Jailhouse friend says Hernandez hinted at suicide

BOSTON - A jailhouse friend of Aaron Hernandez is suggesting the former NFL star hinted at his suicide weeks before he was found hanging by a bedsheet in his prison cell last week.

Lawrence Army Jr., an attorney for inmate Kyle Kennedy, said Wednesday that Hernandez told his client in early March that he was thinking he was ''going to hang it up.''

Army said his client didn't take the comment seriously at the time. Hernandez apparently made the remark while on trial for the killing of two men in Boston in 2012. That trial began in February and ended on April 14 with Hernandez's acquittal.

Army also said the two inmates had been close and even requested to be cellmates months before Hernandez died. He says that request was denied by prison officials.