Before hanging himself in prison last April, former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez may have set up a hidden trust for his 5-year-old daughter.
The "AJH Irrevocable Trust" was discovered in documents filed in Bristol Probate and Family Court by attorney John G. Dugan, according to the Boston Herald. Dugan is the special council representing the Hernandez’s estate.
At the time of his 2013 arrest for the murder of Odin Lloyd, Hernandez was reportedly paid more than $9 million of a new $40 million contract by the Patriots.
The Herald reported that Dugan warned in his filings that Hernandez’s estate "will probably be insolvent" — citing debts of $2.82 million while declaring there is only $1.2 million in assets.
Estate attorney Mark M. Curley, who is not associated with Hernandez’s case, told the Herald that once the terms of an irrevocable trust are signed, they cannot be altered.
The contents of the trust are not public record.
Hernandez was found hanging in his jail cell in mid-April, just days after he was acquitted of a deadly double shooting that happened in Boston's South End in 2012. A few weeks later, a judge vacated Hernandez's prior conviction for Lloyd's 2013 murder, citing a legal doctrine that wipes a defendant's conviction should the defendant die before an appeal can be heard.
