00:00:01
She loved her family. She put everything she had into being there for everybody else.
00:00:12
A couple of days go by and I hadn't heard from her. She called me and she's like, have you heard Jasmine Smith?
00:00:21
What was it about that post that stood out to you? The photos. That's not something she would put out there of her in lingerie.
00:00:29
I pulled up her phone record. She's not making phone calls since Tuesday night. And someone has been resetting her passwords.
00:00:38
Her family catapulted the investigation. They took matters into their own hands.
00:00:44
We could see the pin drop from Jasmine's phone. We found a way in the apartment complex.
00:00:51
He said, I heard a scream that was so startling that I wrote the time down. So this was right next door?
00:00:58
Exactly. Are you thinking Jasmine could be inside? Yes. We forced the door open.
00:01:06
Terrified of what you're about to find. How far would you go for your family? For the people you love most in the world?
00:01:25
When you're desperate, you just don't stop moving. Especially if one of them was in trouble.
00:01:34
It's been missing for four days. This family went to the ends of the earth. What can we do?
00:01:40
And the edge of the law. Can't investigate anything in there that you found. They'd only find out later if they had gone too far.
00:01:48
Chattanooga, Tennessee, 2022, just two days before Thanksgiving. Jackie White and her family were heartbroken.
00:02:04
The family matriarch, Granny, had cancer, and the prognosis wasn't good. It was hard, and the cancer had metastasized.
00:02:16
It went from, hey, let's figure out what's wrong, to she's going to die very soon.
00:02:22
That fast? Yes. So it was really quick. It was really unexpected. The family all gathered at the hospital,
00:02:29
including Jackie's cousin, Jasmine Pace. Jazzy, as the family called her, adored granny.
00:02:37
How was Jasmine during all of that? She kept it together, because that's what we do in my family.
00:02:43
We're strong for each other. But when I got there, she was outside alone having her breakdown.
00:02:51
So she was devastated. I mean, devastated, absolutely devastated. Everyone had their own moment with her, and she passed as soon as I started praying.
00:03:10
Jackie grieved with her cousin Jazzy, the two worried about their moms. Granny had raised them both.
00:03:17
So they made plans for the family to gather on Thanksgiving, just two days away.
00:03:23
Jazzy helped lead the charge. She offered, you know, I can bring stuff. Our moms are not going to want to have Thanksgiving.
00:03:33
But Granny will haunt us if we do not. She's like, we have to get everyone together, even if we're all in pajamas and crying.
00:03:40
Yeah. So that was the plan to kind of recoup the day in between and figure it out.
00:03:47
And then I'll get back together on Thanksgiving. The day before Thanksgiving, Jackie texted Jazzy to see how she was holding up.
00:03:58
And you got a response. I did. Saying what? I just need some time alone after everything that happened.
00:04:04
Was that a normal response from her? For an emotional event, yes. I think my whole family's that way. We kind of retreat inwardly and like to process
00:04:18
alone. So I thought maybe that's what was happening. But then Jazzy texted to say she
00:04:25
was spending Thanksgiving with a friend instead of the family. And said, you know, I'm going to
00:04:32
South Carolina with Emma for her family's Thanksgiving. I just need some time away from
00:04:39
everyone after everything that happened. Jackie couldn't believe it. Her not coming to Thanksgiving,
00:04:47
it upset me. I mean, I'm like, girl, be here, you know, and I tried to call her on Thanksgiving,
00:04:55
and it went straight to voicemail. Jazzy's half-sister, Gabby Pace, also found it strange
00:05:02
Especially when she got this Snapchat from Jazzy, a photo with the message, Baby, I'm good.
00:05:11
What did you think? Odd, because they were old pictures. It didn't look like the most recent Jazzy.
00:05:19
By that Friday morning, worry started to creep in. Jazzy's mother Katrina realized nobody had actually spoken to Jazzy in three days
00:05:31
since the night Granny died. When she couldn't reach her on the phone by the day after Thanksgiving,
00:05:38
it was like, no, something's wrong. She's not picking up the phone. She's not checking on me.
00:05:45
She knows her daughter. She does. And it's very unlike Jasmine to not be there for everyone.
00:05:53
Her mom called Emma the friend Jazzy said she was visiting Emma actually told her my family not in South Carolina so I don even know where that came from And there was more Jazzy wasn with her on Thanksgiving
00:06:09
And that's when it was like panic stricken. She knew something wasn't right. And she's like, what do I do? And I said, she's 22. She's on your phone plan. Who is she talking to?
00:06:20
Like, let's unravel this. the search for Jazzy would force the family to go places and do things they never imagined
00:06:31
what can we do at this point I mean I'm not saying it sounds like you all went into
00:06:35
full investigation mode you know it's not her we know it's not her and from that moment on it was
00:06:41
just digging like where is she spending money who's she talking to you're terrified of what
00:06:46
you're about to find. Jazzy reappears online in a puzzling and disturbing Facebook post.
00:06:55
That's when I got scared. You saw that post? I did. That's not something she would put out there
00:07:01
of her in lingerie on social media. I felt like that's someone that wants to humiliate her.
00:07:09
If Jazzy didn't post this, who did? November 26th, 2022. It had been four days since family and friends last saw Jasmine Pace.
00:07:39
It was totally unlike Jazzy to disappear like that. Her family started tracking her down.
00:07:46
It's 2022. Everyone has an electronic footprint. There are clues everywhere. Especially, they figured, for a bright and fun 22-year-old who was normally in constant touch.
00:08:01
What was she like? Sweet. Sassy. So easy to talk to. She had a lot of friends. Definitely kind of an old soul.
00:08:16
She liked to read. And as social as she was, she was a homebody too. And also outdoorsy.
00:08:25
She liked walking along the banks of the Tennessee River. Family friend Brianna Edge had known Jasmine since she was born.
00:08:35
She always wanted to be where the adults were. She could be five, six years old.
00:08:41
And Jasmine wanted to know what was going on, be part of it. As she got older, Jazzy wanted to be a part of the family business, too.
00:08:51
She started working at her mom and stepdad Scott's construction company. She was still in college, but worked for that company, so it was all day, every day on the phone with them.
00:09:04
Jazzy had always been someone they could lean on in times of crisis. Her number one, I would say, was her family.
00:09:12
Now, Jazzy might be the one in crisis. Her family kicked into high gear. Not only were they determined to find her, they were tech savvy.
00:09:22
They went to the Verizon store and pulled Jazzy's phone records. One call in particular caught their attention.
00:09:28
It happened on the day Granny died. A 71-minute call to a number they didn't recognize.
00:09:36
The next day, her phone turned off. They couldn't ping her location, but they thought of something else.
00:09:44
Every car has a computer, mostly after 2015 now. And so we would be able to track her car location through that.
00:09:53
But in order for us to be able to do that, we had to log in through her email. So we had to transfer her phone number over to a new phone to be able to access all of that stuff.
00:10:03
Once they got into Jazzy's email account, they found out that the passwords to her bank and social media accounts had been changed.
00:10:12
It sounds like you all went into full investigation mode. I think that idea was out there of let's use what we can.
00:10:22
By now, the family had accessed Jazzy's car app. Since the last time the family saw her, her car had been to two locations, and it was still at one of them, Mountain Creek Road.
00:10:36
Jazzy's mom and stepdad raced over. Gabby arrived shortly after. And there it was, in the parking lot, Jazzy's SUV.
00:10:47
But no sign of Jazzy. Jazzy's mom called the police. And before long, a patrol officer showed up.
00:10:56
Body cam rolling. So what's going on exactly? That's mom Katrina on the left. Stepdad Scott on the right.
00:11:03
They told the officer everything they'd learned so far. She's been missing for four days.
00:11:08
So Tuesday night at 1127, she left our house and went to a place on Frazier Avenue.
00:11:16
Wednesday, it left Frazier Avenue, came right here. Hadn't been moved since. I pulled up her phone record.
00:11:24
She has not made any phone calls. since Tuesday night. Okay. No data has been used
00:11:29
because I had her phone line transferred to a new device so I could track her stuff
00:11:34
and someone has been resetting her passwords. You know, it's not her. We know it's not her.
00:11:38
Just then, while the family stood in the lot, Jazzy seemed to emerge. A racy photo popped up on her Facebook account.
00:11:48
That's when I got scared. You saw that post? I did. I felt like that someone that wants to humiliate her That not something she would put out there of her in lingerie on social media What can we do
00:12:05
At this point, I mean, I'm not saying it's not weird circumstances, because that definitely is.
00:12:12
I can get her listed as missing. Jazzy's mom wanted more. She asked them to pull any security footage from that parking lot.
00:12:21
See if she actually drove this car here. I know the courtesy officer that does work here, but as far as this time of night, I don't imagine I'd be able to get anything until tomorrow.
00:12:31
Can we try? As Jazzy's family waited on that security footage, her mom remembered that long call Jazzy made the day Granny died.
00:12:42
When she didn't recognize the number, she had called Jackie, who was helping from home.
00:12:47
So on the phone with me, I mean, she pulled up her Verizon and started scrolling through,
00:12:52
and she said the last person she was on the phone with, it's this number. Jackie got right to work.
00:12:59
While still on the phone with Jazzy's mom, she ran the number through one of her mobile payment apps.
00:13:06
And I put it in Cash App, and I said, Jason Chin, do you know that person? She said yes, and she hung up on me.
00:13:14
Katrina knew Jazzy had been casually seeing a guy named Jason Chen for a few months.
00:13:21
Maybe he could help find her. Hello? So there, right in front of police, Katrina called him.
00:13:27
No one has seen or heard from her since Tuesday night. What would he have to say?
00:13:44
Jasmine Pace's parents were busy tracking her digital footprint, trying to determine her movements since they last saw her.
00:13:59
They learned she'd had a phone call with Jason Chen, a guy she'd met on a dating app.
00:14:04
The two had been casually dating for a few months and had gone on a trip to Chicago together.
00:14:10
Now, Jazzy's mom was on the phone with him Jason told Katrina he hadn't spoken to Jazzy since that Monday
00:14:26
But she knew that wasn't true And you haven't talked to her since then? Hang on one second, hang on one second, Jason
00:14:32
I just muted him He just lied, he talked to her for 71 minutes That's what I'm saying, it looked like
00:14:39
He would remember that. Jazzy's mom pressed him. Hey, Jason, I just called off her call log, and I have it on here where she talked to you for 71 minutes Tuesday afternoon while her granny was in the hospital.
00:14:55
Jason said he did remember talking to Jazzy that day. He'd simply forgotten. For police, it wasn't much to go on.
00:15:04
I can document that, but as far as putting him as a suspect, we... We don't know.
00:15:10
Okay, I'm just letting you please document. Katrina pushed them to do more. Could we possibly go to a local business that you have to pass to get these apartments
00:15:23
and ask them to pull up footage so we can see if she's driving her car? But they're not just going to pull it up for you.
00:15:29
I understand that. But I can't just not. I understand. I'm just trying to explain to you the extent of what I can do.
00:15:42
Eventually, the officers left. If police wouldn't follow the leads, the family would.
00:15:49
When you're desperate, I think that's what you do. You just don't stop moving. It's like you're trying to lean into anything you can that you think is going to bring you some kind of answer.
00:16:00
they went to the address they had for jason but all they found was an abandoned house
00:16:07
frustrated jazzy's mom went back through jazzy's texts from that night and suddenly katrina realizes
00:16:15
she has a text on her phone she sees the pin drop and realizes oh she sent a message yes
00:16:24
At 2.18 a.m. on the night she disappeared, Jazzy had sent her mother a pin with her location on it.
00:16:33
Katrina was grieving Granny's passing and never saw it. How shocking was that for her?
00:16:40
It was scary. I think that that's when I think fear really set in. You could tell immediately that a message like that was a cry for help.
00:16:52
Yes. No other explanation. I mean, there was no, for three o'clock in the morning or two o'clock, whatever time it was.
00:16:59
That pin led them to yet another apartment complex. The family made their way into the building.
00:17:07
Just started knocking on every single door. What are people telling you? At first they said, no, we haven't seen that girl.
00:17:13
No, we haven't seen that girl. And we almost gave up on knocking on the doors because we were coming to dead ends.
00:17:19
So you're just trying to narrow down which floor, which apartment. Yes, and then finally we realized that her pin drop had coordinates to it.
00:17:28
So then we would walk near every door and down the hallway just brushing up against the side of the wall trying to get as close to the coordinates as we possibly could.
00:17:37
Finally, they got the perfect hit, apartment 210. You knock on the door? Yes. What happens?
00:17:46
Nobody answers. So they knocked on the next door, apartment 212. A couple answered The family asked if they seen anything Seen No the couple said But they had heard something He said I heard a scream that was so startling that I wrote the time down So he went and got the paper
00:18:09
and I want to say it was in three to four minutes of that pin drop that he heard that scream.
00:18:18
Mm hmm. The neighbors clocked that scream at 2 15 a.m. Just three minutes before Jazzy dropped that pen.
00:18:28
They said it sounded like it came from next door. Apartment 210. Are you thinking Jasmine could still be inside?
00:18:37
Yes. She could need help. Yes. Jazzy's mom was fearless, maybe even a little reckless.
00:18:45
She went down and got her credit card out of her car, and they got in. They popped the lock with the credit card.
00:18:52
The family slowly made their way into the small one-bedroom apartment. Right away, something caught Katrina's eye.
00:19:01
They had found my sister's to-go bag, like a night bag that she takes to go and stay places.
00:19:09
As you guys continue looking around the apartment, what else did you see? In the desk drawer, they found my sister's credit cards and her driver's license all stacked up neatly in a pile.
00:19:18
Also on the desk, a notebook. They opened it and saw a name, Jason Chen. And then we proceeded to call the police.
00:19:27
For the second time that night, police met the family. The officer told them an investigator had already been assigned to the case.
00:19:36
So I talked with the investigator. That was news to the family, who said they'd not been contacted by anyone.
00:20:09
forward that along to the investigator. But she's the one that has made the call that she's not
00:20:14
responding out here tonight. The police issued a warning. Do not go back into the apartment.
00:20:21
Thanks for finding this. Yes, let us take it from here. We had no confidence whatsoever in the
00:20:28
police because up to this point, it was like, we can't be, it's a holiday weekend. How'd you get
00:20:34
my number. She's fine. She's posting on social media. So at this point, you're like, it's up to us.
00:20:41
Absolutely. Did your family go back? Absolutely. Because what have you guys done for us this far?
00:20:45
Anything we thought could be a clue to help us find her, we were chasing that. Jasmine Pace's loved ones had done all they could, and maybe more than they should, to find her.
00:21:16
They'd broken into an apartment, then defied police instructions and gone in again.
00:21:23
What was it like to just be inside that apartment? Very anxious, because even though you know that you're in the right direction,
00:21:31
you're terrified of what you're about to find. You have no idea what you're going to find, and you don't want to find certain things.
00:21:38
So it's just a lot of anxiety, a lot of adrenaline, a lot of, you know, being scared.
00:21:46
They didn't find anything new, but they were convinced Jazzy had been there. What's more, they were sure Jason Chen, the guy Jazzy had been seeing, lived in the apartment.
00:21:58
His name was on the notebook, and a neighbor confirmed it. Jason was the son of Chinese immigrants who owned a restaurant.
00:22:06
The family lived 30 minutes outside of Nashville. But Jason moved to attend the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, where he majored in computer science.
00:22:16
That's where Ryan Barrett met him in the summer of 2020. Initially, we were the first two people at the dorm.
00:22:23
So we spent about the first three or four days just us together, really just getting to know each other,
00:22:27
just figuring out general interests that we both like, you know, playing video games.
00:22:32
Ryan says he and Jason became good friends, that he was fun to be around. What was his demeanor like?
00:22:38
More quiet guy, but he was pretty funny. He'd always kind of come in with those, you know, little jabs at everybody.
00:22:44
The two got along so well, they became roommates and even landed jobs at the same place, a soap company.
00:22:52
Summertime was great. I mean, we were going, we spent Fourth of July together at the park downtown.
00:22:57
Now Jazzy's family was convinced Jason had something to do with her disappearance.
00:23:05
They took everything they'd gathered that could be used as evidence, Jazzy's driver's license and credit card, the cell phones and a tablet, and gave it to the police.
00:23:15
And they didn't stop there. They had their family lawyer reach out to the district attorney general asking for help.
00:23:22
I received a phone call from my supervisor. He called and said that we were going to come in and assist our missing persons unit with the Jasmine Pace missing persons investigation.
00:23:33
Detective Zach Crawford headed to the apartment. When you got in there, how did you find the apartment?
00:23:39
Was it clean? Was it messy? I would say that it was a clean apartment. It appeared that things may have been slightly out of place in terms of where they were located.
00:23:47
And you could smell a little bit of a cleaning product inside of the apartment. It smelled like it had possibly been recently cleaned.
00:23:54
Correct. Considering everything that you know up until this point, when you smell
00:24:00
Something like that. Does that raise your antenna? Do you pay attention to that?
00:24:03
Yes, it's something that is notated. Along with smelling it, you're also looking for a potential sheen on the floor to see if this was a crime scene location,
00:24:13
if anything had been altered in terms of cleaned up, wiped, or anything like that.
00:24:17
Then he noticed something. Just on the right of the futon on the floor on the hardwoods,
00:24:23
I saw what appeared to be blood transfer in the form of a hill print on the floor, blood transfer on the floor.
00:24:28
When you say blood transfer, you mean like a bloody footprint? Essentially a bloody footprint.
00:24:33
So the crime scene unit comes in. What do they do? They first document the scene by photographs and video.
00:24:39
We asked for certain items to be collected that we observed in our walkthrough. I also asked for Blue Star Reagent to be applied to that scene.
00:24:47
Blue Star Reagent is a forensic tool that will show the presence of wiped, cleaned, or invisible blood to the naked eye.
00:24:56
that could give further details of how much blood we are dealing with. What do they find?
00:25:01
So we requested during the application of the Blue Star to be present. Upon first spray, it illuminated essentially a third of the living room area.
00:25:11
What did this show? It showed an extremely large amount of volume of blood, the largest that I had seen to that point in terms of Blue Star reaction in my career.
00:25:19
I vividly remember looking at Sergeant Emery and Detective Siege, and we all said, we have homicide.
00:25:26
I got a call at work from Katrina. Hey, get here to the police station now. They're calling us in.
00:25:34
They have an update. So we rushed there and they told us, seeing what we believe to be the crime scene,
00:25:42
there's so much blood that was lost that it was not survivable. So this is no longer a missing person's case.
00:25:48
This is a homicide. So that's a strange thing because I think in the back of your mind,
00:25:55
we still were like, well, are you a hundred percent? It was her blood. You know, maybe
00:26:02
she did somehow survive it. You're telling me she's gone, but we don't have her.
00:26:08
You still had hope at this point. I think maybe we wanted to cling to that. I mean, we all accepted what they were telling us. Yes,
00:26:17
we know that this person you loved died and we know it was pretty brutal, but we don't really know what happened after that.
00:26:28
It would now be Detective Crawford's job to find out. I mean, is your next step find Jason Chin?
00:26:36
Yes. Detectives searching for missing Jasmine Pace found so much blood evidence,
00:26:59
they knew they had a homicide on their hands. What they didn't have was a body or a suspect in custody.
00:27:08
It was now their mission to find both. There's multiple avenues that are happening.
00:27:13
Evidence that we're finding at the crime scene location is providing further follow-up.
00:27:17
We also have search warrants being conducted on the phone records of Jason Chen.
00:27:21
They homed in on the day after Jasmine disappeared. Jason's phone records revealed he went to Walgreens and Walmart,
00:27:30
and security footage showed someone resembling Jason buying cleaning supplies. He was wearing a very identifiable hat.
00:27:38
It was a red and white hat called Anything Goes. Once Jason Chen left his apartment on November 23rd, he never went back.
00:27:46
detectives continued to track his phone. Ultimately, where did you find Jason Chen?
00:27:52
We ended up locating him in Nolensville, Tennessee at his parents' address. So he comes down and what happens?
00:27:57
He was wearing items of clothing that were consistent with what we observed him wearing
00:28:01
during different stages of the investigation. What does that tell you? It gives us further details of confirming that is Jason Chen in the video footage we see.
00:28:11
So to be clear when you found him at his parents house he was wearing the same hat that he was wearing when he went to go buy those cleaning supplies Correct Was that surprising to you
00:28:22
We were more excited that he was wearing it, so we didn't have to search for it.
00:28:26
Police arrested Jason Chen and charged him with first-degree premeditated murder.
00:28:33
But... We attempted an interview with Jason at the Nolensville Police Department, and he invoked his right to counsel.
00:28:39
So we were unable to get an interview with him that night. Jason refused to tell investigators anything.
00:28:46
As news of his arrest spread across Chattanooga, one person listened with particular interest, his former roommate, Ryan Barrett.
00:28:55
How unbelievable was it that your former roommate was wanted for murder? Insane. I just he had done a lot of crazy things to me, but murder was not what I was expecting.
00:29:08
Ryan and Jason had their own strange falling out a few months before Jazzy disappeared.
00:29:15
Ryan's online accounts were hacked. He suspected Jason was behind it, since he was the only one who had easy access to Ryan's phone.
00:29:25
Nearly all of my Venmo accounts, any social media accounts were all locked out of.
00:29:30
Same with my personal email. He even got fired from his job, he says. after some messages and social media posts from his account.
00:29:40
Saying what? Just like very aggressive messages to managers that I would have never sent.
00:29:46
Ryan says he doesn't know why Jason would do that to him, but he'd had enough and moved out.
00:29:53
When I went back to grab my last few items, it turned out Jason had disengaged the lock,
00:29:58
manually reset it to where my code wouldn't let me into the apartment. So you couldn't get the last of your things?
00:30:03
I couldn't get the last of my things I spent. probably about an hour banging on the door. Ryan says they never spoke again. The day after Jason's
00:30:12
arrest, Jasmine's family was on edge, desperate for the one thing still missing, her body.
00:30:19
Talk to me about that process. It was painful. You know, it was really painful. We all
00:30:27
stayed together and just waited. But by the second day, I was like, if they don't find her today,
00:30:37
I'm going looking. We had come up with a game plan to kind of just look on our own
00:30:44
because we needed that closure. We needed that piece of putting her to rest. Detectives continued to search for clues as to where Jazzy's body might be.
00:30:57
Location data from November 23rd put Jason on the banks of the Tennessee River. On December 1st, 2022, they searched the area and found her.
00:31:10
If there was anywhere that she had to be for that many days, she loved it there.
00:31:19
That was a special place to her. She told him that he should go and see it before the leaves fall.
00:31:27
So she had told him about that place? She did. And that's where he ultimately chose to dump her body?
00:31:33
Yes. When you all heard that detail... It just hurt my stomach. I mean, it's sick. It's sick.
00:31:45
Jasmine had been stuffed in a suitcase. She was handcuffed. And it got worse. This was not something that was quick.
00:31:54
It was something that was gruesome. It was violent. 60 stab wounds in all. As the family grieved, the man accused of killing Jasmine Pace sat behind bars.
00:32:07
Thanks, in large part, prosecutors said, to her family. How crucial was her family's involvement in all of this?
00:32:15
Extremely. Hamilton County District Attorney General Cody Womp. I don't know how the police department would have ended up getting a search warrant had it not been for her family.
00:32:27
Crucial Absolutely But it was also a ticking time bomb Jason Chen attorney Josh Weiss says the entire crime scene was compromised the moment Jazzy family stepped inside
00:32:41
This isn't one of your run-of-the-mill cases. Usually, police officers get a search warrant. In this case, Jasmine Pace's parents illegally broke into Jason Chen's apartment and searched that apartment.
00:32:56
Police warned Jazzy's family about it that night. We legally can't investigate anything in there that you found because it wasn't found legally.
00:33:09
That's not my rule. That's the state of Tennessee. That's just case law. So that was torture, just feeling like, did we make a mistake?
00:33:18
It was a constant just pit in your stomach of, there were times Katrina would call me and just say, he's not going to get away with this, right?
00:33:30
Two years after Jasmine Pace was killed, her family gathered in a courtroom to see Jason Chin stand trial for her murder.
00:33:57
Jason's parents and brother were there, too. What was it like for you to be in there, to be in that courtroom and be in the same courtroom as Jason Chen?
00:34:06
I think I'm more so just numb to everything that at first you feel just so much anger.
00:34:12
By now, the judge had ruled to allow in evidence from Jason's apartment. Armed with that, prosecutors laid out their theory of what happened that night.
00:34:22
The couple fought and Jason launched a vicious, drawn out attack. This wasn't heat of the moment, they said.
00:34:30
It was premeditated murder. Prosecutor Paul Moyle, what would you identify as the challenges in this case?
00:34:37
Anytime you have a first-degree murder case, the challenge is premeditation. How do you show that there was an opportunity to reflect on your conduct before committing the murder?
00:34:53
They began by hammering home the brutality of the crime. This is the suitcase. in which Jason Chen stuffed the 98-pound body of Jasmine Bates.
00:35:09
You know, he didn't just stab her 60 times. He then put her body in trash bags. He then put her body in a suitcase.
00:35:18
The first witness up for the prosecution, Jasmine's mom, Katrina. Were you concerned at that point about the police investigation?
00:35:26
I wasn't thinking about a police investigation. I was just trying to find her. I was insanely scared.
00:35:39
Prosecutors knew the stakes. If they couldn't prove Jason meant to kill Jasmine,
00:35:44
the jury could drop it to second-degree murder or even voluntary manslaughter. All of it was on the table.
00:35:53
This was prolonged to some extent. We know that she was in his apartment until he leaves with the suitcase to go drop her body by the river.
00:36:04
After that, prosecutors said Jason abandoned Jazzy's car in that parking lot where her family found it.
00:36:11
Jason had pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder. So what his attorney, Joshua Weiss, said stunned everyone.
00:36:20
Jason Chen is guilty, but he's not guilty of the crime that he's charged. It's certainly not often that you hear a criminal defense attorney say that his client's guilty.
00:36:33
I wanted to get the jury's attention from the beginning. I said exactly, I'm not here to waste your time.
00:36:39
Jason Chen is guilty of killing Jasmine Pace but not to the degree the state is saying Weiss said Jason did kill Jazzy but it wasn premeditated as prosecutors argued
00:36:55
Instead, he said, the evening began with the couple hanging out and drinking wine.
00:37:01
But then... Jazzy goes back into the kitchen to get another bottle. And there on the counter is Jason's cell phone.
00:37:10
Ding, ding. Ding, ding. That familiar Tinder ding. Jasmine looked at his phone and saw all these messages with other girls.
00:37:20
And it sent her in anger, into a rage, and they started yelling, biting. Jasmine attacked Jason with an empty wine bottle.
00:37:30
Jason had no choice, his attorney argued. He acted in self-defense, stabbing Jazzy in a fight he didn't start.
00:37:39
This is a voluntary manslaughter case. Prosecutors completely dismissed the self-defense theory and even brought in a forensic tech expert who testified that Jason was not on Tinder at the time Jazzy was killed.
00:37:53
In fact, the only time he was on the dating app, they said, was the next morning.
00:37:59
He's on social media, on Tinder, hitting on girls, and Jasmine is dead in his apartment, which really says everything you need to know.
00:38:09
When it came time to cross-examine Jasmine's mother, Weiss tried to thread a very small needle, showing sympathy while still questioning the evidence.
00:38:20
You said you would do anything to find your daughter? Wouldn't you? Of course. Okay.
00:38:27
But you would break into an apartment? To find my daughter? Yes. Both sides rested.
00:38:35
Now, the case was in the jury's hands. I tried to remain very objective. Sarah Reed was juror number 11.
00:38:44
There was no question that Jason killed Jazzy. The issue on the table was premeditation.
00:38:50
Sarah says she was swayed by what prosecutor Moyle said. Not only was it 60 stab wounds, there was 120 choices he made in and out that at any point he could have stopped.
00:39:04
It didn't take long for the verdict to come in. We, the jury, find the defendant, Jason Chen, guilty of first-degree premeditated murder.
00:39:14
Let's talk about how quickly they came back. I mean, we're talking less than an hour.
00:39:19
Yeah. Surprising? I assumed that they were going to find Jason guilty, but that it might be over a period of hours or days.
00:39:27
What we now know is that we had done our job. Now, jurors had one more job to do, sentence Jason Chen.
00:39:35
Before deliberating, they would hear from Jasmine's cousin, Jackie. Sixty stones hard in this jar, one to represent every stab wound found on my beautiful, innocent, 22-year-old cousin.
00:39:49
Jurors had two choices, the possibility of parole in 51 years or life in prison with no chance of getting out.
00:39:57
That decision came down to a conversation of Jasmine doesn't get to come back in 51 years.
00:40:06
Jason Chen is now serving a life sentence. No possibility of parole. Jazzy's family feels like they are serving a life sentence too.
00:40:17
A lifetime of missing the beautiful spirit they all loved so much. the world needed to hear, that they didn't just need to look at her as a victim of a crime.
00:40:29
They needed to look at her as like this most blessed person that would have just shown random
00:40:36
acts of kindness to anybody. What do you want people to know, to remember about Jasmine?
00:40:42
She put everything she had into being there for everybody else. She always put herself last.
00:40:50
I mean, she got joy out of doing for others and being a loving, compassionate, kind, warm human being.