Aaron Hernandez: Accused Murderer’s Violent Past Emerges

Aaron Hernandez so angry in March that he put his hand through a window, opening a gash on his wrist so deep that police originally mistook it for a suicide attempt.

The violent incident is part of an emerging pattern in the wake of Hernandez’s arrest for first-degree murder. Past instances paint a picture as a young man, struggling with maturity and a short temper.

Police spoke to Hernandez’s fiance Shayanna Jenkins but did not label the March incident as a domestic disturbance. Jenkins told officers that Hernanez was angry about something else after he had had been drinking. But a few weeks later police were called back to the Hermosa Beach townhose — Hernandez was living in the beach community while receiving medical treatment — after neighbors heard shouting and “things being thrown around.”

Aaron Hernandez had acknowledged that he needed to break away from his troubled past. After Jenkins gave birth to their first child in November, the couple moved into a $1.3 million mansion in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and Hernandez vowed to settle down.

“I’m engaged now and I have a baby. So it’s just going to make me think of life a lot differently and doing things the right way,” he told NESN shortly after his daughter’s birth. “Now, another one is looking up to me. I can’t just be young and reckless Aaron no more. I’m gonna try to do the right things, become a good father and [have her] be raised like I was raised.”

But it appears he was not able to leave his violent life. Police say that Aaron Hernandez orchestrated the June murder of his onetime friend, Odin Lloyd. Cameras from Hernandez’s home showed him walking with a .45 Glock shortly before the murder, and surveillance footage showed him driving Lloyd to the park where his body was later found.

Boston police are now investigating whether Hernandez was involved in a 2012 double murder.

Since his arrest last month, other incidents have emerged showing Hernandez as a young man with a short temper. As a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Florida, he reportedly punched a bouncer in the head at a Gainesville restaurant.

Tim Tebow, Hernandez’s teammate who hosted him during a recruiting visit, reportedly tried to intervene and diffuse the situation, offering to pay the tab that Hernandez was arguing about.

Now sitting in a solitary cell in the Bristol Count Jail, Aaron Hernandez continues to deny his violent past. He has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charges and denies having gang affiliation.