Aaron Hernandez Cousin Who Refused To Testify Pleads Guilty On Contempt Charge

(AP)

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) – A cousin of ex-New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez has pleaded guilty to a criminal contempt charge after she refused to testify against him before a grand jury.

Tanya Singleton, 38, of Bristol, Connecticut, changed her plea Tuesday in Fall River.

Prosecutors have said they would seek two years' probation and home confinement for Singleton, who has been undergoing treatment for a recurrence of breast cancer.

Singleton's attorney, E. Peter Parker, said last week that additional incarceration would likely hasten her death from cancer, which had been in remission but has returned and spread. She spent 196 days in jail before posting bail earlier this year.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in the 2013 killing of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd, whose body was found in an industrial area near Hernandez's home in North Attleborough. Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.

Singleton refused to testify despite being given immunity by prosecutors. That put her "at an emotionally supercharged crossroads where the strong and unbreakable bonds of family clashed with society's need for evidence," Parker said in a filing. "She chose family."

Hernandez, 24, also has pleaded not guilty in the 2012 killings of two men in Boston.