Judge Orders Preservation of Evidence in Hernandez Suicide
NEW BEDFORD (AP)—A Massachusetts judge says he's issuing an order preserving evidence in Aaron Hernandez's prison suicide.
Bristol Superior Court Judge Thomas McGuire says it's only fair that the ex-NFL star's family, the government and the public know exactly how he died.
Hernandez's fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, filed court papers Wednesday on behalf of his estate.
She asks that prison officials be barred from altering or destroying any potential evidence, including Hernandez's writings, video and audio recordings and medical records.
The former New England Patriots tight end was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison early Wednesday. He was serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder.
The order includes video recordings of his cell for the eight hours before the ex-NFL star was found hanged.
It also covers recordings of his phone calls for 30 days before his death. But it doesn't include recordings of other inmates' phone calls. George Leontire, a lawyer for Hernandez's fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, had asked for those.
Leontire told the judge Friday that the family has been learning disturbing details about Hernandez's death from news reports and on Twitter.