Crime Weekly - S2 Ep76: Aaron Hernandez: Cracks Start to Show (Part 2)

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

Fifteen year old Matthew Kent was out for a jog on the evening of June 17th, 2013 when he discovered something that would change the course of multiple lives. Kent had just finished working out at the gym, and he was training for his high school track team, so he decided to run the short distance back to his home in Westwood Estates in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. His route brought him through a secluded clearing in an industrial park around 5PM where he saw a man, lying on his back, not moving. Kent approached the man to ask if he was alright, and when he received no response, he called the police. The body was that of 27 year old Odin Lloyd, a semi professional football player and a linebacker for the Boston Bandits, a family man whose two loves in life were his family and football, but for some unexplainable reason he had been shot to death, execution style. Odin was not from North Attleboro, and it wasn’t the kind of place where random acts of violence occurred, but law enforcement quickly discovered that he only knew two people in the area. Shayanna Jenkins, the sister of Lloyd’s girlfriend, and Aaron Hernandez, Shayanna’s boyfriend and tight end for the New England Patriots. No one wanted to believe that a young and talented professional football player who had just signed a 40 million dollar contract could possibly be involved with this brutal murder, but as the investigation progressed, a pandoras box was opened, revealing that there was another, darker side to Aaron Hernandez.  Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCO.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Did you know using your browser in incognito mode doesn't actually protect your privacy? Take back your privacy with IPVanish VPN. Just one tap and all your data, passwords, communications, browsing history, and more will be instantly protected. IPVanish makes you virtually invisible online. Use IPVanish on all your devices, anytime you go online at home and especially on public Wi-Fi. Get IPVanish now for 70% off a yearly plan with this exclusive offer at IPVanish.com slash audio. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur. our coffee company, Criminal Coffee Company. It is in pre-order stages now.

So if you want to be the first to try any one of the three, what do you call it? Varieties? Three varieties? Roasts? There's two roasts and a blend. Yeah. If you want to be the first one to try any of these three or all three,

head over to criminalcoffeeco.com right now and get yourself on the pre-order list. We would really appreciate it. And we think you're going to love it. Yeah. If you've already pre-ordered, let us know down in the comments which bag you ordered. Maybe you ordered all three. There is a bundle on there. By the way, the bundle, if you haven't noticed yet, if you buy the bundle, you save 10%. So it might be the way to go. Saving 10% is good. All right. So I'm just going to dive in from where we left off. I'm not going to do too much of a recap because if you haven't watched or listened to part one, you're really going to need to do that.

We covered a lot of context. A lot of texture to this story was gone over in the first episode of this series. So go and listen or watch that first. If you haven't already, we'll link it in the appropriate places. But where we are now, Aaron Hernandez is the big man on campus. He's part of one of the biggest teams in college football. He's living it up in sunny Florida. But behind the scenes, he's struggling with the death of his father, Dennis, and he's also missing home and contemplating whether or not he should return to Connecticut. But most of his team members and friends,

they wouldn't have known this because Aaron was so good-natured and the life of the party. whether or not he should return to Connecticut, but most of his team members and friends, they wouldn't have known this because Aaron was so good-natured and the life of the party. Now, on the evening of April 28, 2007, a 17-year-old Aaron went to a popular bar on campus called The Swamp, along with his Gators teammate, Tim Tebow, and a new friend, Sean Young, who was a tennis player and the only one in the group who was old enough legally to order and drink alcohol. But as we discussed briefly in part one, small things like the legal drinking age did not necessarily apply to you if you were a football player at the University of Florida. But as we also know, and as Derek kind of talked about in

part one, Tim Tebow's always been or had this reputation to be very straight-laced. He's Christian. He's openly talked about his values. He's talked about remaining a virgin until marriage. He kneels down in the field to pray. He even wrote Bible verses in his eye black. So while at the bar, Aaron and Tim Tebow, they were drinking lemonade, but somehow Aaron managed to obtain and consume two drinks or two shots, which were allegedly supplied to him by a waitress. So it's very confusing what happened, but the way Aaron Hernandez would later tell it to the police is he was just sitting there and somebody sent drinks over to him. And he's like, oh, I'm this big time football player. Somebody's sending me drinks.

Let me try it out. But he didn't like the way that the drinks tasted or the shots. So he poured them into his lemonade and then he went on with his night. But when he and his friends got up to leave the Swamps manager, Michael Tapphorn, he walked over and he produced a bill for these drinks. And he asked Aaron, like, you know, who's going to pay for these drinks? Which I think is like you have the balls to ask this 17-year-old kid, who's going to pay for the drinks? He shouldn't have been allowed to order them. They shouldn't have been delivered to him. And now you're like, who's going to pay for these? It's kind of ridiculous. Let me just play devil's advocate, right? What if he goes in there, they didn't check his IDs, which shocker, they don't do it a lot of these clubs, right?

And Aaron orders the drinks, right? Maybe he says, hey, I want these drinks over here, orders them. And then like any other person, they send him a bill and say, hey, okay, here's your receipt for your drinks. And Aaron, who has now developed this ego, like, do you know who I am, is appalled at the idea that they're actually going to make him pay for his drinks. No, that's definitely what people believe happened, that he was like, oh, I ordered a drink. I thought that that was just going to be on the house. But still, you're in a college town at a college bar. You should be IDing everybody. But the manager was

like, oh, of course. Right. That's what I'm saying. Like, there's a very basic level of like foundation we have to have here is like a responsible establishment. They ID'd everyone. They wouldn't have a business. I guess. But now you've got other issues on your hands. And Michael Taphorn was like, I don't know what you want from me. Like, he looked like a 45-year-old man. He didn't look like a 17 year old kid, that's for sure. No. But instead of just paying for the drinks or being like, oh, I'm confused. I thought they were sent over to me. A verbal altercation ensued. Aaron was asked to leave the bar and he was escorted out by Michael Tapphorn. But once outside, Aaron claims that Tapphorn got in his face, which triggered Aaron to punch Michael Tapphorn on the side of his head. and he ended up puncturing this guy's eardrum. Tim Tebow later told the police that he'd tried to step in and have the matter resolved away. He punched the guy and just ran.

And I guess the manager started running after him, but you're talking about Aaron Hernandez here. He went varsity, track and field. The kid could run like nobody's business. Didn't catch him. And Michael Taphorn, I guess he declined to press charges. And Tim Tebow and Aaron both told Coach Urban Meyer about the incident. And some people believe that there was some sort of payoff or some sort of agreement made between the university and Michael Taphorn because Michael Taphorn was like, no, I don't

want to press charges, even after he found out it was going to take four to six weeks for his punctured eardrum to heal. Well, I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but I think everyone out there can kind of put two and two together here, right? Michael Taphorn owns a bar called The Swamp. That's literally what they call the stadium. So his business is off of the University of Florida football team. So if you are labeled as a snitch and you are responsible for their star tight end, not being able to play, you might as well just sell your business. So I think Michael Taphorn made a business decision and was like, you know what, four to six weeks with the drum or being labeled a snitch and losing this business altogether because there's going to be a complete

standoff at his bar. I think a lot of people wouldn't go there anymore. So he made what he thought was the best decision for him. Not saying that's what I would recommend for anybody else, but I think it's pretty clear that that's what happened here. I don't know if he was paid off or he just decided he didn't want to have this take a big, significant chunk out of his income that's coming in from fans of the University of Florida football team. And players too, probably. Exactly. If this bar was known to have the football players come in there and drink and spend their time, that's another attraction for college students to want to go there. Well, what if the football team's not allowed to go there anymore? Maybe you get less people

wanting to go drink at your bar. There's plenty of bars to drink at in Gainesville. So, you know, I understand why he did what he did. As far as the incident in question, you know, there's all that saying, right? There's his side of the truth, her side of the truth, or his side of the truth, his side of the truth. And then there's the actual truth, right? Somewhere in the middle there. So what really happened that night? We'll never know.

I'm sure it's a combination of the stories. I find it hard to believe knowing what we know about Aaron now that Michael Taphorn didn't walk him out. Maybe there was some verbal words and Aaron escalated it to a physical altercation because that was in his nature. That's clearly what he was about, as we will come to know. So it's not surprising for me to believe that Aaron initiated the physical assault on Michael and Michael maybe responded to it, but Michael doesn't have a history of murdering people. So I'm going to go with Aaron as probably the aggressor. Fair enough. Well, after this incident, Urban Meyer, he instructed Tim Tebow to keep an eye on Aaron and provide him with a good example of how one should behave as a Florida Gator.

Aaron and Tim lived next to each other on campus, and when they traveled for away games and things like that, they were assigned to room together. And for a while, it seemed that Tim was inspiring Aaron to remain focused on school and football. But whenever Aaron would go home to Bristol, Connecticut for a visit, any progress he had made would be wiped away. And Urban Meyer said, quote, it would almost take us a few weeks to get him back to thinking about the team and thinking about what to do right, end quote. Meyer would speak to Aaron's brother, DJ, often, sometimes several times a week, and they both agreed that Aaron's Bristol influences

were the worst thing for him and for his career. But Aaron was loyal to his cousin Tanya and her friends because they had been there for him after his father's death when his mother Terry had been running around with Jeff Cummings and his brother DJ was away at school. For a few months, Aaron trained with Tim Tebow and behaved himself, but there was another incident towards the end of 2007 on September 30th when three men were shot at while they waited at a red light on West University Ave in Gainesville. The Florida Gators had just lost a game that Aaron had played in, so he and a few of his buddies decided to blow off some steam at a new club in Gainesville called

Venue. Now, one of the men that 17-year-old Aaron was with that night was Reggie Nelson. Reggie was a former Florida Gator, and at that time, he was a rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars, so he'd gone pro. Aaron and Nelson were also accompanied by two twin brothers and Gator players, Mike and Marquise Pouncey, who a venue bouncer named Antoine Hamm would later claim were always at that club and always spoiling for a fight. Gainesville resident Justin Glass was also at venue that night with two of his friends, Colby Smith and Randall Kaysen. And from what I've read and from, you know, firsthand accounts of this, it seemed like Justin's two buddies were like the angel and the devil on his shoulder with Colby Smith, who was like a husband and a father and kind of a little bit older. He was the angel.

And Randall Cason had a record. He was kind of like into stuff he shouldn't be into. He had like a gun with him that night. He was the devil. And I will say this, as far as Mike and Marquise Pouncey, both great NFL players, but they were known to be brawlers, to be fighters. And they were, I mean, pretty much okay in the NFL, but they got in a lot of fights in the NFL too. They didn't take any shit. We'll just say that. They're tough kids and they're monsters too. Huge. Yeah. I did see that as I was kind of Googling and trying to find

like people who had witnessed things and people had talked to them at the club that night. I kept coming up with stories where it was like one kind of scandal after another with them. Yeah. They're bad boys for sure. I forgot which one it was, but one played for the Pittsburgh Steelers for a very long time. Very successful in the NFL, but not guys I'd want to cross in a bar. That's for damn sure. I don't want to cross any guys in a bar, man. Not these guys. I mean, Jesus, they had to be 6'5", maybe even bigger, 6'8", 200, 300 pounds. 6'8". Yeah. These guys, they're both linemen. Those are giants. If you're 6'8", you're a giant.

Yeah, they were giants. So according to Randall Kaysen, a week prior at this very same club, his brother had gotten into an altercation with some University of Florida football players who had inferred or the Pouncey brothers. And on September 30th, Kaysen found himself in a similar situation when some football players started getting in his face and attempting to grab a chain that he was wearing around his neck. Now apparently the football players doing the chain grabbing were the Pouncey Twins, which is how Antoine Hamm, the bouncer, remembered everything going down. But they weren't trying to grab the chain from Randall Kaysen, as Kaysen had claimed, they were trying to grab the chain from Justin Glass. So venue club security made the call to remove both the Pouncey brothers from the club along with Glass. And obviously when, you know, part, I mean, I've been kicked out of a club before, I'm not gonna lie,

like when part of your crew gets kicked out of the club, you go with them. You know, everybody in that crew goes with the person that got kicked out. So all of these people are streaming out into the parking lot. The Pouncey brothers get kicked out. So obviously Reggie's going with them. Aaron's going with them. And all of Justin Glass's friends are going with them. And the altercation moves out to the parking lot. And at this point, Reggie Nelson apparently got in the middle of it. He tried to diffuse the tense situation. Apparently Reggie and Randall Kaysen knew each other from like here and there on the neighborhood. They talked it out, shook hands, they hugged, and they were like, oh, sorry about that. And Randall Kaysen said, I don't have the

chain. Like I already sold it to somebody or something. And they went their separate ways. But later that night, as Justin Glass, Randall Kaysen, and Colby Smith were driving down West University Street in their Crown Victoria, they claimed they saw Reggie Nelson's Jeep Tahoe following them. Suddenly, two men were standing on the sidewalk outside of their car window, and they claimed that these two men were Reggie Nelson and Aaron Hernandez. Randall Kaysen claimed that Aaron shoved a gun through their open car window and began shooting before taking off and running away through a Holiday Inn parking lot. Justin Glass had been shot in the arm. Randall Kaysen in the back seat, he wasn't hit. But Corey Smith in the passenger seat had been shot in the back of the head. Now, just to make everybody feel a little better about this, not that it's better, but so I'm not leaving you hanging, Colby Smith did recover. He didn't die,

which is, I guess, fortunate because he seemed to be kind of the only one there who was not looking for trouble. And he had a family to go home to. But he has had a lot of health complications since the shooting. The one thing I will say, I know we have more to talk about as far as this incident is concerned. Initially, it does hold some weight because I'm assuming that these individuals knew who Aaron Hernandez was. So if there was light there, they would probably be able to identify him pretty easily if they had dealt with him in the past and maybe even knew who he was because of his football career. So I'll be interested to see how this plays out because

I do know a little bit about it, but I don't think much happened from it. So we'll keep going. But before we do, let's take a quick break. Did you know using your browser in incognito mode doesn't actually protect your privacy? Take back your privacy with IPVanish VPN. Just one tap and all your data, passwords, communications, browsing history, and more will be instantly protected. IPVanish makes you virtually invisible online. Use IPVanish on all your devices anytime you go online at home and especially on public Wi-Fi. Get IPVanish now for 70% off a yearly plan with this exclusive offer at IPVanish.com slash audio. So Detective Patty Nixon of the Gainesville Police Department was called

to the scene and then to the hospital to question the victims. At the scene, Nixon noted that at the time of the shooting, there would have been throngs of students At the scene, Nixon noted that at the time of the shooting, there would have been throngs of students leaving the clubs and the bars that were located up and down West University Ave, and she thought that whoever had committed the crime had not been the sharpest tool in the shed because there would have been a lot of eyewitnesses. Now, Randall Kaysen described the shooter as standing at about 6'3", 6'4", 240 pounds, either a Hawaiian or Hispanic man wearing a green collared shirt with lots of tattoos. And who does that really sound like? It does sound like Aaron Hernandez.

Kaysen believed that this man was a member of the University of Florida football team, and he had told police that Reggie Nelson had been standing next to the shooter on the sidewalk when it all went down. Kaysen also mentioned that the Pouncey twins, who Detective Nixon was familiar with, because like you mentioned, they were constantly getting into trouble. Kaysen mentioned that they were there as well. So Detective Nixon is obviously like, okay, I know these kids. I know what team they're on. I know who they play for. And she got in contact with Coach Urban Meyer's assistant, John Clark. And she asked John Clark, do you know of any Hispanic or Hawaiian men that the Pouncey twins might be hanging around with? And he gave her the name of Aaron Hernandez. Now, the only issue was there'd been other eyewitnesses. And they'd all described the shooter as being a black male with cornrows who was no taller than 5'8", and that did not match Aaron's description at all.

The only person who had pointed to Aaron was Randall Kaysen, who was a known criminal. But when he picked Aaron's picture out of a photo lineup, the Pouncey twins and Aaron Hernandez were brought to the station and placed in separate interview rooms. Marquise Pouncey twins and Aaron Hernandez were brought to the station and placed in separate interview rooms. Marquise Pouncey claimed that while at venue, someone had snatched a gold chain off of his brother's neck, but the club was so crowded he hadn't seen who had done the snatching. When the club closed and they all went outside, Marquise claimed that a man walked up to them and told them he had their chain and lifted his shirt up as if to expose a gun in his waistband. Mike Pouncey, his brother, had a similar story, but in his version of events,

the male outside the club told him, quote, I got something for you. You need to stick to football, end quote, before telling him to come and get his chain. Both brothers claimed they left the area at that time and they saw nothing more. Marquise said that Aaron had been there the whole time, but Mike claimed Aaron had already left the area well before this. Reggie Nelson claimed that they'd all left the area and they'd gone to a friend's campus apartment. interview Aaron, he was sleeping peacefully in the interrogation room. And when they woke him up, he allegedly said, quote, I'm not going to say anything. I want my lawyer present. I'm sorry. My lawyer told me to say that. End quote. I mean, he ain't wrong. Yeah, but he's like apologizing. You know, he's like, it's like, sorry, you know, you know, you know what, you know what's coming. I have my rights. I'm sorry, but I have to say it. And that was really the end of that. Aaron was never spoken to by the police again. Randall Kaysen was questioned again, though, I believe it was later that night. And at the time, he claimed he had just assumed it had been Aaron because Aaron had been at the club that night, but he hadn't actually seen anything because he had balled himself up in the back seat trying to avoid being shot. Now, at this point, the investigation reached a dead end with the only witness who had claimed that Aaron was the shooter retracting that statement.

But now that we know what we know, it does make you wonder, especially given a later double homicide that Aaron would be allegedly involved in, very similar kind of MO. And you mentioned earlier, and we talked a little bit more off camera about it, that there was some possible gang affiliations with Aaron Hernandez. So if the right people were to threaten Randall Kaysen and be like, shut your mouth, don't point your fingers at people you don't want to be pointing fingers at, he might retract his statement and understand that to stay alive on the streets, you got to have the right friends and not make the wrong enemies. Right. Absolutely plausible. And I will say this because I've been very hard on Aaron. Do I think he committed this crime? Honestly, I don't know.

So I'm not going to even speculate, but I will say knowing what we know about the incident from Mike and Marquise, this is a situation that I believe would infuriate Aaron. Aaron was someone who had the world in his hands, had his whole life in front of him, but he still kind of operated under this code of like a gang member where like respect was number one. It didn't matter how much money you had. It didn't matter about any of that. It was all about respect. And sometimes to gain respect, you had to instill fear. And something like taking someone's chain, especially amongst people who are affiliated with gangs, is the ultimate sign of disrespect. So if Aaron had been there, when someone that he cares about, one of his teammates were disrespected in

that way. Would that be something where Aaron would feel a need to retaliate? Very possible. But as far as, you know, what we know here, you know, they're saying that it wasn't him now that maybe they just thought it was him. So you got to give the benefit of the doubt if that's what they're saying. Although I think we all agree it could go either way. If this guy came back out tomorrow and said, you know what, I retracted my statement because I had some outside pressure, would anybody be surprised at this point? I don't think so. No. And I mean, I feel like it was definitely somebody who was involved with what happened at the club, right? Because they never figured out who did it.

With all those witnesses, they were never able to find out who had actually done this shooting. And that's crazy to me. I mean, there's surveillance all over that place. There's, like she said, thousands of kids streaming in and out of bars. People saw it. It was definitely somebody, I think, that was involved with their group. It just will always be a mystery as to who that was. Always will be a mystery. It probably will remain that way because obviously Aaron's no longer with us. So at this point, what would this person have to gain

by coming forward? Nothing. Well, going into the 2008 season, the Gators tight end Cornelius Ingram tore his ACL at training camp, and this allowed Aaron to get some playtime on the field as a freshman, even though from conversations with his brother, he didn't feel like he was getting enough playtime. In fact, DJ talks about this in his book, how Aaron was calling him, and he's like, oh, I only was able to play like six minutes during this game. Oh, should I come home? Should I play for UConn? Because right now, Aaron, it's very similar. It's a story as old as time. A very, very good high school player goes to college and they become a small fish in a big pond. And suddenly they're like, oh shit, I'm not the best thing that ever

happened to this sport. There's other people who are just as good, if not a little bit better than me because they've been doing this longer and they've been on the team for a couple of years and they've all worked together, this team, for a couple of years, whereas I'm a newcomer and I have to kind of put my time in before I'm starting. But he didn't like that. He wanted to be the superstar. He wanted to be like Coach Urban Meyer said, the guy that you say, put him in and get the ball in his hands. And he wasn't really that initially and it bugged him. So that's also something that I think is a hallmark of his personality. He wants to be a superstar. And so he'll go wherever he thinks he can be viewed that way. So he was kind of going back and forth with

DJ about whether he should come back. But two weeks before the 2008 season opener, Aaron tested positive on a drug test. So he was kept out of the first game, which was against Hawaii, with the public reason being given that he'd gotten injured. Following week, however, Aaron did play during the game against Miami and he caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Tebow. He started again the third game against Tennessee, and again he scored a touchdown pass from Tim Tebow. By the end of the season, everyone who followed college football knew who Aaron Hernandez was. And the road to the NFL had never looked so clear and sunny. At 6'2", 245 pounds, University of Florida junior Aaron Hernandez does not fit the typical NFL tight end bowler. However, what he lacks in size he makes up for with athleticism and

route running. In 2009, the former Gator was impressive, leading all tight ends in catches with 68 for 850 yards and five touchdowns. Hernandez's ability to explode off the line and make smooth, quick cuts allows him to gain separation from defenders, while his hands and long reach allow him to snatch every ball that comes his way. With his natural instincts and great hands, Hernandez is unquestionably one of the best receiving tight ends in this year's draft. I will say this.

I know what we're talking about here, but separating the two for a second, he was an extremely talented football player. I remember watching him at the University of Florida. Obviously, as a Patriots fan, I watched him there as well, but he had the potential to be one of the greatest tight ends of all time. He was that good. And to go back to what we talked about in the first episode, that is why people are so enamored with the story, because there have been other NFL athletes, other athletes in all professional sports, who have fallen from grace and gotten into trouble and not reached their full potential because of decisions they made off the field. But with Aaron, you could see that not only was he good and an NFL player, he could have been one of the greatest. And that's why it's so sad.

Again, not taking away from what we're talking about here, taking a man's life is way more important than any sport. But just for a second to put it in a vacuum after watching that clip, it just reminded me of when I was younger watching him play and how in awe I was by his skill set, because he really was incredible. And he was only a freshman, right? I mean, that footage right there, I believe was his freshman year. Some of it was. Yeah. Some of it was because this is his NFL reel, like the reel that he was sending to NFL teams. So it was kind of a come. Yeah. So I think he played, I don't know if he played all four years or three years, but even when he was a freshman, I mean, he didn't play as much, but he already looked bigger than everybody else.

It was incredible. So, so sad, man. Such a talent wasted. Yeah, they said that he had this like instinctual understanding of the game that nobody else had or you wouldn't have unless you were like at a coach level and you'd seen everything and done everything and played the game for years and years that he just kind of was like born understanding in his brain things that you know young players like him wouldn't even know how to touch and yeah it's right route running your ability to catch the ball like your hands some of those things can't be taught and he just had a natural ability and he was very highly touted coming out of college. It's too bad. And I mean, although Aaron did have everything it took to be a first round

NFL draft pick, that was not to be. Now the NFL draft is a two-day event in which all 32 teams take turns selecting players, but a lot of work precedes this two-day event. A lot of vetting. And Aaron was a great player, but he had a lot of red flags. One AFC College scouting director told journalist Albert Breer, quote, They couldn't pin a lot of stuff on him at Florida, but people at the school will tell you, every time there's an issue, he's around it. If there was trouble, Hernandez's name would come up.

He was a con guy. Very believable. Spoke well. A lot of things inside of you hoped you'd turn him around, but people that I talked to said they didn't trust him, that he'd burn you." So these scouts are actually going to the campus, and they're not just interviewing the players or the coaches or the teammates. They're going around the school and being like, hey, do you know Aaron Hernandez? Hey, what do you think of him? Like, have you ever seen anything? Like, has he ever made you feel weird, scared? They'll talk to like the girls around campus and be like, has he ever been inappropriate with you? They are going deep.

It's like CIA level shit. They're even reaching out to police departments and grabbing dispatch logs. Yeah. You know, that's public information. They can go down there and see how many encounters local law enforcement has had with a specific person. So, you know, and when you're when there's that amount of money at stake and it's football, right? You know, a lot of people are willing to assist and fill you in on what's going on, especially if you have a scout coming down from, you know, a big team to Denver, you know, a big team, the Denver Broncos, you know, whatever, hey, scout from Denver Broncos is in town. He knows where to go to find what he needs to find out. And he probably has sources at the police departments, at the campus security, you know, athletic trainers, all that good stuff where he can find out very quickly if this is someone who has some character issues, as they like to call it.

But even with all that work they do, as we know, as we've seen from the multiple scandals that have popped up in the NFL, some people still slip through the cracks, no matter how much vetting, no matter how much background checking, no matter how much preparation work goes into it. Sometimes you still get a bad apple or somebody who still goes on to make wrong decisions, even though everything came back clean and all their interviews were good and their background check was clean. It's just, it's, it's a crapshoot either way. I think about this too. You, you had mentioned it very quickly. You know, we talked about urban Meyer and not only urban Meyer, but a lot of top tier college football programs. He was popped for, he popped for a drug test

earlier and yet it was portrayed to the public as an injury. I understand why they're doing that. They want, they don't want a bad decision like smoking weed or whatever to affect his draft stock, but you have to look at it in a bigger context. It's enabling them because they now feel that they can do things and that the team will cover for them. And don't believe for a second that Urban Meyer didn't know about these decisions being made because he wants those players on the field. And if they're getting popped for drug tests, that might inhibit their ability to get out

there. So everyone's in on it. And that's why when the scouts come there, they'll talk to the coaches and stuff like that. But as you had just said, they're going to outside sources as well because they know the coach, if the coach likes the player, he's going to tell you nothing but good things about him. Exactly. But he's also the same one putting him on the injury report when he's not injured. Exactly. So like everyone watching from home is going to think Aaron's injured. In fact, that game he sat out against Hawaii, he had like one of those like boot things

on, you know, to show that he was like injured. And it was kind of a joke amongst the team. Like if you were seen on the sidelines with that boot, that was you being punished because you did something wrong, such as fail a drug test. It was kind of like this little inside joke. So yeah, when the scouts come, they're going to be like, oh, you know, Aaron was injured during that game. And maybe some of the team members or some of the people hanging around the team are going to be like, yeah, he was injured. Wink, wink, you know, and they're going to get the real story. And you just said it. It's like an inside joke amongst the players. Oh, you got the boot this week. Yes. Not, hey man, you did something

wrong. You jeopardized our team. You jeopardized our ability to play and win. It's like, ah, you know what? You got pop. Urban's got this. We got it covered. Whoever's involved with that, just throw the boot on for the week. You don't slap on the wrist. You'll be back on the field. So what's that telling them? I play by a different set of rules. It's telling them I can get away with murder.

I mean, Jesus, Stephanie, they actually stream. But yeah, I mean, it's a start. It's a start. It's start. They start to, they start to question like, how much can I get away with? How far can I push the envelope here? How, how much do they get away with? How far can I push the envelope here? How much do they want me on the field? There are things we probably don't know about Aaron that happened

that never got to the public eye. Who knows? I absolutely agree. I absolutely agree that that's probably the case. And I mean, a lot of people, a lot of big teams were interested in Aaron, but then they sent scouts and then all of a sudden they're like, we're not so interested anymore. Another, an NFC personnel executive said, quote, he was very, very immature. Urban did him right by having him follow Tebow and he was such a follower. He could go in any direction and everyone knew that if you didn't keep an eye on him, he was an easy guy to persuade to do the wrong thing, end quote. Aaron had gotten a reputation for being a good guy, unless you crossed him, and then he would snap. He would lose his temper, and he would always want

to fight, never talk it out. According to the Wall Street Journal, shortly before the 2010 NFL draft, a scouting service that prepares confidential psychological profiles of potential players, found that Aaron Hernandez enjoyed living on the edge of acceptable behavior, and this report cautioned that he could become a problem for his team. In most areas, Aaron looked like a remarkably qualified candidate, and he was given an overall motivational and mental test score of 10 out of 10. He also got a perfect 10 for focus, a 9 for self-efficacy and receptiveness to coaching, a 7 for dedication, and a perfect 10 for mental quickness. However, he only scored a 1 out of 10 in social maturity. During his one-on-one interviews with NFL teams,

one scout noted, quote, self-esteem is quite low, not well-adjusted emotionally, not happy, moods unpredictable, not stable, doesn't take much to set him off, but not an especially jumpy guy, end quote. Now, these are interviews that Aaron is doing with huge NFL teams that he wants to be drafted into. And even during those interviews, these teams can see that he has low self-esteem. He's not happy. He's not emotionally well-adjusted.

They said it doesn't take much to set him off. So he wasn't even in control of himself enough to keep it together for those interviews, which you would think would be the one time of your career that you'd want to like at least try to seem even keeled, right? Yeah, at least fake it. Aaron also admitted during these interviews that he did consume marijuana, citing his background and the area he had grown up in as the main reason. And although he had been known to only fail one drug test, there was rampant rumors that he'd failed many more. An NFL executive who spoke to Aaron said, quote, he admits it. He had multiple positive tests,

so he either had issues or he's dumb. One or two tests, fine, but four, five, six, come on now, you've got an addiction. He's not a bad kid. He just has an issue. End quote. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Trying to get ahead of his bad reputation, Aaron, along with the help of his agent, sent a letter to the New England Patriots, which were his top pick. He sent it to some other teams as well, but he was really hoping that he would get drafted by the Patriots. And the letter said, quote, I am writing in regards to some of the feedback I am receiving from my agents, Florida coaches, and other personnel. These sources have indicated that NFL teams gave questions about my alleged use of marijuana.

End quote. Aaron, to set their minds at ease, he promised that he would consent to biweekly drug tests throughout his rookie season. This is a rate that was far more frequent than most players would be tested. Like all players. More frequent than all players would be tested. He also promised that if he failed a drug test, he would reimburse the team, literally putting his money where his mouth was. He confidently declared that they could, quote, test me all you want during my rookie year. All the results will be negative while I am having an overall positive impact on the field, end quote. But according to

author James Patterson, this may have been Aaron pulling another con artist trick. In his book, All-American Murderer, Patterson said, quote, Hernandez must have known that, according to agreements the NFL Players Association had long since negotiated with the league, the Patriots would be prohibited from testing Aaron bi-weekly or even bi-monthly. Like all incoming NFL players, he would be tested yearly on dates he would know about ahead of time, end quote. DJ Hernandez claimed that Aaron knew he was not going to be picked during the first round of the draft simply because of his reputation, but everyone still believed that his name would be called in the second or the third round,

but that didn't happen either. Aaron did not get picked until halfway through the fourth round, when the New England Patriots took him as their 113th choice. The Boston Globe would later report that the NFL team knew they were getting a player with first-round talent for a fourth-round price tag. Now, Aaron was obviously disappointed, but this disappointment was soon replaced with excitement because the Patriots were his favorite team. They'd been his favorite team when he'd been a kid. He was a big Drew Bledsoe fan, and now he had a chance to turn it all around and prove himself to be someone who had what it took to play professional football for one of the best teams in the NFL, guided by one of the best coaches in the NFL,

Bill Belichick. Apparently, before Belichick even met Aaron, the Gators head coach Urban Meyer had told him to keep an eye on the young tight end because the minute Bill let Aaron out of his sight, he would be in trouble. And this is literally what Urban Meyer tells Belichick because obviously all these coaches talk to each other, they know each other. They have relationships. And Meyer's like, listen, dude, watch him like a hawk. Because if you don't, like a kid, like a little kid, you turn your back, he's going to be writing on the walls. He's going to be breaking something. He's going to be falling down and hurting himself. Early on in his time with the Patriots, Aaron had a few snafus. There was that time, shortly after the draft, when Aaron was attempting to watch film and he asked for help from Wes Welker, the Patriots'

wide receiver. Welker had teasingly told Aaron to figure it out himself and he called him a rookie, to which Aaron responded, fuck you, Welker, I'll fuck you up. There was that other time when he told sports journalist Ian Rapoport, quote, Look, you're my guy in the locker room. If I'm ever going to talk to anyone, it's going to be you. But I just want to tell you, because I'm big on trust, if you ever fuck me over, I'll kill you. End quote. then later he was like man i wonder if he was serious like i wonder being aaron being who he is like he's gonna say something like that all right he's not gonna joke about that he means that yeah and especially with what we know now right also it's interesting that the patriots were you know the his team of choice and i don't think it takes a detective to figure out why that was he wanted to be close to connecticut you know, and it was not the Patriots. They were his favorite team when he was a kid. He had a Drew Bledsoe jersey. He loved them. That's because he's from Connecticut. Yeah. Yeah. So he wanted to be there because that was the team he grew up watching, but also a team that was close enough

where he could go to practice during the day and drive back up to Bristol. It's a two-hour drive, two and a half hour drive to get there. It's not bad at all. Also, the friends that he would go and hang out with in Connecticut could drive up to Foxborough, Massachusetts during his time off. So when we talked about Florida earlier, where he was able to separate himself from those guys a little bit, although Tim and Urban all said that when he went home, he was a different guy. Well, to get there or to get back, they had to take a plane to him or he had to take a plane up to them here. Just put some gas in the car, make the drive very accessible. And now he's got money. So now he not only has the means to

transport them back and forth, but the convenience of, hey, it's an hour and a half drive. Come see me. So although we love the Patriots, it allowed him to surround himself with maybe some of the people that Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow and others were trying to keep him away from when he was at Florida. Yeah. And you'll find he ends up like moving to Plainville for a little while. Plainville, Massachusetts. Massachusetts. Yeah. It's even closer to Bristol.

And he would just bring these people to stay with him. They would come up from Bristol and they would just crash at his house for like a week, two weeks. One of them, I think, even moved in with him for a long time because the neighbors were like, this dude's always around. You know, we thought he lived there. So yeah, he immersed himself back into that culture, at first he thought that Aaron was joking. He laughed it off. But he also knew and he had witnessed that Aaron had the ability to go from hot to cold without a moment's notice. And he said, quote, in the locker room, he was sweet

and charming. Sweet is a weird way to describe a man, but that's what he was, a sweet, endearing guy when he wanted to be. But on the other part of it was that emotionally, he was a wreck. It was not abnormal for him to burst into tears when he made a bad mistake. If he got humiliated in the meeting room, sometimes he would cry. That's not really normal behavior, end quote. But Aaron was delivering on his promise. He was having a positive impact on the field. By the end of the 2011 season, Aaron had made it into the NFL's top

five for tight ends in receptions, yards, and touchdown receptions. And together with second round draft pick Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots had the most effective tight end pairing in NFL history. I had a good idea. I mean, after Rob and Aaron were drafted, coach called me and said, you know, we got some work to do. And, you know, I just cherish that role. Just come in and help these guys and let them evolve and grow. And I can't be more excited with how Rob and Aaron have contributed to this football team. Seeing that clip bring back some memories, man. I tell you what, Rob Gronkowski, I don't think he needs much of a background, even if you're not really into football. I think most people know who Rob Gronkowski is. He's going to go down as one of the greatest tight ends of all time. And the sad thing is when Aaron and Rob were together, although Rob was definitely superior, it wasn't that obvious. Aaron had attributes about him that were better than Rob. And the two of them together paired with the arguably, not even arguably, the greatest quarterback of

all time, Thomas Edward Brady, they were unstoppable. And it was something to watch. I can tell you as a fan, as a person, I literally live 20 minutes from Foxborough, you know, from Gillette Stadium. What a thing to grow up watching. And now I got to separate that and put into context what we're talking about, which is something completely different. But it is sad to see that because who knows how Aaron would have ended up as far as his career as a football player. And to see him like that, you look at him, he seems like an unassuming guy, just someone who likes to play the game. And now we know that there was so much more going on in his head. You really used Tom Brady's middle name, man. That's so thirsty.

Thomas Edward Brady Jr. Okay. The Goat. I'm ashamed for you. You shouldn't be. I know. You're kind of like with tom brady the way i'm with taylor swift so i get it i get it listen i don't know her middle name though i don't know if you remember this but the man who sized my ear head my earbuds derrick i could never use the same ever forget use the same equipment that he used to size my head he used it a couple weeks before

that on on tom brady's head. So technically, I guess me and Tom Brady are like family. You want to, you know, just put it that way. So Tom, miss you, bud. I'll see you at the cookout. You, uh, you called me and you were excited like a little kid on Christmas. So how could I ever forget that story? There's not many, there's not many, there's not many celebrities or whatever that I, that I fanboy over Tom Brady is absolutely one of them. Well, you're going to, you're going to think that another story coming up is pretty amusing then, but like we kind of talked about being back, you know, in, in the area being on the new England Patriots and met living in Massachusetts, back to the East coast, back to being within driving

distance of his old bad influences. and Aaron began renting a townhouse in Plainville, just two hours from Bristol, and he brought his Bristol friends and family into the fold, sharing with them the warmth and benefit of his success. He was known to be seen in the company of his cousin Tanya and her new husband, T.L. Singleton, as well as Carlos Ortiz and a drug dealer who had moved to Bristol in 2007 named Alexander Bradley. Bradley said that he had first met Aaron through a mutual friend, Daquan Brooks, when Aaron was finishing up college in Florida and getting ready to be drafted into the NFL. Now, at first, Bradley was just Aaron's drug dealer.

But as they realized that they had things in common, they became friends. Best friends, best friends, according to Alexander Bradley. After you had this relationship you've described with Mr. Hernandez, did it change once he was drafted in the NFL? Yes, it progressed. How did it progress, sir? We just started hanging out with each other more. He started inviting me to come around more vacation or perhaps to his house. Where was he living once 2010 came around and he was drafted in the NFL? Where did he start living? I believe it was Plainville, Massachusetts.

How frequently would you see Mr. Hernandez? Quite frequently. He progressed into, I want to say, three or four times a week. Three times. Three or four times a week? Yeah. What would you do when you would spend time with Aaron Hernandez? The same things I met him doing.

We would just play video games, smoke and drink, just hang out. Did you also go out anywhere together during that time period? Yes. Where would you go? We would frequent some clubs. We went on a vacation to Miami around that time. You went to Miami together, you and Aaron Hernandez?

How close did you get leading into 2012? We came quite close. What do you mean by that? Very close. We were definitely best friends by 2012. By 2012 you were best friends? Best friends. How frequently would you contact each other, either by phone or text message? Definitely six or seven. Most of the time every day. Sometimes five, six days. usually every day. Every day? Yeah.

So at some point, sir, did your relationship, how did the fact that you were a marijuana dealer, how did that relate to your relationship with Mr. Hernandez? I mean, that's kind of how it started. It was a business relationship. It progressed. What do you mean in terms of how did it relate? Well, did you continue during the friendship you've described, did you continue to sell Aaron Hernandez marijuana during that time?

Yes. And supply him with marijuana? Yes. Would he pay you for it? Yes. And sometimes you also give him free marijuana? At times. And at some point, you said the relationship progressed to being best friends.

Did you continue to sell him or provide him the relationship progressed to being best friends did you continue to sell them or provide them with marijuana when you're best friends uh yes provide i say more or less more more provide at that point yes so before we continue on and i want to discuss this but uh we're going to take a quick break we'll be right back So only Aaron Hernandez, surrounded by incredibly talented, professional level football players, would say, nah, they're not good enough to hang around with. I'm going to make my drug dealer my best friend. That seems like the kind of guy that is really really going to lift me up besties with the drug dealer and like don't get me wrong I think Alexander Bradley is hilarious in fact um he he's given me some of the best moments of of this trial from Alexander Bradley they've come from him he's hilarious he cracks me up and he seems like a kind of no-nonsense guy but you're talking you're

an NFL player now and this is who you choose to associate with like best friends every day seeing each other every day talking to other he brought him to like miami they would go to tootsies which is a strip club they're going all over the place they're hanging out in boston nightclubs all the time this is the guy i think for aaron i'm not psychoanalyzing the guy but i think for aaron I'm not psychoanalyzing the guy, but I think for Aaron, he wanted to maintain a reputation as being a street guy. Although he was a multimillionaire and he was not a street guy anymore. At the core, he was still with the streets and he wanted to hang out with his counterparts who were also very street. And so for him to keep that reputation, he wanted to be affiliated with the

guys who were still respected as drug dealers or gangbangers, that type of crew, so that he would still be accepted as part of them. And so for them, those types of individuals doing drugs, playing video games, going out to strip clubs, doing those types of things, that's what they're doing. Unfortunately for Aaron, that's not what the top tier NFL players are doing. That's not what the guys who are serious about their NFL career are doing. They're in the gym. They're eating the right foods. They're going to bed at a reasonable time. They're not doing drugs. Aaron wants no part of that. And fortunately for Aaron, he was so damn talented. He could do all that extracurricular activity and still compete with the best of them.

So it really makes you wonder. Imagine if he was doing the right things, putting the right food in his body, working out consistently, sleeping, you know, good hours of the night, not hanging around with these type of people. How good could he have been? How great would he have been at the end of his career? Hall of Famer? Probably. And yet we'll never know. So it kind of felt like he thought maybe he was kind of like a

rapper, you know, like, oh, you know, I'm still hanging out with the guys from the streets, from my hometown. I'm humble. I'm not too big for them. But he wasn't like Biggie. He wasn't Tupac. He wasn't in that rapper lifestyle. When you're a rapper, you can do that still because that's kind of still the lifestyle. Like you're going out to clubs and that's part of you're a rapper, you can do that still because that's kind of still the lifestyle. You're going out to clubs and that's part of being a rapper thing. And you're staying up late in the recording studios, smoking blunts and stuff. And that's part of the rapper thing. You don't need to be this incredibly well-calibrated athlete in order to put down some sick beats. And that's where I think a lot of people don't understand why he went that way. He had the wrong mindset and he saw himself as like this. Well, the rappers get big and they still keep their old friends and they have their crew and they have their entourage around them. And, you know, some movie stars like Mark Wahlberg always had his old entourage around him. But you're not Mark Wahlberg. You're not Biggie and you're not Tupac. You're supposed to be like super supremely focused on one thing and that's football. Your life, the whole thing that's paying your bills.

Only thing I took from that is you go and you're going to put down some sick beats. Some sick beats, man. You lost me after that. I was trying to keep it together. You know, you got to do that, to put down the sick beats. Did I sound like that, dude? You know that like that meme where it's like, hello, high school, you've got the hat back you know the hat on backwards and stuff that was you right there come on man let's put down some sick beats i'm ready to put down some sick beats just keep making my voice sound dumber every time you repeat it you do that to me all the time i do on recording and off recording

yes all the time you literally laughed for an hour last night when we did our first recording which probably won't make the cut because it was 20 minutes, but you had me sounding like someone I've never sounded like before. So welcome for the payback. Don't bring it up again because I will always hear your voice doing that in my head. Nope. Not tonight, Stephanie. Did you play it back yet, dude? No, you didn't. I know you didn't because I know you didn't have time today. So don't even start with me until you hear it. So anyways, it was also around this time that Aaron reconnected with his high school girlfriend, Shana Jenkins. They began seeing each other again towards the end of 2010, and by early 2011, things had progressed very quickly, and she was living with him in his Plainville townhouse. Not only did Aaron have

his girlfriend living there and his drug dealer best friend coming over to get high and play video games several times a week. But he also brought his old buddy from cousin Tanya's house to live at the Plainville townhouse. And I'm talking about Ernest Bo Wallace. Once again, this is one of the individuals who will be tied to the death of Odin Lloyd. Neighbor Chris Mongillo would often see Aaron and Ernest pull up to the apartments around 4 p.m. and they would sit in Ernest's white Suburban and drink beer or they would sit out on the small balcony and drink beer. And on April 30th, 2011, law enforcement responded to a fight in front of the townhouse. And the report states that a high school friend of Aaron's had been pulled over earlier that evening after driving Aaron home from a Boston bar. The driver was weaving in and out of lanes and traveling 120 miles per hour in a work zone on a highway that had a speed

limit of 55 miles per hour. The Massachusetts state trooper who pulled the car over did not arrest the driver because he recognized Aaron Hernandez in the passenger seat. Later, when the fight broke out and the Plainville Police Department arrived, that officer also recognized Aaron and no arrests were made. He just told Aaron and the other individual to go back inside. Aaron was a regular at the Boston nightclubs and Jeffrey London, the VIP host at Cure Lounge and Rumor nightclub, remembered that although Aaron and whoever he was with always got ushered in past the line and let in without a charge, Aaron didn't like to hang out in the VIP section or order expensive

bottle service. Aaron preferred to be in the main area of the club, but if he was approached by fans, he would be very standoffish and he would not want to take pictures with them. London remembered that Aaron made it very clear he wanted to be left alone, and on one occasion, London had to talk Aaron down after he was approached by another club goer. And Aaron was never there with his fellow Patriots team members. He was always there with, you know, Alexander Bradley pretty much. Every time he went out, he was with Alexander Bradley, who was always at his side. Aaron Hernandez began living a double life. During the day, he was hard at work at practice, and at night, he was hanging out with criminals. On January 14, 2012, Aaron's brother DJ watched

Aaron help the Patriots win a game against the Denver Broncos. Afterwards, the two brothers got into Aaron's SUV with a couple of Aaron's buddies, but DJ was surprised when Aaron decided that he wanted to drive that night because usually Aaron preferred to let other people do the driving. As they were leaving the parking lot of the stadium, they slowly approached a cop that was directing traffic, and DJ claims he noticed that Aaron's eyes were like shifting around, as if the sight of the police officer had suddenly made him nervous. Aaron, without warning, slammed his foot on the gas and peeled out of the parking lot into incoming traffic, narrowly missing this police officer who was like directing traffic. DJ said

the police officer jumped in his cruiser and began pursuing them. And DJ was like, stop, like, what are you doing? Pull over. He's following us. But Aaron said nothing. He was completely silent and he just went faster while one of the friends who was with him in the back seat laughed because I guess he thought this was just hilarious. DJ said that during this whole time, Aaron was completely silent. Eventually, he took a sharp turn before coming to a stop behind a dark storage unit and the cop didn't see them pull in, I guess, and they watched as the lights of the police cruiser shot by. And then Aaron just calmly put the car back into drive and silently drove the rest of the way home. And DJ remembered wondering what the hell was going on with his brother. What a difference between the two personalities,

right? You have Aaron's family who's telling him to stop, to do the right thing. And then you have his sidekick who he shouldn't be hanging around, essentially enabling him and condoning it, laughing about it. So those are the people that Aaron's hanging out with on a daily basis, not DJ. And so it gives you a little bit of insight into what is going on behind closed doors. This is just one thing he's doing in front of his brother, DJ. Imagine what he's doing when DJ is not around. And it tells you something, you know, like there's this level of paranoia that's coming. Like why speed out of the parking like that in front of the cop? Like, why would you even do that? Why make that decision? Did you do it because you were nervous? Did you do it just to see what the hell happened? Did you do it because you felt like you wanted to

be a part of a police chase that night? Who knows? There's no logical reason to do it. Therefore, there's no way to find out why he did it. My guess is that Aaron was holding something, maybe a firearm, narcotics. He had something on him where he didn't want to be stopped by police because he knew if they stopped him and they searched the vehicle, he was in trouble and he has millions of dollars on the line. So my guess would be that the reason he basically got into a high speed pursuit with the police was because he had something to hide that he didn't want them to find. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I mean, we know that we hear from different sources that he was sometimes carrying a gun. He always had marijuana on him, you know, always. They said he chain smoked all day long.

So yeah, he probably definitely had something on him. And I know for a fact that when you're very, very, very high, you're very, very, very paranoid. Like there's a point of being high where it's no longer fun and you're just constantly worried. I mean, you will be stressed out. You'll think your dog's looking at you just constantly worried. I mean, you will be stressed out. You'll

think your dog's looking at you like he wants to try something, you know, and you'll be like, what the fuck are you looking at, man? Stop looking at me. And it's just, it's not a great state to be in. He shouldn't have been driving in that state. And, you know, I'm not sure what he was doing, but DJ saw the red flags, DJ saw the warnings, but at that point there was nothing he could do to rein Aaron in. Now, when these confrontations with the dog happen, do you have an argument with said dog? Or again, I know you're just speaking hypotheticals here, but is there a conversation that happens with the dog to deescalate the situation? It's more of like a one-sided conversation. He's looking at you and you're like, stop looking at me. And then you watch the TV again. Then you look back and you're like, yo, I told you, stop looking at me. Don't

try me, man. Don't test me. I'm not going to ask you again. So you've heard. Yeah. Yeah. You can go on for hours sometimes. It's very stressful. Anyways, three weeks later, DJ was back in the stands to witness Aaron playing in his first ever Super Bowl on February 5th, 2012 in Indianapolis. Huge moment in any young football player's life, was young. He's scoring touchdowns in a Super Bowl before the age of 25. But even though he played well, the Patriots lost to the Giants 21-17. And this was heartbreaking for Aaron. It seemed like Aaron was having trouble keeping his happy-go-lucky mask on. And everyone started to notice that he was becoming considerably more on edge and paranoid. The Patriots wide receiver Brandon Lloyd had been warned about Aaron before meeting

him in 2012. Lloyd soon found out for himself that the warning had been warranted, and he told USA Today, quote, there would be swings where he would be the most hyper-masculine, aggressive individual in the room, where he would be ready to fight somebody in fits of rage, or he would be the most hyper-masculine, aggressive individual in the room, where he would be ready to fight somebody in fits of rage. Or he'd be the most sensitive person in the room, talking about cuddling with his mother. Or he'd ask me, do you think I'm good enough to play? So we had these moments where we did get along well, but there was also these moments where he was ready to rage out on other players in the locker room. And it was these ups and downs that were constantly happening during the year. End quote. Aaron even lost his shit on your hero, your bestie, Tom Brady.

Apparently, Aaron had to sit out a game because he was injured. Injured in quotations. I don't know if he's really injured. And the rest of the team was in the locker room. You know, they're getting ready for the game. They're getting in the right headspace, trying to get focused. And Aaron came strolling through. He was being loud, cracking jokes, wearing flip-flops, acting like a damn fool. And Tom basically told him, he said, shut the fuck up and get the fuck out of here. That's what he said. And Aaron's smile was replaced by a mask of rage. And he just went crazy. He was screaming. He was yelling. He just lost it. Yeah, but you know what? You didn't touch him. That we know.

That would have been career ending. So he's got enough self-control. He would have been on the free agency list the next day. So he's got enough self-control to not like punch Tom Brady on the side of the head. What does that tell you? Tells you how much of a goat Tom Brady is. Because it's like even that guy who's as crazy as he is, he draws a line at touching Tom Brady. No.

See what I'm saying here? guy who's as crazy as he is he draws a line at touching tom brady no it tells you that depending on who you are aaron can control himself but if he sees you as below him he doesn't feel that he needs to and most people he sees is below him but with the aura around tom brady he's godlike he wasn't gonna try it yeah even alexander br Even Alexander Bradley testified that Aaron was behaving in a way that surprised him. Bradley said that Aaron didn't like when people stared at him when they went out. He acted in a manner like a tough guy all the time. That's the way I would explain it. He didn't really like people staring at him. He had a problem with things that most people don't have a problem with.

When you say people staring at him, what do you mean by that? Give us a scenario that you recall. I mean, I recall a couple different scenarios, but one in particular, a gentleman was staring at him. Where were you? Do you remember which club? I think we were at Rumor for that particular club. Rumor in the theater district of Boston? Yes, and a gentleman was staring at him and it turned into an incident. I believe Mr. Hernandez asked the gentleman what he was looking at and the gentleman responded by saying, I'm looking at you. What happened after that? Somewhat of a conflict ensued.

It wound up being ironed out with the gentleman saying to Mr. Hernandez, you know, I'm looking at you, you lost me a lot of money on the Super Bowl type of thing, is what it turned into. Were any punches thrown? No. Did you have to physically get involved in any way? Yes, I wind up kind of diffusing it. I spoke with that gentleman, and, you know and it kind of turned into nothing after that.

But that was the extent of that situation. And then what about any other situations? There was an incident in Connecticut, I believe. I remember in Waterbury, Connecticut, where the same thing happened with a gentleman. He was staring at him, and Mr. Hernandez always had a problem with people staring at him. What would he say if you recall when people were staring at him? Did he say something to you? He usually would say he didn't like people staring at him

because he felt like they were trying him or testing him. Did he use the word trying? Trying was the phrase he usually used. He would usually use that word? Yes. Well, I don't remember what I said to him at that particular time, but what I usually would say was, you know, you're a famous NFL player. That's what's going to happen. It's not that big of a deal. In other words, I used to try to explain to him that people weren't trying him all the time.

It's just the situation, the position he was in, and he didn't really need to overreact all the time to that type of scenario. He got upset about it. I mean, he didn't like it. He always got upset about that particular thing. Well, there it is, right? So it's kind of what I was saying earlier, where this isn't something that is just about him just doing it for the fun of it. He still feels that even though he's a superstar, he has to constantly prove himself as a badass still. He needs that street cred. And so he can't even put in perspective that, hey, this person isn't staring at you because they're challenging you or calling you soft. They're looking at you because you're famous and they're probably a fan. But he doesn't look at it

that way. He's like, listen, man, I don't want anybody thinking. Cause I have millions that I've gone soft and I'm not someone who's, I'm still, I'm still a gangster at heart. Don't get it twisted. And if you try me, I don't care how much money I have. I'll put you in your place. And that's the mentality he walked around with. I think he was self-conscious that maybe his peers who were still very street didn't respect him the way

they used to because now he had made it. He had money. So I think he even overcompensated with proving how tough he was because he didn't want anyone to ever view him like that. And this is right from, not directly from Aaron, but from someone who was his best friend. So all these things we're talking about as far as the persona he wanted to put forward, it's kind of been confirmed now by someone who was very close to him at the time. Yeah. They're not looking at you because they're trying you. They're looking at you because you're Aaron Hernandez, NFL football player. They want your autograph. In Boston, by the way. You're in Boston. They all know who you are. But to be fair, when I drink gin, I get like this, man.

When I drink gin and someone looks at me, I'm like, what are you looking at, man? You trying me every time. That's why I don't drink it anymore. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, you know, he was paranoid for sure, but it was more like, who's going to be the one to challenge me tonight? You know, he couldn't take him out of his self, out of the place he used to been in where he had to fight to gain respect. Dude, you got it already. Everyone respects you because you're one of the most talented football players in the NFL. You don't need to use your fist any longer. But he never escaped that. He was very immature from the tests that were done going into the NFL. He was still a kid at heart and felt like

he had to prove he was a tough guy. And unfortunately, that wasn't the truth. I don't know if he was a kid at heart. I think he was a kid at mind, at heart. In his mind. Yeah, at heart, he was a street gangster, man. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I stand corrected. In his mind, he was still very immature. And as kids, even where I grew up, city kid, that's how you accomplish some things where it's like, listen, if somebody's pushing you, you got to defend yourself with your fists This isn't you know, bristol connecticut anymore. You're not hanging out in hartford. You're a professional athlete You got to act like one and when the drug dealer is telling you that

It's a sad situation. Well, that's another thing right like I do believe there's probably some truth to it, but I wonder Were they really the voice of reason? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think Bradley is this upstanding citizen. I'll just put it that way. Mr. Hernandez and all that, he's been very coached up by, by the way, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, he was a witness for the prosecution, correct? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Pretty confident he was for the prosecution. We're going to get there. Yeah. Most likely. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure. No, I'm sure Alexander Bradley didn't want Aaron to keep popping off because Alexander Bradley's riding his coattails right now. Right.

Alexander Bradley's. His mail ticket. Yeah. He's like, I don't want you to get kicked out of the NFL, man. Like, I want to keep living this high life with you because the only way I'm living this high life and VIP and getting ushered into clubs and skipping the line is because I'm friends with you. And if you're no longer king shit, I'm not king shit either. So yeah, he's probably coaching him for selfish reasons to reign it in. But Aaron doesn't care. The drug dealer's like, man, you're an NFL player. You can't act like this. And Aaron's like, who the

fuck are you? You know, he's out of his mind right now. And Bradley also said that he would sometimes bring Aaron to his cousin Tanya's house, and Aaron would stay there for days sometimes doing drugs and avoiding reality. And according to Alexander Bradley, during the summer of 2012, Aaron gave him $350 to purchase a gun, a.357 Magnum. Did you purchase any ammunition with it? No, I didn't purchase ammunition. There were a couple of rounds in the gun at the time of the purchase. Once you purchased that weapon for the defendant, did you do anything with the weapon? Did you give it to him? Oh, yes, I did. About how long afterwards did you give it to him, after you bought it?

Not long after. The next time he came back down, I gave him the weapon was within a couple of days. Came back down from Massachusetts? Yes. And where did you where did you meet with him? In Bristol. And you gave him the weapon? Yes. What did he say when you gave him the weapon? Just looked at it and said straight. It was straight. Okay, let's let's unpack that real quick. Just so you guys know, for anybody who doesn't own a gun or has never purchased a gun, when you buy a firearm from the gun store legally, I was just going to ask you that they don't contain, they don't contain rounds in the

chamber. I was going to be like, Derek, you know, buy one gun, get two bullets. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure if you buy a gun from a store it doesn't come with the bullets inside the chamber already right that's kind of it's kind of against the gun safety rules right you don't usually have a gun where it's like hey man you know here you go a couple rounds on the house that's not how it works guys so i don't know if this gun was purchased legally or not my guess is that it probably wasn't. If that's true, how he received the gun, I know it wasn't from a gun store, that's for sure. So interesting though that we just mentioned Bradley being someone who's kind of presenting himself as a voice of reason, trying to be someone who he can rely on to keep him in check, and yet he's buying him firearms you know, firearms to give him. What do you think

he's going to do with that? He can be the voice of reason and an enabler at the same time, right? Because he's got to walk that fine line. He's got to still do what Aaron wants him to do in order to stay in his sphere. But he also has to make sure Aaron stays on top in order to stay in his sphere, right? So it's kind of like a fine line. Like you can, you could be a voice of reason if you're a drug dealer. I've met some very wise drug dealers, actually. They've seen some shit. Have you?

Yes. Have you? Yes. I'm not saying there are some smart drug dealers. I haven't met many of them, but there are a couple where it's like they surprise me. But for the most part, if they were really that smart, I wouldn't have caught them. That's offensive, man. It's facts.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. All right. So that brings us to July 16th, 2012, the date that two men were shot to death in Boston's South End. Now, keep in mind, Aaron Hernandez was not connected to this crime until after he'd been arrested for the murder of Odin Lloyd. The investigation into Odin's death had brought law enforcement to the Bristol home of Aaron's cousin, Tanya Singleton. In her garage, the police found a silver Toyota 4Runner with Rhode Island plates, the same vehicle that Boston police had been looking for in connection to a

double homicide from 2012. In that double homicide, the victims were 29-year-old Daniel D'Abreu and 28-year-old Safori Furtado, two friends who had both been born in Cape Verde before relocating to Boston. Safori Furtado had been in the United States for less than a year, and he was working overnights cleaning offices with one of his cousins. Daniel D'Abreu had been in the United States since 2008, and his wife said that he, quote, served five years as a police officer in Cape Verde and migrated here, looking to better his life and provide for his family, end quote. D'Abreu was young, but his family said he was incredibly responsible, mature, and intelligent. It was a Sunday night. The two friends had worked all week, so they were tired, but they decided to still venture out in Daniel's

sister's silver BMW for a visit to Cure Lounge in Boston's theater district. These were two good men, men who didn't have criminal records. They were loved by their families. They minded their business. They worked all week, and they were blowing off some steam on the weekends. Now, allegedly that night, they happened to be at the same club as Aaron Hernandez and Alexander Bradley. Aaron, that night, had pulled up to Bradley's house in a silver Toyota 4Runner.

They smoked some marijuana, and they had a few drinks. You indicated that at some point outside you saw him with a gun. Is that right? Yes. You don't know where he took it from? No, because, I mean, we were just walking in the car together. I wasn't really, you know, watching him while we were walking in the car. How close were you to the gun?

Could you see what it looked like at that point? Yes, I believe. And what did the gun look like? It was the revolver. I believe it was silver with a brown handle. You saw a silver revolver with what color handle? With a brown handle. What did you see him do with it?

Placed it under the hood of the car. When you say under the hood of the car, where do you mean? He put the gun inside the engine. Near the engine? Had you ever seen him? Somewhere under the hood. Had you ever seen him place a gun there before? No, not prior to that.

I don't recall seeing him place a gun there. Did he say anything to you when he did this? No. Did you say anything to him? No. They arrived in Boston by midnight and surveillance from Cure Lounge showed Aaron and Alexander Bradley being brought in past the line and ushered inside the club, VIP style. Once inside the club, Bradley and Aaron did their normal

routine where they would order two shots and then two mixed drinks. They would drink their shots and then they would proceed out onto the dance floor with their drinks. Now it was at this point that Daniel D'Abreu allegedly bumped into Aaron, spilling a few drops of his drink on Aaron and Alexander Bradley. And one of the gentlemen was dancing and he kind of danced his way over to where we were standing. And as he danced over to where you were standing, what happened next? He bumped into Mr. Hernandez, and his drink splashed up and spilled on Mr. Hernandez

and some got on myself as well. How much of the drink? A lot of it or a little or? Just like a splash more or less I would say. Like the drink splashed. So the whole drink didn't spill? No. And how drink splashed. So the whole drink didn't spill? No. And how much splashed?

Just some drops, like, I mean, I don't know how to explain it, but a splash, like the drink splashed. Did it get on your clothes or on Mr. Hernandez's clothes that you saw? On Mr. Hernandez and a little bit on myself too. When the man bumped into him, was the man's back to Mr. Hernandez or was he facing him? It was kind of like the side of his body. He bumped in like the side, maybe the shoulder type of thing. And what was he doing when he bumped him? Did he appear to be? He was, he danced his way over there like he bumped him in rhythm like he made it appear as though he bumped while he was dancing. When he bumped Mr. Hernandez, what was the reaction from both of them?

Mr. Hernandez got mad. He turned towards him. I mean, I'm not sure if he did get words out or whatever, but he turned towards the individual and he was upset about it. What made you think he was upset? What did you notice about his demeanor? Cause he turned angrily, you know, like he turned, like he was, he turned in a manner in which he was going to make a confrontation

out of the issue. Did he say anything? I don't remember him getting many words out, no. I don't remember him saying too much, but he turned. What did the man with the braids do? The individual with the braids was laughing. He smirked. He was kind of laughing at the whole situation.

He was aware of it. Was he facing Mr. Hernandez at that point? Yes. And he smirked at him? Yes, he laughed. He was aware of the fact that the bump just occurred. He knew what just happened, and he smirked about it. What was Mr. Hernandez's reaction to the smirk?

Mr. Hernandez was upset about the incident, the fact that he bumped into him and that the individual, you know, didn't show respect and apologize. He just bumped into him and laughed about it. There you go. I mean, we're not going to keep, you know, going over here, same, you know, different story, same theme. It's about respect for Aaron. He wants people to fear him and respect him or at minimum fear him. And so here's a situation where another man bumps into him, maybe accidentally. But as Mr. Bradley just said, he was looking for an apology, you know, to show his superiority over this individual who just bumped him. The man didn't give it to him.

He smirked at him. And now he's seeing it as a sign of disrespect. And Aaron, who has proven this multiple times, has to defend that. He has to combat that because if he doesn't, he may be perceived by his peers as soft. And he's not going to let that happen. Yeah. And according to Daniel D'Abreu's family, he didn't follow football. He didn't know who Aaron Hernandez was. It was very unlikely that he had done it on purpose and was like laughing and smirking to cause problems. It was more likely that he was just out having a good time dancing. He had, you know, bumped Aaron maybe playfully or like even accidentally and then laughed because it's like, ha ha, we bumped into each other on the dance floor. And Aaron took it to be something

very much more nefarious. Yeah. The guy might not even notice that he spilled his drink. He might just figure like, oh, I bumped you. My bad. Hey, let's keep it going. It's dark in there. There's music. He may not have noticed the liquid hit his shoes or his pants. It was very, very possible. It was like a couple drops. Bradley said it's like a couple drops, like a splash. Yeah. But to Aaron, that must have looked like a spilt drink, right? He couldn't believe that this man had just bumped him and sullied his clothes. How dare he?

And he was expecting him to kiss the ring. And when he didn't, you know, it escalated. Yeah. To Aaron Hernandez, Daniel D'Abreu might as well have walked on that dance floor and thrown his whole ass drink right in his face. You know, that's the way he reacted to it. The whole encounter lasted under a minute, but Alexander Bradley decided it was a good idea that they should leave, and he and Aaron exited the club at that point. Outside the club, Bradley claims he told Aaron they should just go to another bar,

and on surveillance, it looks like Bradley and Aaron are having some sort of animated conversation. Mr. Bradley, I'm letting the tape play, and there appears now at 1240 and 11 and 27 seconds, you have your arms, both arms extended outwards. What are you saying if you recall at this point? Because at that point, we're engaging in a discussion in which he's saying, you know, he was mad at the disrespect over what just happened. What did he say about the disrespect? What words do you recall him using? He was just mad about the whole drink spill situation. I mean, I don't remember his exact, exact words, so I can't give you, you know, exactly what he said,

but he was upset. Well, do you remember any part of the conversation as you're walking on the sidewalk? Yes, the conversation, that whole conversation right there is me explaining to him that it's not that big of a deal. And even if it is to him, we can't go in places like that and get into that type of trouble because he has too much to lose. So it's not worth it all the time to just...

What was his reaction to you saying that to him? Yeah, I know, but still, I hate when people try me, try to play me. Did he say try me? Try me. That's the phrase he always used. Sir, on the video that I've played, you walked almost to the entrance to the garage. Now you're walking back. What's happening now, sir? We're still just having that same conversation. I mean, that's what I recall of it. We're still having the same conversation, the same thing. I'm still, I'm explaining to him. Aaron and Bradley entered a bar called Capri. This is another club. They ordered drinks at the bar. Now at this point, Aaron turned from the bar. He grabbed Alexander Bradley and he was like, listen, that guy that just bumped into

me at Cure, you know, along with his friends, they followed us to Capri. Mr. Hernandez turned around. It was like, see, see, it's like it's them. It's one of them. And there was a gentleman that came inside who I thought was a gentleman from the club as well. So it did appear to be a gentleman. Like it appeared as though we got kind of followed over there. Like someone came out and went over there. What was Mr. Hernandez's reaction? He got more upset. In what way? What did you notice? He was more upset.

He was saying to me like, see, see type of thing, you know, bolster his claim that he was being tested and they were following him. And then what did you say to Mr. Hernandez in response to that? Let's leave here too. What was his level of agitation at this point, sir? He was agitated. I mean, it just, it was heightened, you know, it was boosted up again for more than it already was.

Now you indicated, Mr. Bradley, that you decided, you told Mr. Hernandez and let's leave. Did you leave? We left right away. Daniel D'Abreu and his friends had not entered Capri that night. They were still at cure. But at that point, Aaron was going to see or say anything to confirm his narrative and really, in my opinion, to justify his overblown reaction. So after leaving the second club, because Aaron couldn't control his emotions, Aaron and Alexander Bradley got back into the 4Runner and they drove around the block. They parked on a side street, they smoked some weed, and then Aaron went to the hood of the SUV and took out the gun that he had stashed there earlier that night, placing it in the glove compartment of the vehicle. They drove around the area for a little bit, Bradley was in the driver's seat, and they ultimately ended up back at the same parking garage that they had parked in when going to cure right at the time that the clubs would be letting out. Now, Bradley claims that it was their intention to return to that area at this specific time to see what kind of women were out.

I don't know what that means. Like, he's waiting for the drunk women to stagger out of the bar. Like, him and Aaron are just like, let's take our pick of the drunk women staggering out of the bar. That's what it really sounds like to me. But instead, they saw Daniel D'Abreu and Saphiro Furtado exiting Cure and getting into a silver BMW. And then Aaron yelled, there they go. Were you still outside of the car at that point when he said, there they go? Yes. And then you got into the car. And what did you see or hear Mr. Hernandez do next? He was telling me to go because a BMW rode by after that,

and I went to the light. You pulled out into traffic? Yeah, I put my blinker on, pulled out into traffic, and there was a light very shortly thereafter. A stoplight? Yeah, a red light. There was a vehicle, I believe, on my left, and I went around the vehicle so I could see cross traffic

before I went through the light. Did you stop at the light, though, initially? Yes. Was the light red? Yes, the light was red. Why did you go through the light? Mr. Nenez was telling me to go. What did he say exactly?

He said, go, go, to catch up to the car, the BMW that passed. What was your intention at that point? To pull up to the car. After I got through that light, as I was approaching the car, he removed the firearm from the glove box. He being who? Mr. Hernandez. What did you think was going to happen, Mr. Brown? I thought at the very most he might try to intimidate him or maybe say something or address the issue that happened previously in the club. Did you have any idea he was going to do anything more than that? No. Did he state anything about what his intentions were?

No. He told me, watch out. He was telling me, roll the window down first is what he said. Roll the window down. And I rolled the window down, and when we got up to the car, like right when we were approaching, he put his hand on my chest and was like, watch out, like indicating for me to like, you know, like pushing me back kind of in a seat, like so I could lean back. Did you lean back?

Yes, I did. How did you do that? With the power, the button on the side, I reclined the seat. I rolled the window down, reclined the seat, and he leaned across me and extended his body out the window with the firearm in his hand. Was his whole body out of the window or just a part of his body? Not his whole body. He extended from where he was sitting in the car across me, like, you know, across where I'm sitting, onto my side.

He was bracing himself, like, off the, I believe, I want to say somewhere on the floorboard, maybe near. He planted his feet over on his side and leaned across me, extended across my body. What, if anything, did you observe about the interior inside of the car, the BMW? I remember all of them, at least the two front ones with their head down, a gentleman was holding a phone in his hand and that was it, they were...

What did Mr. Hernandez do or say? He said, yo, one time, and the gentleman didn't respond, like nobody turned around from the car. They weren't aware of the fact that we had pulled up right on the side. How loudly did he say, yo? He was, like, loud enough trying to get their attention.

After he said, yo, what happened next? He wound up saying, yo, again. And then they turned, and then he started firing rounds into their vehicle. Did he say something before he fired? Before he fired the gun, he was like, what's up now, niggas? And he started firing shots. Did he say, what's up now niggas and he started firing shots did he say what's up now niggas after they turned or before before they turned after they turned because originally they didn't know we were there so after he got their attention by saying yo

yo when he turned he said what's up now niggas started firing shots into the car how many shots did you hear fired he fired five five shots, five rounds. Okay, so I'm assuming from this point that technically Alexander Bradley was an accessory to murder, right? So he's probably took a deal with the prosecution for his testimony. I'm assuming you're going to tell us he got some time as well or, you know, however this all went down. But he was clearly a cooperating witness because he didn't want to go down for murder, right? Because that's life in prison. But if we're to believe what Alexander's saying and taking out the fact that he's now doing this for his own wellbeing, his own freedom, he's giving a pretty compelling story from what we know about Aaron leading up to this incident,

as far as him always having to prove himself and to prove to others that he's the baddest guy in the room. And this would be the comment he would make in that moment where this person disrespected him, had an opportunity to apologize, chose not to. And Aaron, although he left the situation, he couldn't let it go. He could not let it go because that man had tried him in his words and disrespected him and therefore clearly didn't fear him. So he took it upon himself to retaliate and shot these two individuals. And I don't want to steal your thunder here. I obviously know the results of the shooting, but you know, that's, that's my thought. It all adds up based on the behavior we've seen from Aaron in the past. Uh know some people may say,

to play devil's advocate, Alexander Bradley's a snitch, and he was only telling you what the prosecution wanted him to tell the courtroom. Maybe it wasn't true. Maybe it was Alexander Bradley who pulled the trigger, right? That's what some people would say if you're on team Aaron. But if we're to take it at face value, his testimony, it does seem on par with the way Aaron conducted himself. Yeah, we're going to talk more about the trial and the magician's antics that Jose Baez pulled in order to get this not guilty verdict for Aaron. Keep in mind, after he'd already been convicted of murder, of Odin Lloyd, I will forever to this day believe that Aaron Hernandez had everything to do

with that double murder, as do the parents and the families of these victims. So that's just my opinion. Obviously, yes, Alexander Bradley is not an innocent lamb in the field here. He's going along with whatever Aaron wants, once again. And he says, well, I didn't think he was going to shoot him. I just thought at the very most, he was just going to try to scare them with the gun. And it's like, fair enough, I guess. But at some point, you're supposed to be the voice

of reason. When did that stop being what you were doing for him? And yeah, Jose Baez basically told the jury and made them believe that it was Alexander Bradley, or at least not that it was him, but that they planted reasonable doubt in the jury's mind. To me, the evidence, which we will talk about more when we get to this portion is very much stacked up against aaron hernandez and we're gonna go in into even in this episode more about that but yeah let's let's be i mean bradley was very coached up to the point where as soon as he says well i pulled out of the spot but i activated my blinker first okay all right we get it you're an upstanding citizen we know you've never committed a crime in your life. We got it.

I mean, that just could be because that's how he's used to speaking to law enforcement. You know, like I may have done. Activated my brain. I may have done these things wrong, but I follow traffic regulations. So obviously DiAbreu and Furtado were in the vehicle with three other friends, Aquilino Frere, Rayshad Gomez Sanchez, and Gerson Lopez. DiAbreu and Furtado were in the vehicle with three other friends, Aquilino Frere, Rayshad Gomez Sanchez, and Gerson Lopez. DiAbreu was driving, Furtado was in the passenger seat. Two eyewitnesses who worked security at Underbar,

they were driving back to Rhode Island in their own car and they stopped at a red light when they heard the gunshots and spotted a silver 4Runner with Rhode Island plates speeding away from the scene. They quickly pulled up to the silver BMW where they saw a lot of blood all over the side of the car and glass littering the street. Both Daniel D'Abreu and Zafiro Furtado had been shot. Zafiro had taken a bullet to the head and he was dead, but Daniel remained alive for two minutes before dying in the arms of his friends. According to Bradley, as he and Aaron sped away, Aaron asked him, quote, did you see that? I think

I got one in the head and one in the chest, end quote. Aaron then used the t-shirt that he was wearing, which he'd borrowed from Alexander Bradley, to wipe down the gun. They did not drive to Aaron's place in Plainville. Instead, they went to the home of a girlfriend of Bradley's who lived at 47 Newbury Street in Hartford, Connecticut. And there, Bradley's girlfriend, Brooke Wilcox, claims that Alexander Bradley told her that Aaron had just done some stupid shit. At that point, Aaron, who was chilling in the living room, borrowed Brooke's laptop to do some internet searches to find out if any of the news outlets were reporting on the crime that he had just allegedly committed. Brooke claims the next morning she woke up to find Aaron and his cousin Tanya

whispering in her kitchen, and when Brooke got home from work later that day, Aaron, Tanya, and the Toyota 4Runner were gone. During the trial, the prosecution also pointed to a tattoo that Aaron had gotten very shortly after this, and we're going to talk about that more later when we get into the details, but later when the police found the 4Runner in Tanya's garage in June of 2013, the vehicle had clearly been detailed and wiped clean of fingerprints, but it was dusty and covered in cobwebs as if it hadn't seen the light of day since July of 2012. The license plate matched the number of the forerunner which was seen on surveillance taken on the night of the double murder in Boston.

So what I want to also touch on really quick is this forerunner as well as the murder weapon were found in the possession of Aaron's cousin, Tanya, in her home. And we will talk about the fact that Tanya was incredibly loyal to her cousin, Aaron. She considered him a son to the point where she was basically dying of cancer. And she still spent several months in prison because she wouldn't tell the police anything about him. So she's got very little time left to live. She's on like cancer treatment, like chemo, and she still decides to spend time behind bars rather than telling the police anything to compromise Aaron. And I don't think that Tanya would have done that for Alexander Bradley.

If it was Alexander Bradley who had done it, I think Tanya would have been like, yeah, it was that dude, Alexander Bradley. I'm not going to prison for him. But because she thought or knew allegedly that it was Aaron, she was willing to sacrifice what little time she had left in order to keep him safe. It's the code, man, the street code. Do you think Tanya would have done that for Alexander Bradley? Of course not. So that's my main feeling. Besides the evidence being found at her house, my main feeling is that it was Aaron because Tanya wouldn't have gone so hard for Alexander. She didn't know him. She would have rolled on Alexander, you know, but maybe, you know, if she's really like hard into the street and Aaron was loyal to Alexander.

I don't know. But I agree with your sentiment. The reason she was willing to sacrifice the remaining months of her life to prison was because she loved Aaron. She was going to protect him at all costs. And then Alexander Bradley, he accused Aaron of shooting him in the face in February of 2013. According to Bradley, Aaron's paranoia, it just shot through the roof after that incident on July 16th, 2012. He became extremely paranoid of everything and everybody. He just assumed everyone was a detective or everything, every matter was police related. Just his sense of paranoia was heightened. He was just extremely paranoid.

Did you become aware if he had done anything with his phone after the murders? Yes, he wanted a no iPhone rule. He didn't want iPhones around him anymore. Had he previously had an iPhone the night of the murders? Yes. Did you ever see that iPhone that he had previously on the night of the murder? Yes. Afterwards? No.

What kind of phone did he get after that if you recall? A Blackberry Palm I believe Blackberry phone. Now you indicated something about a no iPhone rule what it what was said about that and what did you observe? He didn't like iPhones around him because he said that he learned that they could record everything at all times and he didn't want them around him. He said he learned that from someone in his organization, some particular meeting or something at the stadium, that he was informed about iPhones being able to record and hear everything, so he didn't want any iPhones around him. And was there a situation or a conversation that you had

when you got an iPhone from somebody? Yes. What was that conversation with the defendant? A woman friend of mine purchased me an iPhone, and he got upset that I had an iPhone, and then he told me that she was probably a cop. Did you have any other conversations with him about other things that he thought were law enforcement or police officers?

Yes, he thought helicopters were following him everywhere. He just thought there was a constant police presence around him at all times. In reality, the Boston police had no leads in regards to the double murder besides that vehicle. They couldn't find it. And they certainly were not looking in the direction of Aaron Hernandez, of all people. Alexander Bradley was the only person in the world who knew what had allegedly happened, which is maybe why Aaron turned on him shortly after. Now, on February 12th, Aaron and Alexander Bradley were out at a club with some other, like, sort of low-life friends of Aaron's,

and Aaron pointed out two men who had close-cropped haircuts, and he told Bradley that they were police officers and Bradley gave a response that seemed to not sit well with Aaron. Did he say why he thought they were police officers or why they looked like cops? Not particularly. He just said, um, those dudes over there, I think that they're cops. What did you say? I told him if they are, it's because of the stupid shit he did in boston so this was actually in florida um this is a trip that that aaron had like taken he paid for like

a couple of his friends and bradley to fly to florida i think they were in miami they went to a bunch of clubs and after this bradley noticed that that Aaron's demeanor towards him changed. He said that Aaron got upset, he became standoffish, and he walked away from him to go hang out with the other guys. Now, later that night, they all went to a strip club called Tootsie's, but when they left, Bradley realized he'd left his phone behind and he wanted to go back and get it. But Aaron said no, that he would buy him a new one. And Alexander Bradley was like, I don't want a new one. Like, we're still right here on the road. Like, let's just go back and get my phone.

My kids' pictures are on it. Like, important things are on it. And Aaron and everybody in the car just like ignored him. And Aaron told the driver to keep driving. So Aaron and Alexander Bradley got into like an argument in the car about not going back to get the phone. And at this point, they were headed back to a hotel that they were staying at in West Palm Beach. Bradley fell asleep during the car ride, but he woke up when the car stopped to find that Aaron had a gun in his face. After falling asleep, was there something that woke you up?

Yes, the car stopped driving. Now, with you personally, when a car stops driving, does that have some effect on you when you sleep? Yeah, I wake up. When I fall asleep in cars, like once the car stops moving, I always wake up. I tend to wake up. When you woke up from the sleep based upon the car stopping, what did you see? Mr. Hernandez with a gun, pointing a gun in my face. When you say your face, what part of your face? Directly in my face, like up towards my forehead area. Was the car parked at that point or stopped in some way?

Yes, the car was stopped. What happened next? I made a gesture, a defense gesture, to defend myself. And for the record, you're taking your right hand and putting it up over your face? Yes. And as you put up the defense gesture, what happened? He fired a shot. He shot the gun.

Where did the bullet strike you? It went through my hand, blew my finger off, well, partway off, and then it went into my head and blew my eye out. Where did it enter your head? Right above my left eye. Right between your two eyes? Yeah, up to the left. Near your nose?

Yep. And you have a scar there where the bullet entered? Correct. Can you point to it, please? It's right here. For the record, you're pointing in between? In between my eyes, upper left eye. In between both eyebrows? Yeah pointing in between. In between my eyes, upper left eye. In between both eyebrows?

Yeah, in between my eyebrows. You say it blew your eye out. Which eye did it blow? It traveled across and blew this eye out. My right eye is prosthetic, so it traveled across. So the eye you have now on the right, that's a fake eye? Yes. Well, there's no real disputing that, right?

I mean, if you're watching on YouTube, it's very apparent that he has a prosthetic eye. Take our word for it if you're listening on YouTube, it's very apparent that he has a prosthetic eye. Take our word for it. If you're listening on audio, he definitely has a fake eye. It's been apparent the entire, all the clips that we've been playing. So unless he's just making it up and it was someone else who took out his eye or he had lost his eye as a child and he's lying about it, more than likely there's some truth to this story. And it may also contribute to why he's so willing to turn against Aaron.

I know I said earlier, he was a cooperating witness because he's trying to protect his own ass. That may be part of it. But I would also think that when someone shoots out your eye, you may not like them much anymore and you may have some incentive to turn against them. So that could also be a contributing factor as to why he's so willing to throw Aaron Hernandez under the bus. And it also would not explain why cousin Tanya would go to bat for Alexander Hamilton. Because at this point, when the vehicle's found, this getting shot in the face thing had already happened.

You know, obviously Alexander and Aaron aren't going to be super tight best friends anymore. And Tanya's not going to cover up for him when that forerunner is found in her garage. No reason to go back now. You said Alexander Hamilton. I did. Yeah. But let me continue. Let me continue.

I agree with you. And I also say this, just kind of seeing where this is going. Although I'm laying this out as far as why Alexander Bradley would be willing to testify against Aaron. I can also see right now how Jose Baez would use this to discredit Alexander Bradley and say, listen, of course he's going to say my client pulled the trigger. They had an altercation. He's alleging that my client shot him in the face. This is a vendetta. This is in fact, he's trying to pin a murder on my client because he doesn't like him. I can see that as being a way to discredit Bradley to the jury members. Hey, he's biased. He's not objective. So without a doubt, guaranteed, bias pulled that card out.

Yeah. And if he pulled that card out as a jury member with a brain, you'd be like, or Aaron Hernandez shot Alexander Bradley because he was the only person who knew what he had done. And he was so paranoid about the police finding out and him being followed. And like, we'll get into this more next episode. But it wasn't just Alexander Bradley who was saying that Aaron was very paranoid in the time after this. Even the Patriots, like Bill Belichick, Aaron tried to get transferred. He tried to get transferred off the Patriots at this point. He was like, I got to get the hell out of here because Alexander Bradley is not somebody to mess with. All right. And he knew, well, we're going to get there. But he was so terrified. They even got him like a separate apartment to rent so he could hide out in because he was so afraid that something was happening. He got like an armored car, all of this stuff. After this, because he was super paranoid, it wasn't just that Bradley was saying he was paranoid. Aaron was paranoid. So a jury member should say, well, why would he shoot him in the face? Because he's trying to kill him because he's the only person that knows and can actually tie him to this double homicide. So when Alexander Bradley woke up in the hospital and he was questioned by the police, he said like he knew that Aaron had shot him, but he told the police he didn't know who had shot him because he wanted to handle Aaron Hernandez himself. Now at this point, Aaron would have thought that Bradley was dead. So Bradley thought that he would call his friend himself to let him know the good news. I was like, who's this? And. What did you say?

I was like, you know who this is, like it's me, it's your boy, like sarcastic with a sarcastic tone. What was his tone? He hung up. He hung up? Hung the phone up. And I called him right back again. Did he answer?

Yeah, he was like, he was playing dumb. He was like, uh, uh like he he wasn't really saying too much and he hung up again and i called him back again and i told him i don't know why you keep hanging his phone up because it's not like i told the police on you you're not like i ain't telling you like you know what time it is when i when i get right i'm coming back home you know what time it is well we know what that means uh Interesting. Aaron probably thought that Bradley was maybe with the police or whatever, so he's not going to respond to him or admit anything. But also, at the end there, you hear what Bradley said, very street code, right? Like, listen, an eye

for an eye. Literally, I'm coming back at you as soon as I'm right, and I'm going to be retaliating, basically letting Aaron know, don't worry, I didn't tell the police. I'm going to handle this one myself. Exactly. Exactly. He's not a snitch, right? That's not street code. And Alexander Bradley is truly somebody who's from the streets. He lives there. Those are his people. He's not going to break street code, but he's not going to let it slide. He's not going to let it go either. He doesn't care who did it. And if we thought that, you know, Aaron Hernandez was paranoid before, well, I mean, after this phone call and multiple text messages that Bradley sent him, that would be at a whole new level. Now, the reason that Aaron had been able to get a gun from Bradley was because Bradley knew how to get a gun, you know, like we even talked about earlier, not the legit way with background checks and paperwork, the street way where it could not be traced, where you buy a gun that's already got bullets inside of it. Bradley was an actual criminal who would have no qualms about avenging his own shooting. And Aaron, who had become close to this man and spent a lot of time with it, he was well aware of that.

That is where we're going to pick up next week. Yeah, interesting. We're two parts in. I'm thinking we probably still have another, at least two parts left, right? You know better than to ask me that question. Don't make me commit to something. Yeah, it's at least, at least two parts.

At least. No, fascinating. We're starting to get into the real details here that tell you what type of person Aaron was as things progressed. And when we're looking at the main murder that kind of made this all unravel, because you pointed it out, Odin Lloyd had not happened yet, right? This happened beforehand, but this kind of went unnoticed for a while, right? They didn't really know right away that Aaron was involved. It wasn't until later with Odin Lloyd that this came back up. So that's something to

keep in mind that the Odin Lloyd murder is what really led to this being uncovered and the police being able to make some connections. So I'm fascinated by this case because it's a local case to me. So it's in my backyard. A lot of the places you're mentioning, like Waterbury, Plainville, these are places that I went to school in Connecticut. I grew up in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, so very familiar to me. So I think whenever the case is close to home, we hear it in the comments a lot. When the case is in your backyard and you're familiar with the places that are being talked about, it always adds another level of interest. Yeah, it's almost surreal. Yep. No, I'm looking forward to it. And at this point we're recording this before, just so you guys know, before we go to CrimeCon, because we're not going to be in back in time to

do it. So as we're doing this, we apologize. We probably still sound a little sick because literally you just watched last week's episode, but we recorded this the next night. So I'm actually getting on a plane tomorrow to go to Vegas to see some of you at CrimeCon. Super excited about it. As Stephanie said at the beginning of the episode, we're going to be launching the Criminal Coffee Company this week. So by this point, as you're watching this one, hopefully you've already got your order in. Maybe. We'll see. Yeah. Don't forget to do that. I was definitely... Oh, it's interesting because this week in Vegas, what is happening this week in Vegas? It's something we kind of talked about in this episode. The NFL draft. So weird.

Yeah. So it's very close to home and kind of like eerie and surreal because, you know, I didn't really know anything about football before this case. And now that I've learned so much about it, I'm kind of like interested. I'm like, oh, what's going to happen with the draft? Not that I follow football. Not that I know who any of these people are. Not that I even have a team because I'm in New York and I should be a Buffalo fan, but I'm not a Buffalo Bills fan. Never have been. They are just the most disappointing football team ever. They constantly disappoint.

Constantly. So I don't have a team, but maybe this weekend I'll get one. You know, maybe. Maybe they'll impress me. You have Jared Allen. Jared Allen's the real deal. You're going to be all right. It's not me.

Don't say you're going to be all right. I don't talk to these people. I don't associate with them. They are a terrible team. They get everybody's hopes up around here, and everybody's walking around in Bill's jersey and like, it's going to be this year, you guys. It's going to be- Buffalo's awesome now.

No. They always pretend they're awesome. They always pretend they're awesome. They always pretend they're awesome. And then when it comes down to when you're actually supposed to do something, when you're actually supposed to shine, they're like, psych, we led you on again. And I'm sorry, but I'm not going to allow it. No loyalty. No loyalty there. Guys, we appreciate you joining us. Check us out, crimeweekeklyPod.com and also CriminalCoffeeCo.com, both available. Follow us on all our social medias, at CrimeWeeklyPod. And then it's at Drink Criminal Coffee on Instagram and at Drink Criminal on Twitter.

Hope you're following us all, keeping up on it. We're always posting things on different platforms, so make sure you're watching all of it. Sometimes we give away things too, spoiler alert. Last week, you guys didn't know this. We posted a photo. It was kind of like a 40s photo. And we had this photo shoot where you could see like a murder board in the background. It was fake. We made it up. But for our Patreon members, we gave it away to one of them just for commenting on it. So we're always trying to do fun things to give back and say thank you for the support because we really do appreciate it. And we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing without

you. It's funny that you had to tell them it was fake we made it up like we're just yeah we just got a murder board from like a police station we're giving it away guys yeah not the funny part is how we made it we're on the ground pinning it with the yarn and stuff so and we signed it so one of the patreon members i don't know who it is yet because we're recording it before uh we we picked the winner but by this point as you're watching this it's like almost like i'm feeling like i'm in the movie inception right now we're like it before we pick the winner. But by this point, as you're watching this, it's almost like I'm feeling like I'm in the movie Inception right now. We're kind of like all over. But anyways, we're tired.

Hope you enjoyed the episode. Hope you're following along and hope everyone's safe. See you next week. Bye. Bye. Thank you.