Juror Reacts To Aaron Hernandez's Death: 'Hard To Swallow'
BOSTON (CBS) -- One of the jurors in the Aaron Hernandez double murder trial told WBZ-TV she was "devastated" when she heard the news that the ex-New England Patriot had killed himself in his prison cell.
"I was shocked, and then it turned into sadness," said juror Rosita Londono.
The trial, which lasted seven weeks, ended in the jury finding Hernandez not guilty in the murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in Boston in 2012.
"Watching his demeanor in court every day, just observing him and thinking 'this guy cannot be guilty,' that was just my perception of it, and then learning this morning that he had committed suicide, it's just really hard for me to swallow," Londono said.
Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Londono said she had heard Hernandez committed murder, but that she "didn't really know much about it."
She said all the jurors got along really well, and that the trial was interesting.
Last Tuesday, as the courtroom waited for the jury to return their verdict, Shayanna Jenkins, Hernandez's fiancee, sat in the courtroom with Hernandez's four-year-old daughter, Avielle. Londono said she's been thinking of them.
"I just want to say I am thinking about his family, and I am hurting along with them, especially his fiancee and his daughter," said Londono. "They are in my prayers."
