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Ex-NFL star Hernandez kills himself in prison

Mark Meadows
April 19, 2017

The former New England Patriots tight end, serving a life sentence for murder, has been found hanged in his cell. Last week the Super Bowl player was acquitted of a separate double killing.

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Superbowl 2012 Aaron Hernandez
Image: W. McNamee/Getty Images

Aaron Hernandez has died at 27. An official with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections told the AP news agency that Hernandez was discovered during the night and was pronounced dead at hospital. He hanged himself with a bedsheet which he attached to the cell window.

He was in a single cell in a general population unit at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts. 

He jammed the cell door from the inside with various items.

Hernandez was a tight end for the Patriots between 2010 and 2012, scoring a touchdown in the loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI.

In 2015 he was convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison.

He was also accused of a Boston double homicide in 2012 but was found not guilty on Friday.