National Football League

The Latest: Jailhouse pal says Hernandez hinted at suicide

Published Apr. 26, 2017 2:19 p.m. ET

BOSTON (AP) The Latest on former NFL star Aaron Hernandez's suicide (all times local):

2:10 p.m.

A jailhouse friend of Aaron Hernandez is suggesting the former NFL star hinted at his suicide weeks before he was found hanging by a bedsheet in his prison cell last week.

Lawrence Army Jr., an attorney for inmate Kyle Kennedy, said Wednesday that Hernandez told his client in early March that he was thinking he was ''going to hang it up.''

Army said his client didn't take the comment seriously at the time. Hernandez apparently made the remark while on trial for the killing of two men in Boston in 2012. That trial began in February and ended on April 14 with Hernandez's acquittal.

Army also said the two inmates had been close and even requested to be cellmates months before Hernandez died. He says that request was denied by prison officials.

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12:15 p.m.

A jailhouse friend of Aaron Hernandez says prison officials denied the former NFL star's request for a cellmate months before he hanged himself.

David Wedge, a spokesman for Kyle Kennedy's attorney, said Wednesday the two inmates at the maximum security prison in Shirley, Massachusetts, had asked to be cellmates last September. He said the request initially was approved but then denied.

Wedge didn't say why the request was denied, and prison officials didn't immediately comment.

Kennedy's attorney, Lawrence Army Jr., is speaking Wednesday about how the two inmates were connected.

Army has claimed one of three suicide notes Hernandez left in his cell before killing himself last week was addressed to Kennedy. He's requested the note be turned over to this client. Hernandez's lawyer says no such note exists.