Timeline: The Rise and Rapid Fall of Aaron Hernandez

Aaron Hernandez's death of apparent suicide in a Massachusetts prison cell brought to a close a remarkable but troubled life. 

The New England Patriots drafted the Connecticut native, a star at the University of Florida, but he only played in the NFL for three years before his arrest. He would spend the next four years in and out of court rooms.

In 2015, Hernandez was found guilty of murdering semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd. In March of 2017, he returned to court to answer to two more murder charges in the 2012 deaths of Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu. This time, he was acquitted, being found guilty only of a firearms charge.

But Hernandez's first conviction, of Lloyd's murder, was set to leave him behind bars for the rest of his life. He killed himself less than a week after his acquittal for murder.

Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez was discovered dead in his prison cell by a corrections officer early Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Department of Correction.
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