FALL RIVER, Mass. – A cousin of ex-New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez wants a Massachusetts judge to spare her prison time, citing her cancer.
Tanya Singleton, of Bristol, Connecticut, is charged with criminal contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that indicted Hernandez in the 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd of Boston. She intends to change her not guilty plea Tuesday in Fall River Superior Court.
Singleton's lawyer says in court papers filed this week that more incarceration "likely would hasten her death." She spent 196 days in jail before posting bail. Her lawyer is proposing a one-year sentence, with credit for time served and the rest suspended with home confinement.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to Lloyd's killing and, in a separate case, the 2012 killings of two men in Boston.
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