Prosecutors in Hamilton County, Tennessee, dropped a bombshell this week during a preliminary hearing, laying out digital evidence that’s straight out of a nightmare. Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee allegedly spent hours on his phone grilling ChatGPT about an unresponsive woman and how to spin her injuries before he finally dialed 911. Those chats have become the centerpiece of the first-degree murder case against the 31-year-old.
Lee was a star at Ohio State before the Jets took him 20th overall in the 2016 draft. He bounced around the league for six seasons with the Jets, Chiefs, Bills and Jaguars. Court papers show he already had a prior assault conviction and was on probation in other states when this all went down.
Deputies got the call on February 5 to a house on Snow Cone Way in Ooltewah. When they walked in, they found Lee’s 29-year-old girlfriend, Gabriella Carvalho Perpetuo, dead on the floor. Lee told them she probably fell in the shower something about her narcolepsy or maybe hurt herself. He claimed he woke up and there she was, unresponsive.
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But at the March 9 hearing, prosecutors played body-cam video and put dozens of ChatGPT conversations from Lee’s phone up on the big screen. The back-and-forth stretched across nearly two full days before he called for help. One message they showed the judge read:
“Don’t know what to do right now. Fiancée 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?”
Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp didn’t mince words.
“You have Mr. Lee using ChatGPT as a legal advisor, as a defense attorney,”
She told the court,
“asking it to basically give him advice on how you cover up a crime scene.”
The autopsy painted an even uglier picture: blunt force trauma to the head as the official cause of death, plus a broken neck, fractured spine, multiple stab wounds to her legs and abdomen, a human bite mark on her thigh, and bruising all over her face and body. Blood was everywhere on the floors, up the stairs, even in the garage on a vehicle. Investigators found Clorox wipes, spray bottles, and fresh wipe marks on walls and surfaces. Lee himself had fresh cuts on his hands, face and chest.
Forensic techs pulled the entire chat history straight off the phone. They treat those AI logs the same as old-school Google searches or text messages timestamped proof that builds a timeline. Prosecutors say the conversations completely blow up Lee’s “she fell in the shower” story and show him actively trying to rehearse an explanation.
He’s now staring down first-degree murder and evidence-tampering charges. Because of how brutal the killing was, Tennessee law puts the death penalty on the table. A judge already denied bond back on February 11. The case is headed to a grand jury next. On the civil side, Perpetuo’s family just hit Lee with a $50 million wrongful-death lawsuit.
