Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez had a Bible verse written on his forehead when his body was found by prison guards on Wednesday morning.
The 27-year-old convicted murderer had used a red marker to scrawl the Bible verse John 3:16, according to the ABC News.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” reads the passage from the New Testament’s King James version, which is one of the most quoted verses in Christianity.
The Bible in his cell was also open to that verse, the report stated.
Hernandez committed suicide in prison on Wednesday morning, the Massachusets Department of Correction said.
The ex-Patriots player was discovered hanging in his cell at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, at approximately 3:05 a.m. He lived by himself in a single cell in a general population unit.
However, both Hernandez’s former agent, Brian Murphy, and his attorney, Jose Baez, both say they don’t believe he would ever commit suicide.
There is “absolutely no chance he took his own life,” Murphy said, while Baez proclaimed: “There were no conversations or correspondence from Aaron to his family or legal team that would have indicated anything like this was possible.
“The family and legal team is shocked and surprised at the news of Aaron’s death,” his statement continued. “Aaron was looking forward to an opportunity for a second chance to prove his innocence. Those who love and care about him are heartbroken and determined to find the truth surrounding his untimely death.”
On April 14, the pro football player from Bristol, Connecticut, was acquitted in Suffolk Superior Court on charges of killing Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a drive-by shooting in Boston’s South End in the early morning hours of July 16, 2012, the Boston Globe reported.
Hernandez was already serving a life sentence for the June 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd, for which he was found guilty in April 2015.
He leaves behind a daughter, 4-year-old Avielle Janelle Hernandez, with his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez.