Following the Netflix debut of the 'Killer Inside' docuseries, those closest to the athlete-turned-killer are speaking out.
Following the release of Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, a three-part Netflix docuseries about the life and crimes of the athlete-turned-convicted killer, those closest to Hernandez are speaking out.
Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, took to Instagram the day after the series was released to say she was taking a break from social media.
“I wanted to let all of you sweet sweet souls know I have tried to read every message sent on IG and through email (positive and negative),” she wrote. “The amount of support and positive energy is again unreal! I'm sure you will all understand how imperative it is to take some time away from social media.”
Jenkins-Hernandez, who was not interviewed for the documentary, first started dating the football player in 2007 before getting engaged in 2012. The two have one daughter, Avielle, together.
Killer Inside chronicles the rise of a gifted young athlete who became a household name for being involved in what is considered the most “infamous murder case involving an American athlete since O.J. Simpson.”
In 2013, after signing a five-year, $40 million contract with the New England Patriots, Hernandez was charged for the murder of Odin Lloyd. While on trial, he was also indicted for the double homicide of two Boston-area men. While he was acquitted for the latter, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Lloyd case and sentenced to serve life in prison, where he eventually took his own life.
The series also raises questions about Hernandez’s sexuality, drug use and the people he associated with off the field and the seemingly double lives he lived before he got in trouble with the law.
Shortly following his death, Jenkins-Hernandez sat down with Dr. Phil to discuss their relationship and their last conversation before his shocking suicide. “I felt like we were looking so bright," she said at the time. "We were going up a ladder to a positive direction."
While Jenkins-Hernandez is retreating from the spotlight in the wake of renewed attention surrounding her late fiancé, Hernandez’s former defense attorney is pushing back against the project.
“I don’t give a damn about what some lame a** documentary has to say about Aaron,” Jose Baez, who is featured in the docuseries, wrote on Instagram. “I knew him, they did not and while he was far from perfect, they are not even close to the truth. People have no idea how documentaries are made, the truth is usually found on the cutting room floor. These producers lied directly to my face, so I don’t expect their money making scheme to be much better.”
Baez first rose to fame defending Casey Anthony. He represented Hernandez during his appeal of the Lloyd murder conviction as well as during the trial for murder charges related to the double homicide.
In a second Instagram post, the lawyer maintained that Hernandez was wrongly convicted. “I think there was an outstanding chance he could have won the Odín Lloyd Trial,” he wrote. “There was zero evidence as to who pulled the trigger.”
The post was in response to a column Dan Wetzel, one of the executive producers on Killer Inside, wrote for Yahoo! Sports. “He was guilty, 100 percent guilty,” he wrote of Hernandez.
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is now streaming on Netflix.
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