Aaron Hernandez Netflix documentary: 10 questions still unanswered in ‘Killer Inside’

There’s a line in the trailer for “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” that encapsulates so much of why Hernandez’s story remains darkly captivating:

“The why is the story here,” said Kevin Armstrong, an executive producer on the documentary, who previously covered Hernandez’s rise and fall for the New York Daily News.

While plenty of people have tried to explain or understand what made Hernandez, who seemed to be living the dream of so many, choose a violent, criminal life, nobody knows why. The former Patriots tight end from Bristol, Connecticut who was convicted of one murder and accused of two more before killing himself in prison, is subject of Netflix’s three-part documentary series which became available for streaming Wednesday.

 

“Killer Inside” gives as complete and compelling a public look at Hernandez as exists, but it’s impossible to watch and not have more questions.

1. Did Aaron Hernandez want to get caught or believe he was untouchable? 

 - At one point Dan Wetzel, who covered the story for Yahoo and is an executive producer of the documentary pointed out “If Aaron Hernandez had erased his own security camera footage, he might be a free man.”

The video from the surveillance system in his house was just one of the details surrounding the murder of Odin Lloyd, who was to be his future brother in law, that was blatantly sloppy and helped lead to his conviction for first-degree murder. Was the carelessness a result of marijuana use or something more psychological?

2. If Aaron Hernadez’s father hadn’t died suddenly, would Hernandez, who was 16 at the time, have turned out differently? 

 - Dennis Hernandez was both a steadying force and a disturbing role model in Hernandez’s life. On one hand, he provided structure and motivation that led to his success as an athlete and also kept him focused and out of trouble. When he died unexpectedly during hernia surgery, Aaron Hernandez turned his pain into anger and his anger into a propensity to get into trouble. The death sparked other events involving Aaron’s mother (see below) that further fueled that anger.

At the same time, Dennis Hernandez was prone to violent streaks and once repeatedly slammed Aaron’s mother’s head into the sink until she was unconscious. He was also homophobic forcing Hernandez to repress his own sexuality.

3. Did Aaron Hernandez’s repressed sexuality add to his growing anger? 

 - Dennis Sansoucie, Hernandez’s high school quarterback, described a sexual relationship the two had from middle school to high school, and the fears they had about being found out.

“Aaron and I had an on and off relationship with each other from the seventh grade to the junior year of high school. Aaron participated with many people. I was a small piece of Aaron’s sexual activity,” Sansoucie said. “In school, there weren’t a lot of kids who were out of the closet. The few that were, I used to feel like ‘Golly, what a homo.’ Here I am the football player. I was in such denial because I was an athlete. You mean to tell me the quarterback and the tight end (were) gay? He sleeps with other men?’ No. It didn’t sit right with people. It doesn’t sit right within our own stomach at that point. ... After doing it, it was like did someone catch us? Did someone know? ‘Dude if we get caught, it’s ruined. Our parents are going to disown us.’ ... He knew he had to be on a different behavior around his father. … We had to hide who we were.”

Even in prison, in recordings of phone calls with his mother, Hernandez mocked gay and transgender inmates. Rumors of his sexuality surfaced shortly before the suicide.

4. Did the brain disease CTE contribute to Hernandez’s violent mental state? - After his suicide, Hernandez’s brain was sent to Boston University to be studied for CTE. Dr. Ann McKee, who has been a pioneer in CTE research said:

“This is the first case we’ve ever seen f that kind of damage in such a young individual.”

Patrick Haggan, the prosecutor on Hernandez’s second trial didn’t rule out CTE’s influence on Hernandez’s crimes"

“At first I thought it was a publicity stunt,” he said of the CTE test. “I couldn’t have been more wrong when I saw the results of his CTE. I started to look at the signs and symptoms of CTE - impulsiveness, rash decisions, sometimes the propensity to be violent. It was Aaron Hernandez. If you look at everything this young man had going, emotionally and physically to what had happened to him as a child and on top of it you add the CTE that undoubtedly the seeds of what went on began many years earlier.”

5. Might Aaron Hernandez have walked free if Jose Baez represented him in his first trial? 

 - Baez, the high-profile lawyer, defended Casey Anthony when she was charged with murdering her daughter. He took Hernandez’s case for the second trial. Like he did with Anthony, Baez earned an acquittal despite evidence against his client. He was set to handle Hernandez’s appeal.

6. Did Aaron Hernandez’s strained relationship with his mother impact his anger?

  - It seems unlikely that Terri Hernandez will enjoy watching this documentary. Her relationship with Aaron is laid out raw throughout. From her beginning a romantic relationship with Aaron’s cousin’s husband shortly after her husband died, to her complaining to him over a prison phone call that he never gave her a million dollars, the two appeared often contentious.

Late in episode 1, in a different phone call, Aaron Hernandez blamed her for who he’d become.

“I was the happiest fucking little kid in the world and you fucked me up," he said. "What the fuck did you think I was going to do be a perfect angel? If I was with you right now probably would have punched the shit out of you.”

7. Would he have been better off drafted by another team?

  - On one hand, he seemed to benefit from the Patriots’ structure and his relationship with owner Bob Kraft, but some of his friends suggested he might have been better if he was away from his family and his friends in his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut.

8. If not for the since repealed abatement law, would Hernandez still be alive? 

  When Hernandez took his own life, a law was on the books in Massachusetts that said if someone died while appealing their conviction, that conviction would be vacated and the deceased would be officially considered not guilty.

After being acquitted at his second murder trial, Hernandez was appealing the first. According to Baez, Hernandez hadn’t appeared to be in a mental state that suggested he might be a suicide risk.

During a phone call with a friend, Hernandez said he didn’t mind prison, he only missed his daughter.

Under abatement, the money he’d made playing football would go to his daughter and fiancee if he died during the appeal. His conviction was briefly vacated under that law, but the attention Hernandez’s case brought to the statue caused Massachusetts to overturn the law and reinstate Hernandez’s conviction.

9. Was Aaron Hernandez involved in a shooting in Florida that he couldn’t be tied to?

 - Probably not. Gainesville police no longer believe Hernandez was involved in a shooting case from 2007 that he was once considered a suspect in.

10. Why?

  - Why didn’t Hernandez simply lean into the life of luxury the NFL and his $40 million contract could have given him. Why become a criminal and a killer when that lifestyle could have been avoided?

There’ll never truly be an answer.

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