A timeline of Aaron Hernandez’s football career, criminal cases and death
By Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — It’s been over seven years since the NFL star Aaron Hernandez was found dead by suicide in his prison cell at the age of 27.
Yet interest in his life – from his high-flying gridiron fame to his two distinct murder trials – remains perhaps as strong as ever. Now, it is the subject of FX’s limited series, “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,” a dramatized retelling of the athlete’s peaks and traumas, including head injuries.
CNN closely covered Hernandez’s rise and fall nearly a decade ago. Here’s a timeline of some key moments, complete with his Super Bowl touchdown, his shocking arrest and his death.
A football star
2006: Dennis Hernandez, the father of 16-year-old Aaron Hernandez, dies due to complications from a routine hernia surgery.
2007: Hernandez, a tight end for Bristol Central High School, is named the Connecticut Gatorade Football Player of the Year. He attends the University of Florida to play football under Head Coach Urban Meyer.
2008: Led by quarterback Tim Tebow, Hernandez and the Gators win college football’s national championship.
2009: Hernandez becomes the first Gator to win the John Mackey Award, given every year to the top collegiate tight end.
January 2010: After just three years in college, Hernandez announces his decision to skip his senior year at Florida and turn pro.
April 24, 2010: Hernandez, 20, is picked in the fourth round of the NFL draft by the New England Patriots, led by coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
April 27, 2010: Hernandez admits he failed a drug test while playing for Florida.
2010: Hernandez and fellow rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski combine to form one of the best tight end duos in the NFL.
2011: Hernandez finishes the season with 910 yards and seven touchdowns and is named to the Pro Bowl as an alternate.
February 5, 2012: Hernandez catches a 12-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, but the New England Patriots lose to the New York Giants 21-17.
July 16, 2012: Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, two immigrants from Cape Verde, are killed by gunshots fired into their vehicle after a night out in Boston, prosecutors allege.
August 27, 2012: Hernandez signs a five-year contract extension with the Patriots worth up to $40 million.
Arrest and murder trials
June 17, 2013: A jogger finds the body of Odin Lloyd riddled with gunshots at an industrial park in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, about a mile from Hernandez’s home.
Lloyd, a 27-year-old semipro football player, had been dating the younger sister of Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins. Lloyd last had been seen around 2:30 a.m. with Hernandez and Hernandez’s friends, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, in a rented silver Nissan Altima, according to prosecutors.
June 18, 2013: Police search Hernandez’s home in connection with the killing.
June 26, 2013: Hernandez is arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Lloyd’s death, plus five weapons-related charges. Hernandez pleads not guilty and is held without bail.
The New England Patriots release Hernandez less than two hours after his arrest.
October 16, 2013: Hernandez’s fiancée, Jenkins, pleads not guilty to perjury charges after prosecutors allege she lied to a grand jury and disposed of evidence.
November 2013: Hernandez allegedly threatens a jail worker.
February 25, 2014: Hernandez is involved in an “altercation with another inmate,” according to the Bristol County Sheriff’s Department.
April 11, 2014: Ortiz and Wallace, the friends seen in the car with Hernandez on the night of Lloyd’s death, are indicted and charged with murder.
May 1, 2014: Hernandez is indicted on charges of assault and battery and threatening to do bodily harm in connection with the February 25 jailhouse altercation. He is also indicted for threats to do bodily harm in connection with the November 2013 incident.
May 15, 2014: Hernandez is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 2012 killings of de Abreu and Furtado in Boston.
May 28, 2014: Hernandez pleads not guilty to the double-murder charges.
January 29, 2015: Opening statements begin in Fall River, Massachusetts, in Hernandez’s trial for the murder of Lloyd.
February 1, 2015: Without Hernandez, the Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 to win Super Bowl XLIX.
March 27, 2015: Jenkins, Hernandez’s fiancée, testifies as a prosecution witness under immunity.
April 15, 2015: Hernandez is found guilty of first-degree murder and weapons charges in Lloyd’s death. He is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
May 11, 2015: Hernandez is indicted in Massachusetts for witness intimidation in the 2013 shooting of Alexander Bradley. Prosecutors believe Bradley was a witness to the homicides of de Abreu and Furtado, and they say Hernandez shot Bradley after he made a remark about the double murder.
May 15, 2015: The perjury charge against Jenkins is dropped, according to the Associated Press.
May 21, 2015: Hernandez pleads not guilty to witness intimidation in the Bradley case. In court, Hernandez reveals a new tattoo on his neck reading, “Lifetime Loyalty.”
May 2016: Wallace, one of Hernandez’s two co-defendants in the Lloyd murder case, is convicted of accessory to murder after the fact and acquitted of murder. He is sentenced to four and a half to seven years in prison, the Bristol County prosecutor said.
June 2016: Ortiz pleads guilty to accessory after the fact in exchange for prosecutors dropping the murder charge against him, officials said. He is sentenced to four and a half to seven years in prison.
March 1, 2017: Hernandez’s trial in the killings of Furtado and de Abreu and the alleged witness intimidation of Bradley begins.
Prosecutors allege Hernandez shot at the men five times after de Abreu bumped into him at a nightclub and caused him to spill his drink. Prosecutors also argue Hernandez’s tattoos, including a gun and five bullets, represent a “confession.”
Hernandez’s defense argues there is little forensic or scientific evidence to prove the case.
April 14, 2017: Hernandez is found not guilty of murder in the deaths of Furtado and de Abreu and not guilty of witness intimidation of Bradley. Of the eight counts Hernandez faced, he is found guilty of just one: illegal possession of a firearm.
Death and what’s come after
April 19, 2017: Hernandez is found hanged in his prison cell at 3:05 a.m. He is pronounced dead of an apparent suicide, according to the Massachusetts Department of Correction.
April 20, 2017: Hernandez’s family announces they plan to donate his brain to scientists to determine whether he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the degenerative brain disease linked to a number of NFL athletes. The brain will be released to the Boston University CTE Center for further examination, the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office says.
May 9, 2017: A Massachusetts judge vacates Hernandez’s murder conviction due to a quirky legal rule called “abatement,” in which convictions are thrown out if a defendant dies before their appeals are heard.
September 21, 2017: Testing on Hernandez’s brain shows he had a “severe case” of CTE, attorney Jose Baez says.
October 13, 2018: The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team releases a six-part series on Hernandez titled “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.” According to the reporting, Hernandez told those close to him he was sexually molested as a boy and he had a sexual relationship with his high school quarterback.
October 30, 2018: Hernandez’s older brother, Jonathan “DJ” Hernandez, writes a memoir, “The Truth About Aaron,” revealing the brothers had been physically abused by their father and Aaron Hernandez said he was gay.
March 13, 2019: Hernandez’s murder conviction is reinstated after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously finds the legal rule of abatement should be abolished.
September 17, 2024: FX debuts “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,” a 10-episode series inspired by Hernandez’s life and based on The Globe’s “Gladiator” series.
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CNN’s Editorial research team contributed to this report.
