Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, currently cooling his heels in jail as he awaits trial for murder, fears he’ll rot in prison and never get to know his baby daughter.
In a jailhouse letter to a pen pal, Hernandez appears to grasp the grim reality that his 9-month-old girl, Avielle Janelle, may have to grow up without her “Da Da.”
“I miss my little girl terribly an [sic] my biggest fear of all is she won’t know daddy,” Hernandez, 23, wrote from his Massachusetts lockup to Collin Imm, 21, of Wisconsin.
“She said daddy [for the] first time or should I say ‘Da Da’ and [I] had to hear it from jail.”
The two-page, handwritten note was published yesterday by Radar Online.
Hernandez is charged with the June 17 murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd at a North Attleboro, Mass., industrial park.
The ex-Patriot, who has one child with fiancée Shayanna Jenkins, is being held without bail at the Bristol County House of Correction in North Dartmouth.
“I’m a great dude,” Hernandez wrote in his postscript. “Don’t believe all the negative publicity.”
The hulking 6-foot-1, 245-pound Hernandez revealed to Imm that his first sports love was actually basketball, and not football.
“We actually have something in common because my dream as a kid was to play in NBA an [sic] is still my favorite sport but had a better chance in football!” according to Hernandez.
He told Imm that, with so much time to pass behind bars, he appreciated Imm’s correspondence.
“I’m doing fine but wanted to write you and definitely wanted to say thanks for the support!” Hernandez wrote.
“Hope to hear back from you if wanted! Please keep this private is all I ask!”
Imm told The Post he sold his Hernandez letter to Radar Online for $600.“I just wanted to show my support for him, and stuff like that,” Imm said of his motive to write to Hernandez.
The pen pal said he’s written to Hernandez twice and he’s received this one response, postmarked July 17.
Imm said he doesn’t expected Hernandez to write to him again.