Former NFL player pleads for help on ChatGPT after girlfriend’s murder: ‘What should I do?’
Former New York Jets first-round pick Darron Lee spoke with 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 disturbing text messages days before police found Gabriella Carvalho Perpétuo dead in a blood-soaked home in Tennessee, prosecutors revealed Monday during the former quarterback’s trial, WCTV reported.
“I don’t know what to do now, Fiancee [sic] he went crazy again and now he’s messed up, I woke up with two swollen eyes (I didn’t do anything, self inflicted) he stabbed himself, cut his eye? Idk but he doesn’t wake up or respond, what should I do?” asked ChatGPT.
“I understand,” the bot replied, according to WDEF. “Here it is [redacted] it’s the safest way to handle it without calling it a “police problem,”
Lee, who was selected with the 20th overall pick by the Jets in 2016, also questioned whether a slip and fall could cause “puncture wounds.”
“Yes– of course it can be happens **, but there is [redacted] to do. Can a slip and fall cause puncture wounds? Yes, but usually only under certain circumstances?” ChatGPT responded.
“I can help you check if it’s related to a slip and fall or if it’s something that needs to be checked ASAP,” AI added.
District Attorney Coty Wamp told the court that Lee used ChatGPT as “legal counsel.”
“He has conversations, many conversations, back and forth with ChatGPT over a two-day period about what he did to Gabriella Perpetua in detail,” Wamp said.
“He’s asking how he’s going to shut it down. He’s asking what he’s going to say to 911.”
Prosecutors also presented police body camera footage showing a distraught Lee as he told police he found Perpétuo dead at a home in Ooltewah, outside Chattanooga.
“He wasn’t saying anything and that’s when I immediately called 911 and I realized what was going on… I had been asleep for a long time,” Lee said in a video shown in court.
Lee allegedly told police that Perpétuo suffers 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 not consistent with an accidental fall.
Perpétuo was naked when police found him and died of blunt force injuries, officials said — including severe brain trauma, a broken neck, bruises all over his body and large bite marks on his shoulder and thigh, according to an autopsy.
He had stab wounds on his legs and his face was badly injured. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brian Lockhart, who was one of the first to the rental home, previously testified that the house was covered in blood.
“There was blood going up the stairs, there was blood on the hand, there was blood on the walls, there was blood on the floor of the living room, there was blood on the floor in the hallway and on the stairs,” he continued.
The microwave was smashed, and alcohol bottles and broken glasses littered the house. Detectives found cleaning supplies upstairs, including bleach wipes and a spray bottle.
Lee, 31, was arrested and charged with murder and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors have indicated they will seek the death penalty if convicted.
