of the car leaving about four minutes after it had gone into the

industrial park and then picks up again when aaron returns home and that's when you see him walk into his house with wallace and ortiz. no, odin lloyd the scene is not enough to prove mere presence is not enough in our system, we cannot be convicted of a crime. just because we hang with the wrong people or we're in the wrong place at the wrong time murder, prosecutors had to show that hernandez actually participated in the crime, not solely that he was just there. >> and so they had to introduce evidence that he probably got out of the car. >> there was a marijuana blunt found close to the victim, and hernandez's dna was identified on that blunt. >> the police already had very

compelling evidence but what ironically, ended up helping them the most was the evidence found inside aaron hernandez's home. >> so through a search warrant, investigators were able to obtain footage from surveillance videos that were located throughout hernandez's home minutes later, surveillance video from hernandez's home security system shows the former nfl player arriving back at his house with two other people, where he walks into his house and you can clearly see he's holding something. >> you will see ladies and gentlemen the defendant standing outside of the entrance to the basement holding a gun the defense tried to say that it might have been an iphone. >> it might have been a remote control for a tv iphone or ipad or a blackberry or a tv remote or a gun or something else.

>> and then subsequently, aaron's fiancée, shayanna jenkins was seen carrying a big, heavy trash bag out of the house. police think that the murder weapon was in the trash bag because the gun used in the murder has never been found. >> he told me to go downstairs um, in our storage room, and, um remove a box from our home and did he indicate to you what was inside the box? no. did you look inside? >> i did not. >> what prosecutors said was that that was when she carried the murder weapon out of the house we know four guys went into that industrial park and only three guys came out. >> so somebody pulled the trigger. >> if he beats the case. america loves a comeback

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care. >> okay, let's try this. >> donate your small talk. >> i'm natasha bertrand at the pentagon, and this is cnn. >> welcome back to how it really happened. i'm hill harper. investigators had plenty of circumstantial evidence suggesting aaron hernandez was with odin lloyd the night he was killed. but did they have enough to prove that he was guilty of murder? so many questions remained. why was hernandez there that night? and why would he want his good friend dead

there were questions one was why? >> why would aaron hernandez execute him someone who defense lawyers argued was a friend of aaron hernandez here's how the prosecutor describes it. >> he said that aaron hernandez was upset, angry about something that the the victim in this case had said when he was at a nightclub just a few nights ago, where they were in boston and this angered aaron hernandez so much that he told people he couldn't trust the victim anymore. >> that apparently is the motive. according to prosecutors. >> the defense tried to establish that, hey, odin lloyd was a part of the family. these guys spent time in the man cave. they were buddies. >> odin, lloyd stayed over aaron's house several times odin lloyd was aaron's friend. how could aaron go ahead and kill this guy? isn't that

possible? aaron hernandez's defense team felt that they had a pretty good case nervousness. >> he seemed pretty confident. just sort of. okay, i'm in a in a different place and saying i'm not really in jail. i'm in training camp. i'm going to be back playing with the patriots because they're going to find out i didn't have anything to do with this. >> if he beats the case, america loves a comeback and there will be nothing to stop him from doing that unexpected happens, and aaron hernandez name gets tied to another criminal investigation in july 2012. there's this drive by shooting in boston's south end, where two guys safiro furtado and daniel de abreu had been shot in a car.

>> the men had been at a club and with their friends the only real evidence that the that had pulled up alongside the vehicle, driven by abreu and furtado, and they knew that that was the car where the bullets had come from. >> that was really all they had. >> there were no immediate suspects. >> it was just one of those cases that was going to be very hard, if not impossible, to solve big break while they're investigating aaron hernandez connection to the odin lloyd murder investigators find this car. >> it matched the make model and color of the getaway car that witnesses say they'd seen fire the shots that killed those two guys in south boston and it was owned by none other than aaron hernandez.

>> police impounded a silver suv that's registered and owned by aaron hernandez. boston police believe the car could be linked to an unsolved murder. >> the boston detectives went and pulled the surveillance video from the club. the night that these two were killed. aaron hernandez is seen going into this nightclub. >> investigators in the south end murders realize oh, my god, aaron hernandez was there that night. >> finding out that aaron hernandez was connected to more than one murder was shocking. but as it turns out, if you look at his track record of violent behavior, it goes all the way back to his college days. there was also a shooting incident of two men in gainesville, florida, in playing for the university of florida, gainesville police confirm hernandez was questioned for information, but they say it was only briefly and he was not a suspect and never charged with anything. >> so while on the field, he

was clearly a brilliant player and were signs of issues off the field in florida when he was in florida, several of his coaches have said that they were wary when he went back home to connecticut because then he wouldn't go back home and hang out with these guys who had drug arrests, or they had had problems with the cops. they were afraid that something bad would happen but the jury wasn't allowed to hear about any of his potential crimes because he wasn't convicted of anything yet. >> it could have swayed their judgment in what he was accused of doing here. >> the judge will block any mention that hernandez was indicted for two other murders in boston people had been waiting for a week. it was a very high stress moment for all parties involved. >> what say you madam foreperson? >> is the defendant not guilty?

guilty of murder in the first degree or guilty of murder in the second degree? >> guilty of murder in the first degree. >> hernandez shook his head and sat down and i think mouthed you're wrong to the jurors his mother and shayanna jenkins were in the front row and started sobbing. >> odin lloyd's family was crying as well aaron hernandez. >> guilty of cold blooded murder. the sentence life without parole. >> you're committed to the mci cedar junction for the term of your natural life without the possibility of parole. >> it's a shocking ending for a one time superstar but then something really unexpected happened that added a whole 'nother dimension to this story authorities are now investigating whether aaron hernandez might have been involved in an unsolved double

murder in boston last summer. >> that relative quiet would be shattered suddenly by the crackle of gunfire what's up now? and he started firing shots episodes of how it really happened. there are six capsules missing there are three people dead. what possibly could have happened to these very young, very healthy people? it wasn't just about tampering, it was about evil. >> new york city became so enthralled with this case. >> mother and son murdering people. >> why did they do it it's pathological how it really happened. >> tomorrow at nine on cnn red lobster across the nation got a new menu celebration. look, we got a lobster pasta crab, bacon, shrimp for the taking. 500 locations, seven new creations. come taste it

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investigating whether aaron hernandez might have been involved in an unsolved double murder in boston last summer. this is a separate incident from what he's been charged with already for murder in the shooting death of his friend, odin lloyd. we are following every lead, as we always do in these cases. >> eventually, the district attorney's office gathered enough evidence to prosecute aaron hernandez with the charges in this double homicide when this case came about, i was asked to join as counsel. >> so my first thought was how is aaron going to get a fair trial when virtually everyone in the state has formed an opinion about aaron 2012. it was a warm summer

night in downtown boston. >> the theater district and it was relatively quiet that night that relative quiet would be shattered suddenly by the crackle of gunfire shootings. >> aaron hernandez was with a man named alexander bradley. alexander bradley would be the star witness of the case. >> alexander bradley was always described as hernandez's right hand guy. >> it was a lot like many of the other men in aaron hernandez's life. he's a drug dealer. he has a criminal background, and he knew aaron from the old neighborhood, and the two of them liked to party together the basic theory of the case involved alexander bradley testifying that while they were in the bath, one of the deceased bumped into aaron and spilled a drink on aaron. >> and as a result of that

spilled drink aaron went into a rage he was agitated. >> i mean, it just it was heightened. we left right away. >> that was a motive that aaron felt insulted and slighted and he just went off if somebody he felt disrespected him. >> uh insulted him in some kind of way when things didn't go his way, he could become angry. >> what happened next? >> i rolled the window down, reclined the seat and he leaned. he leaned across me and extended his body out the window with the firearm in his hand he was like, what's up now? >> and he started firing shots car when the shooting happens and unlike the first trial where you didn't have an eyewitness, you had bradley

with every single detail of how these guys were killed. but the defense had another theory. and that theory put the gun in alexander bradley's hands. >> ladies and gentlemen, this did not happen over a spilled drink. >> this happened over a drug deal alexander bradley had issues with daniel de abreu and that's why we're all sitting here today. >> alexander bradley is not just the drug dealer. >> he's a legitimate drug trafficker stealing drugs is a violent, dangerous business. now allegedly, you had these two people and allegedly one of the two committed the crime. >> it was hernandez versus bradley. >> yes. and it was one hell of a fight that jurors had to believe alexander bradley, in order to convict aaron hernandez

when he walked into the courtroom everybody knew if he was found guilty in the boston homicide, his appeal in the case was basically useless. you find the defendant not guilty. guilty of murder in the first degree or guilty of murder in the second degree. >> not guilty he literally broke down and cried. it was emotional for all of us. >> maybe in that moment, he forgot that he was already serving a life sentence. and now you had 12 people who believed that you hadn't done something horrible and needless to say, he was elated. >> but i think more he was relieved. he was thanking us all profusely. >> once they won the acquittal, all systems were go on the appeal. in the odin lloyd case, and we told him we looked forward to taking on the appeal. on his first conviction, he was very hopeful. >> so for the first time in

quite a while, it would appear that things on some level are looking up for hernandez >> he gets to cell number 57, notices that he can't look in, that there's a curtain blocking the view. it was surreal. it was so shocking. i just remember thinking, how could this possibly be they're everyday people doing extraordinary things in their communities and in our world who should be the 2024 cnn hero of the year? it's your chance to weigh in. meet this year's honorees and discover the life changing work they're doing every day. >> visit cnn heroes.com. >> i didn't have to spend my

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with the president in lima peru, and this is cnn ex nfl star aaron hernandez wiped away tears when a jury acquitted him of two more counts of murder. he was accused of killing two men in a drive by shooting in 2012. >> so after his acquittal in the boston double murder case, hernandez planned to appeal his conviction in the odin lloyd case. >> hernandez. >> there was a chance that aaron would regain his freedom so everything was upbeat making his rounds. >> he gets to cell can't look in that. there's a curtain blocking the view. he knocks on the door knows it's aaron's cell gets no response tries to open the door and it's jammed several correctional people come.

finally come in. the system opening the door they see aaron naked, hanging from a rope of the bars in his window there's a gurney brought in. >> they get him into the ambulance, closed the door, and he's off. off to the hospital. and they try to do everything they could. the medical personnel to save his life right. the massachusetts department of corrections confirming to cnn that former new england patriots tight end aaron hernandez committed suicide in prison just hours ago. >> hernandez was found in his massachusetts jail cell early wednesday morning hanging from a bed sheet tied to a window. >> it was surreal. it was so shocking. >> five days after a verdict of

not guilty. >> oh, i just remember thinking, how could this possibly be jenkins told doctor phil that she was probably the last person to speak to hernandez and the last words he said to you were, what i remember him saying, babe, i've got to go. >> they're shutting the doors ' and i honestly don't think that we said, i love you to each other um, and that was it i basically he must have decided at some point that life wasn't worth living he also left a note to shea expressing his love for shea and how she had always been. >> you know his his girl to the note to his daughter. he talked about that he would always be there for her even though he

might not be there physically committed suicide. >> his his letters don't explicitly state a motive. >> when you have just had a client acquitted of a double murder and for the first time in several years, he had the potential of seeing the possibility of his conviction overturn. it is difficult to rationalize how that could occur. >> but obviously, one of the things that people are trying to figure out is why hernandez killed himself because he had severe brain damage after years of playing football in football every play is sort of like a car crash right? >> you always see in one game of football, about 60 blows to your head and these blows to the head can cause cte and that is the form of brain damage that was discovered by doctor bennet omalu. and it can

radically alter your behavior and your way of thinking once damage is done, it's permanent arrangements to donate aaron's brain to boston university to have his brain researched. >> the cte center at boston university is recognized as the top in the world what they found was what they described as the worst case of cte they'd ever seen in somebody. >> so young this would be the first case we've ever seen of that kind of damage in such a young individual this was a man whose brain was profoundly damaged with cte. >> you begin to lose your ability to control yourself. you are more likely to engage in violent behavior and more likely to commit suicide.

>> a lot of nfl players, dave duerson, junior so andre waters they all committed suicide and they all had cte thousands of violent blows of his head i guarantee you, aaron himself would have been alive today and there was also speculation at the time that aaron hernandez's sexuality could have played some role in his decision to take his own life there had been rumors of aaron hernandez's sexuality. it's only recently that that's been confirmed by people close to aaron hernandez. >> aaron was gay. >> he said he was gay. he's told other people that he was gay and that's why it's hard for

me to come out today and do this. the bottom line is that he was a gay man who was uncomfortable with his sexuality but frankly, beginning to deal with it that i know? no, i had no indication or any feeling that he was such. he was very much a man to me. >> there was going to be publicized reports that he was gay and that hadn't really been out there before. he might have been terrified about that. maybe he wanted the pressure of not having to hide that. >> and it does make you wonder about how much that played into what happened inside that jail cell that's happened since a lot of this information has come out at least people are beginning to see aaron in a

multi-dimensional way lost his career. he had lost his freedom. just the the realization of of the waste that your life had become had to have been profound why aaron hernandez ended his life when he did. >> but those closest to him play some of the blame for his suicide and his erratic behavior on the brain damage he clearly suffered from the game of football. and here's an ironic twist. in massachusetts, if a convicted felon dies before his appeal has been heard, then his original conviction is thrown out. so, in the eyes of the law, aaron hernandez died an innocent man. >> i'm hill harper thanks for watching