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Attorney for Aaron Hernandez's prison 'brother' adds new wrinkles to suicide mystery

Aaron Hernandez died in prison a week ago, but the stories surrounding his death and the final months of his life continue to roll out, each element raising more questions than it answers.

Hernandez left three notes in his cell for authorities to find following his suicide. The intended recipient for one of those letters was allegedly Kyle Kennedy, 22, who was serving time in the Sousa Baranowski Prison in Shirley, Massachusetts, alongside Hernandez. Larry Army Jr., Kennedy’s attorney, held a news conference on Wednesday afternoon to add Kennedy’s perspective to the ongoing story.

Kennedy and Hernandez were close, Army said, so much so that Hernandez wrote letters to Kennedy’s family. In a letter to Kennedy’s father, Hernandez wrote that Kennedy “is my brother and always will be.” However, Army declined to answer specific questions about the extent of Kennedy and Hernandez’s relationship, saying that Kennedy himself will answer such questions at some point in the future.

“He wants the words about this relationship to come from his mouth,” Army explained.

Notably, Kennedy and Hernandez apparently knew one another “through correspondence” prior to Kennedy’s incarceration, but Army did not elaborate. In September 2016, the two had requested to be matched as cellmates; while the request was initially approved, prison officials later rejected it. The prison seeks to match cellmates by size and race, Army said, and Hernandez and Kennedy were not the same size.

Aaron Hernandez. (Getty)
Aaron Hernandez committed suicide in prison. (Getty)

Even so, Kennedy, who went by the prison name of “Pure,” remained in close contact with Hernandez. The night before Hernandez’s suicide, Kennedy had been removed from general population for a “jailhouse violation,” according to Army, but believes he was the last person to see Hernandez alive.

Kennedy received the news of Hernandez’s suicide at about 6:30 a.m. last Wednesday, and initially thought it was a joke. According to Army, Kennedy then recalled a letter Hernandez sent him three weeks earlier, in which Hernandez said, “I think I’m going to hang it up LOL.” Army also indicated that Hernandez had bequeathed to Kennedy a $50,000 custom watch purchased in Las Vegas.

Hernandez’s lawyer, Jose Baez, denied the relationship between his client and Kennedy, telling TMZ, “We don’t have the time to stop our efforts and respond to every convicted felon that has something to say about Aaron Hernandez. Quite frankly I’m surprised more inmates have not come forward to make money off the media.”

Kennedy is back on suicide watch, but according to Army it’s only procedural and says his client “doesn’t feel like he should be.”

Kennedy was arrested in January 2015 following a high-speed chase that topped 110 mph. He was charged with driving offenses and, given the discovery of a large knife in his car, armed robbery at a nearby gas station. He is scheduled to be released in February 2018, according to his attorney.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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