Former New York Jets first-round pick Darron Lee consulted ChatGPT about how to “cover up” the murder of his girlfriend, who he allegedly beat and stabbed to death last month, according to prosecutors.
Lee, 31, allegedly sent the disturbing messages to the chat bot days before Gabriella Carvalho Perpétuo was found by police dead on the floor in a blood-soaked home in Tennessee, prosecutors revealed Monday during a preliminary hearing for the former linebacker, WCTV reported.
“Don’t know what to do right now. Fiancee [sic] did her crazy thing again and now she’s messed up, I wake up and she has two swollen eyes (i didn’t do anything, self inflicted) she stabbed herself, slit her eye? Idk but she isn’t waking up or responding, what do I do?” he asked ChatGPT.
“Got it,” the bot responded, according to WDEF. “Here’s exactly what [redacted] is the safest way to handle it without framing it as “police trouble,”
Lee, who was selected as the 20th overall pick by the Jets in 2016, also asked if someone slipping and falling could cause “puncture wounds.”
“Yeah—- it can happen**, but there’s [redacted] to make. Can a slip-and-fall cause puncture wounds? Yes, but usually only under specific conditions?” ChatGPT replied.
“I can help you sanity-check whether it lines up with a slip-and-fall or if it’s something that should be evaluated ASAP,” the AI added.
District Attorney Coty Wamp told the court that Lee used ChatGPT as a “legal advisor.”
“He has conversations, dozens of conversations, back and forth with ChatGPT over a two-day period about what he did to Gabriella Perpetua in detail,” Wamp said.
“He asks how to cover it up. He asks what to say to 911.”
Prosecutors also presented new police body camera footage showing Lee acting confused as he told officers he found Perpétuo dead at the house in Ooltewah, outside of Chattanooga.
“She wasn’t saying anything and that’s when I called 911 immediately and I was like what is going on… I was asleep for a long time,” Lee said in the video shown in court.
Lee allegedly told officers that Perpétuo suffered from narcolepsy and must have fallen in the shower.
However, police said the scene inside the home showed evidence of a violent struggle and injuries inconsistent with an accidental fall.
Perpétuo was topless when cops found her and died from horrific injuries, officials said — including severe brain trauma, a broken neck, bruising across her body and even large bite marks on her shoulder and thigh, according to an autopsy.
She also had stab wounds to her legs and significant injuries to her face. The medical examiner ruled her cause of death as blunt force trauma.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brian Lockhart, who was one of the first at the rental home, previously testified that the house was covered in blood.
“There was blood going up the staircase, on the hand railing there was blood, on the walls there was blood, on the floor in the living room there was blood, in the floor on the hallway and the stairs,” he continued.
The microwave was shattered, and booze bottles and broken glass littered the home. Detectives discovered cleaning supplies upstairs, including bleach wipes and a spray bottle.
Lee, 31, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors indicated they will pursue the death penalty if he’s convicted.