Jose Baez, the attorney who represented former NFL player Aaron Hernandez in his double-murder trial, rejected claims that a letter found in his client’s prison cell was written to a gay lover.
“Rumors of letters to a gay lover, in or out of prison, are false,” Baez said, according to TMZ Sports.
The 27-year-old former New England Patriots tight end was found dead in his jail cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass., on Wednesday after apparently taking his own life. Three letters were located in his cell at the time of his death.
The letters, reportedly released to Hernandez’s family, were for his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, his child and 22-year-old Kyle Kennedy, according to the New York Daily News. Kennedy’s lawyer, Larry Army Jr., confirmed that one of the letters assumed to be penned by Hernandez before taking his life was addressed to his client.
But Baez insisted that no romantic relationship between the two inmates existed.
“These [letters] are malicious leaks used to tarnish somebody who is dead,” Baez said.
Kennedy is listed as a convicted armed robber who was placed on suicide watch. He is believed to be the final person to see Hernandez alive, before he hanged himself with a bedsheet in his single cell. Army did not comment on his client’s relationship with Hernandez.
CBS affiliate WBZ-TV reported that the former tight end also gave Kennedy a $50,000 watch and other items before leaving the note.
