BOSTON – Aaron Hernandez, the convicted murderer who once starred for the New England Patriots, wrote a suicide note to his fiancée last month advising her taking his own life would make her rich.

Prosecutors unsuccessfully used the note in court Tuesday to urge the judge who presided over Hernandez’s murder trial three years ago to preserve the record of his conviction despite a colonial-era state law that wipes clean a defendant’s record if death occurs before the appeal process is completed.

Hernandez’s appeal of the jury’s guilty finding in the 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd remained active when he hanged himself with a bedsheet from his maximum security prison cell window on April 19. He was serving a life sentence without parole.

Strangely, the suicide occurred five days after he was acquitted by a jury in two unrelated murders in Boston a year before the Lloyd killing.

Judge Susan Garsh rejected the prosecution’s argument Hernandez knew of the law that vacates even murder convictions still on appeal in the event of death, wiping out his first-degree murder judgment so his fiancée could inherit whatever money he had or hoped to gain from the withheld millions of his contract with the Patriots.

The judge described Hernandez’ suicide as “a tragic act that may have complex and myriad causes” but she had no way to know if his motive related to the centuries old state law.

Lawyers for Hernandez argued the law could not be ignored, citing a history of state courts vacating murder convictions upon death of the defendants, including John Salvi III, found guilty of killing two women at Boston area abortion clinics in 1994. Salvi committed suicide in his prison cell nine months later.

Members of Lloyd’s family attended the hearing in a packed courtroom in Fall River, Massachusetts. They broke down in tears at the judge’s ruling. “In our book, he’s guilty and he’s going to always be guilty,” said Ursula Ward, Lloyd’s mother.

Legal experts have speculated vacating Hernandez’ murder conviction could open the door for his estate to demand the New England Patriots turn over the $6 million never paid on his contract with the team.

The Patriots withheld the money on the basis Hernandez violated the conduct clause in his contract and also the clause requiring him to show up for practice and games. He played three seasons with the Patriots as an outstanding tight end before his arrest for murder.

Prosecutors said they would appeal Judge Garsh’s ruling.