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Judge issues order to protect evidence around Hernandez death – Metro US

Judge issues order to protect evidence around Hernandez death

Hernandez found guilty on all charges, including first degree murder
Dominick Reuter/Reuters

Attorneys for the family of Aaron Hernandez appeared in a New Bedford, Massachusetts, court on Friday afternoon to ask a judge to prevent prison officials from discarding evidence related to the death of the former New England Patriots tight end.

The judge ruled in the family’s favor Friday afternoon, WHDH reported, ordering the evidence preserved. 

The Worcester County district attorney officially ruled Hernandez’s death a suicide on Thursday, after the former football star and convicted killer was found hanging in his prison cell early Wednesday morning. 

Hernandez’s fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, filed a complaint on behalf of her and her daughter on Wednesday, asking a Superior Court judge to issue a “preliminary injunction and restraining order, preventing state officials from destroying records in his suicide,” South Coast Today reported.

Officials also announced on Thursday that three handwritten notes were found next to a bible in Hernandez’s cell. Previously, officials reported that Hernandez did not leave a suicide note. 

The filing by Jenkins-Hernandez says that the plaintiffs plan to further investigate the circumstances surrounding Hernandez’s death, and that all the evidence is crucial to that investigation.

It asks that defendants and prison officials be “preliminarily and permanently enjoined from altering, discarding or destroying the following: all documents, records, logs, video and audio recordings, physical materials, writings and other evidence potentially relevant to the death of Aaron Hernandez,” according to court documents obtained by South Coast Today.

The filing continues seeks to include on that list all video recordings and logs from Hernandez’s cell and cell block at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, where he died. In addition, it includes all contents of his cell, any and all photos taken of the scene, medical equipment used on him to provide emergency care, any clothes Hernandez may have been wearing or were taken off of his body, recordings of any 911 or other emergency calls related to his death, recorded telephone calls made by or to Hernandez in the 30 days before his death, and more.