FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez puts on a Super Bowl cap following the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Foxborough, Mass. Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for a murder conviction and just days ago was acquitted of a double murder, died after hanging himself in his prison cell Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Massachusetts prisons officials said. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson, File)
The suicide notes found in Aaron Hernandez’s prison cell after he hanged himself last week will be released to his family Monday afternoon.
A Bristol Superior Court judge in Massachusetts ordered that the letters be handed over to the former NFL player’s family after their lawyer, George Leontire, filed a motion saying they should be able to “know their loved one’s final thoughts,” according to the Boston Globe.
Before hanging himself at the maximum security Souza-Baranowski Corrections Center, Hernandez scribbled notes to three people: his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, their 4-year-old daughter, Avielle, and his prison lover, Kyle Kennedy, reports have said.
A private funeral service for Hernandez was set to begin at 1 p.m Monday in his hometown of Bristol, Conn.
“We wish to say goodbye to Aaron in a private ceremony and thank everyone in advance for affording us a measure of privacy during this difficult time,” the family said in a statement.
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