Aaron Hernandez is described by a top law enforcement officer who once stood guard over him as "a sociopath, a guy you need to watch every day."

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson recently shared his impressions of the former New England Patriots star, now serving a life sentence for murder and facing another trial where he is accused of being the trigger-man in a 2012 double slaying.

"He never thought of himself as being in prison," said Hodgson, adding that the former NFL star treated the prison yard like a training camp.

Hernandez Mind Control Seen as Uncanny

"He saw himself as being at training camp and he believed it within his mind," added Hodgson. "He pushed everything out. He was able to just keep in what he wanted to focus on and that was, 'I'm in training camp and I'm going to be out of here and I'm going to be back with the Patriots.' "

After being convicted in the 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd, Hernandez is now being held at the Souza-Baranowski maximum security prison.

While being held at the facility where Hodgson was in charge, the sheriff shared staffers had a policy that if Hernandez ever became comfortable enough to start calling a guard by his first name they would immediately move the officer from the unit.

"He's a master manipulator, he's able to draw people in very easily, he's constantly working the system to try to get things that he otherwise isn't supposed to have," added Hodgson.

Charming as he might be, Hodgson recalled Hernandez also had a mean streak that he could very easily tap into.

"It had something to do with a cell search, with him not following an order from an officer," he said of one incident where Hernandez ended up being hit with an infraction. "He immediately went from 0 to 60."

More Violence

In the 2012 killing, Hernandez is accused of opening fire on Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside a downtown Boston nightclub after one of them accidentally spilled a drink on him earlier in the evening and failed to apologize.

Reports recently surfaced that Hernandez has hired famed Casey Anthony attorney Jose Baez to represent him at trial in the double murder case. He has also appealed his conviction in the Lloyd case.

Baez infamously earned Anthony an acquittal in the death of her 2-year-old daughter.

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