Aaron Hernandez's cousin Tanya Singleton, a cancer-stricken mother of two, has pleaded guilty to criminal contempt for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury. She is also accused of helping one of Hernandez's alleged accomplices, Ernest Wallace, flee Massachussetts after Odin Lloyd was shot and killed.
Prosecutors believe Singleton's efforts and continued silence may be ill-gotten, however. Without a jury present on Wednesday, Bristol County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bomberg told Judge Susan Garsh that Hernandez has lied to Singleton about a trust fund set up for her two sons.
"It already started off at $100,000 for them, do you know what I'm saying, I think about 75 apiece or something like that and every seven years it doubles," Hernandez told her in a conversation. Bomberg said that his words are not true.
"He says, 'I set up an account,' and lo and behold he didn't," Bomberg said. "He told her this to secure her continued loyalty.
"It's not out of the goodness of his heart that he's misleading his cousin into thinking her children are going to have millions of dollars when they turn 18."
Recorded conversations Hernandez had in prison with a number of people could come back to haunt him. Regarding Singleton, comments he made about her to his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins may be used to illustrate that he does not care about her as much as he claims. Hernandez is on tape telling Jenkins "the only good thing about Tanya being locked up is she's gonna lose weight in jail."
Bomberg laid out why that is important.
"It expresses an indifference to the alleged plight of Ms. Singleton - the stage 4 cancer patient - that somehow she has been put upon by the government holding her in contempt," Bomberg said.
Judge Garsh is planning to allow some of Hernandez's phone calls to be admitted as evidence, but it won't be clear which ones until later today.
[Courant]
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