Aaron Hernandez is currently in jail for the murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd and life in the Bristol County House of Corrections is very different from what the former Patriots tight end is used to back home in his mansion in Attleboro.
Hernandez was taken into custody soon after the body was found less than a mile from his home and he was charged with first degree murder when he was arraigned in court. The Patriots decided to release him after the arrest despite giving him a $40 million contract and now he faces life in prison for the charges, something that greatly worries his girlfriend and fiancé Shayanna Jenkins, who is also the mother to his child.
Hernandez has been tied to the murder through a number of different pieces of evidence, including shell casings, text messages, cell phone records, video surveillance as well as bubble gum and witness testimony. Accomplice Carlos Ortiz, who said that he was asleep in the car when Hernandez, Ernest Wallace and Lloyd exited it, said that Wallace told him that Hernandez admitted to the shooting. That evidence and testimony was revealed when the court released a 156-page document including search warrants and affidavits, along with the fact that Hernandez was agitated with police at the beginning of the investigation.
Hernandez's day begins early and he gets to eat an egg with grits as well as milk and juice and the report says that when he first got there, he asked about quenching his thirst and all he could use was his sink. He is not allowed to have anything on his walls and the cell must always be neat. Hernandez is allowed to write letters and he can also read two books at a time and is permitted to leave his cell for three separate hours per day, including one for outdoors time, one for phone calls and one for a shower.
Hernandez is wearing dark green since he has not yet been tried and he is also allowed to exercise alone with the supervision of a guard. Hodgson did not say whether his fiancé or anyone else has visited and he said that Hernandez has been a model inmate so far. He said that Hernandez has not complained yet and that he is allowed to also use his commissary account to buy items like soups, breakfast bars and other small items like toiletries.
The Boston Globe got a look at where Hernandez is staying and Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson said that while he has been a model inmate, the location is not "The Ritz" There is no TV, weights for working out or coffee and Hernandez is living in a 7-foot-by-10-foot single cell and is allowed outside for one hour per day. The jail decided to keep him isolated for his safety and some inmates said to the paper that they don't care that he is there. Hernandez is in a very different place than the $1.3 million home he shares with Jenkins in North Attleboro.
"It's strictly for fresh air and sit-ups and push-ups," said Hodgson. "In his unit only one inmate can be out at a time. So he's not intermingling with people face to face."
