Homicide

Hernandez cousin gets probation in contempt case, judge cites illness in sparing her prison

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Tanya Singleton, a cousin of former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez, sits in court in Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, in Boston. Singleton pleaded guilty Tuesday to a contempt charge for refusing to testify before the grand jury that indicted Hernandez in the 2012 killings of two Boston men. She was sentenced to two years of probation. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, Jessica Rinaldi, Pool) (The Associated Press)

Tanya Singleton, right, a cousin of former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez, sits beside her sister Jennifer "Gina" Valderrama Mercado in court in Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, in Boston. Singleton pleaded guilty Tuesday to a contempt charge for refusing to testify before the grand jury that indicted Hernandez in the 2012 killings of two Boston men. She was sentenced to two years of probation. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, Jessica Rinaldi, Pool) (The Associated Press)

Tanya Singleton is helped down from the stand by a court officer in Suffolk Superior Court, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, in Boston, after she pleading guilty to contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that indicted her cousin, former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez, in the 2012 killings of two Boston men. She was sentenced to two years of probation. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, Jessica Rinaldi, Pool) (The Associated Press)

A cousin of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez has been sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury that indicted Hernandez in the 2012 killings of two Boston men.

Tanya Singleton changed her plea to guilty during a hearing in Boston on Tuesday.

Singleton, of Bristol, Connecticut, has been battling a recurrence of breast cancer.

Her lawyer says the cancer is incurable and she cannot receive adequate medical treatment in jail.

A judge granted the defense request to sentence her to probation. She received the same sentence last month in Bristol County, when she pleaded guilty to a separate contempt charge for refusing to testify before the grand jury that indicted Hernandez in the 2013 shooting of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.