Aaron Hernandez‘s death has been ruled a suicide and now his family members are left to pick up the pieces. The convicted murderer was in the midst of appealing the verdict and because he passed away during the process, the state defines that as a legal abatement, so he’s considered “an innocent.” Since the former NFL star wasn’t married and does have a daughter, “the court will recognize her [Avielle] as the rightful heir to his estate,” Estate Attorney Damian Boz tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “The question is going to be who has priority to the assets left over. The immediate right to his estate is to his daughter and to legal heirs.”
“That will be a battle that will be fought out in the probate courts, the Superior Courts for any wrongful deaths actions. The daughter will get his estimated $8.2 million dollar estate,” Damian said. “Because he is dead, an estate will be opened up and once that probate estate is open any creditors of his estate would then file notice, anyone that has a claim, such as a family of the deceased, they are going to look to have an injunction, a stay placed on the distribution of any assets and it will most likely be frozen until the matters of the wrongful death have been sorted.”
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“In all likelihood the daughter won’t see any money for quite some time unless there are other assets like life insurance that would possibly evade the probate process,” he added. “Because Aaron’s daughter is a minor, if she does get the money, the state would probably require that a trust be imposed and the estate be administered by a trustee, the mother would request that she be appointed the trustee of the estate of the daughter.” Damian says this could likely happen.
“Because Aaron has died an innocent man, having never been convicted of a crime, the morality clause of his contract has not been violated and he may indeed be owed his bonus from the Patriots,” Damian concluded. The 27-year-old was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for killing Odin Lloyd in 2013. Since his contract with the Patriots was terminated due to a morals clause, it’s possible the team may owe his estate the balance of the contract.
HollywoodLifers, do you think Aaron hoped his daughter would receive this money? Tell us.