Former NFL Player Accused of Using ChatGPT To Cover Up “Sinister” Murder

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Hey, the folks it is Wednesday, March 11th.

And he is a former Ohio State superstar.

A former birthed round draft pick.

He even has a super bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs.

But right now this former NFL linebacker is sitting in jail.

Charge with first degree murder.

And his accomplice according to prosecutors.

Chat GPT.

And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.

Robes the crime itself as heinous as hell.

You throw in this chat GPT element of it.

Robes we we cover a lot of stories,

a lot of crime stories, a lot going on right now.

This one is wild.

It is it's one of those headlines that stops you

because yes, the details of this crime which we will get into

that prosecutors are alleging is horrific.

But to think that now with technology

at everyone's availability,

people and the accusation is this particular man

and his name is Darren Lee.

Use chat GPT to try and cover up the crime.

Cover up the crime scene.

Ask what to say for a 911 call.

Literally getting instructions on how to

evade or avoid getting arrested and being convicted.

First of all, that's just stupid at this point.

If you don't think that's going to be tracked down.

Are we I didn't think about it till you were just talking.

We have covered a lot of trials where someone's

Google search history becomes an issue.

Isn't this just that?

But we have AI now.

Normally he would have been typing this stuff.

Right.

He's taking it and brought it to a new level.

Now he's not just Google searching articles.

No, he's actually asking a bot to help him.

And the way you put it, I hadn't thought about it like this.

But actually as an accomplice after the fact,

people can be charged for trying to help someone cover up a crime.

He literally, according to police, used a bot

and artificial intelligence to try and help him cover up the crime.

And we should always, as we should say, innocent

until proven guilty.

Right now, Darren Lee is innocent.

Even though Darren Lee is sitting in a jail in Tennessee.

This happened right outside of Chattanooga.

He is sitting in jail in Tennessee.

He had a hearing yesterday in which we got a lot more detail.

And that's why the story has now been making a renewed run

through the headlines.

But Roves, he's 31 years old, arrested for this murder that happened

last month, we should say.

But he is sitting.

He will not be getting out of prison before his trial.

Now, this guy, a lot of people might not know

his name off the top of your head.

But he played in the Sugar Bowl in 2015,

and he was the defensive MVP.

Wow.

That tells you anything.

Wow.

Okay, if you play at Ohio State, first of all, you're a big deal.

You star in that game, you're a big deal.

Your first round draft pick, you're a big deal.

Now, he didn't have a great NFL career,

only ended up playing three or four years for three different teams.

And one of those teams, Roves, was the Kansas City Chiefs.

He was on their roster in 2020.

Didn't play in that game, and he was inactive.

But as a member of the roster, you get a Super Bowl ring.

So the guy, look, you make it to these levels.

You're a stud at what you do.

But here he is now facing a first-degree murder charge

and the charge of tampering with and fabricating evidence.

Now, we get to the crime here, Roves.

It, look, don't know what happened in that house,

but they describe a scene in which this young lady suffered.

Suffered.

And that is the part that is just so disturbing.

The prosecutor put it like this.

This scent chills up and down my spine.

There are crime scenes.

And then there are crime scenes like this.

The autopsy showed that his fiance, Gabriella Perpetuo,

she was 29 years old, had a stab wound to her abdomen,

a bite mark on her shoulder, bruising to her head,

two black eyes with heavy swelling,

dried blood on her face and neck.

And they describe a house with glass shattered.

The entire home seems upended and blood in different rooms,

including going up this stairwell.

I mean, this was a horrific scene to walk into.

Did they suggest that this might have,

she might have suffered over days?

Yes, they believe it could have gone on.

They believe she could have been beaten

and killed slowly over a two-day period

while he was communicating with chat GPT.

And that's a look that we all, I'm surprised.

We've done stories and I know a lot of these companies

are starting to get lawsuits and whatnot.

When it comes to, I think we've been covering suicides.

Correct.

Kids, I think we've been seeing,

ask a chat GPT, how do I, what should I do?

And the thing actually suggests harm.

Way is to kill yourself.

Yes.

So yes, they need to get that worked out.

We're seeing it used.

And Rose, we're going to see this more.

Oh my goodness, yes.

I mean, look, I don't even know how to use this type of technology,

but it seems like everyone under the age of 40 does.

And typically it's used for good to actually learn new skills

or to figure out what's going on or to get some perspective.

For shortcut on your homework assignment.

Yes, in fact, my daughter was telling me

because I was trying to understand how to read something.

She's like, just take a picture of it,

upload it to chat GPT, and it will tell you what it means.

What are you actually talking about?

I had no idea you could do these things.

Yes.

So it's mostly used for good, right?

But wow, this is a glaring example of how it could be used

for something horrific that wouldn't even cross my mind.

And it sounds like here, Robes.

Before we get into these chat GPT messages,

which they did share in court, the scene at the house

you were just describing.

Robes, a lot of it, they said it was clear that somebody tried to clean it up.

So a lot of the blood you're describing,

you couldn't see with the naked eye.

And they said, once you were in there and put those lights on it,

blood's everywhere.

It was hardly a room in the house that didn't have blood.

That's what they said.

Damn, Robes.

And I watched somewhat what they had is the body cam video.

That's going to be tough to get around.

Let me tell you, it is so, we'll get into this.

It is so fascinating to see what he put into chat GPT

as to what he should do, what he should say.

And then you've got the body cam footage

that you just mentioned where we actually hear what he tells police.

Which is crazy.

Given the scene they described,

that's going to be that video is going to be played.

And you can see that trial.

You can see that trial happening playing out right now.

And it's overwhelming the stuff they have against him right now.

But again, innocent until proven guilty.

But rolled in court yesterday, they started sharing some of these messages

and it started.

They say before she died.

So what is your understanding here?

He has premeditated.

Had he started the process?

Are they suggesting or he was just starting to ask questions ahead of time

getting ready to kill her?

They don't know.

That's the truth.

They said they don't know how it all happened.

And when it all happened, but they're trying to piece together

from the forensic evidence in the house and certainly from her autopsy

to these real-time messages between Lee and Chad GPT

and they're trying to put it all together.

In fact, they're taking it so much evidence they have.

They're actually sending this to a grand jury to get the exact indictments

and to proceed that way because there is just so much information.

But we know that one of his first questions to Chad GPT

was don't know what to do right now.

Fiance did her crazy thing again and now she's messed up.

I wake up and she has two swollen eyes.

He puts in parentheses, I didn't do anything.

Self-inflicted.

She stabbed herself, slit her eye.

I don't know, but she isn't waking up or responding.

What do I do?

What's going through anybody's mind to ask Chad GPT that?

Given what the scene was at that house, you start like what is on a person's mind?

Is he really think he's going to fool somebody by typing in himself

that she has self-inflicted?

Does he think he's covering his tracks?

I think he thinks he is laying the groundwork for a defense

that he didn't know what to do.

And so he's actually already denying doing anything in a search question

with Chad GPT and somehow he thinks putting in parentheses

I didn't do anything self-inflicted would be a good defense.

Isn't this, again, the first one, don't they say they believe this one was out

or he did this before she died on this one?

They think it's possible, which is awful to think about her suffering.

And then he said, what should I tell my friend because he was implying that he was asking for a friend?

I mean, it almost seems like...

I know, none of this is funny, but that is absolute hilarious.

There's a reason why we say asking for a friend.

Yes, because I don't want you to think it's me.

Exactly.

Asking for a friend, you've said all the time he's doing this?

Bro, this is silly.

It's not funny, but it's laughable.

It's laughable.

And that's the point.

He says, what should I tell my friend to handle someone non-responsive

but wants to call the police?

He's lost.

This makes no sense.

You call 911.

You call 911.

But this is what Chad GPT doesn't say to call 911.

It says, okay, but this is serious.

But you can...

And then this is redacted.

Protect everyone.

Here's exactly what to tell your friend.

Step by step.

And when it was interesting, he said, but wants to call the police.

He corrects the question he asks Chad GPT and says, doesn't want to call police.

So now piecing it all together,

Darren Lee is asking Chad GPT.

What should I tell my friend to handle someone non-responsive

but doesn't want to call the police?

Why wouldn't you want to call the police if you find someone non-responsive?

Roads.

All of that, what you're saying makes sense.

We've been watching a lot of cases and I struggle sometimes with circumstantial evidence.

It's hard to put somebody in jail the rest of their lives if there's not a smoking gun.

Well, I've had lawyers tell me and you are more so good about explaining and being on board with circumstantial evidence.

This is one of those cases where it is so overwhelming from a circumstantial standpoint, Roads.

He is laying out to everyone based on our common sense that he's guilty.

Exactly.

He's asking Chad GPT.

Sorry, I can't even talk.

He's asking Chad GPT if stab wound like puncture, punctures can be explained from hitting anything.

Like he's asking for a way to describe her stab wound without it actually coming from someone stabbing.

Like could you get a stab wound from any other way?

I thought it was interesting.

Chad GPT tried to give him answers on some of the stuff.

They did. Chad GPT said yes, it can happen.

Can a slip and fall cause puncture wounds?

Yes, but it's usually only under specific conditions.

What can it look like?

And he was saying the Chad GPT said bottom line.

Yes, falls can produce puncture appearing wounds.

They usually don't look like clean knife stabs.

So then it asks Lee to say where on the body, how many punctures depth and size, what objects were nearby?

Literally trying to create a scenario in which he could say something other than a knife

or him stabbing her could have created the wounds that were on her body.

These messages are, or they are wild.

And you know I have another question.

When you talk to Chad GPT, can you always do it just voice or do you have to type?

I think you can do voice on your phone.

Oh, you can do both.

Yes, because he even asks if, when he asks where or when Chad, I say he,

when Chad GPT asks where the stab wounds were, he wrote middle gut and side hip.

Middle gut.

I just, oh God.

Yes.

Well folks, stay here.

We'll also tell you, yes, we heard plenty about what Chad GPT said.

We heard a lot about what Darren Lee said.

But I guess Rob certainly for me, one of the most powerful things we heard in court came from the judge

in describing what happened in that house and this crime.

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Oh, we continue here on Amy and TJ and rope to feels a little bizarre

to have any smile of any kind.

But we were just going over before we were coming back here.

We were about to go through some of the body cam stuff we have

from the police officers of the day of Darren Lee's arrest in ropes.

The response is he was given giving to why the house looked the way it looked.

Again, a scene of absolute horror.

Stuff broken, blood everywhere.

The answers he was given, ropes are ridiculous.

They are ridiculous.

They actually got, I think they're more laughable than even the chat,

GPT questions he was asking.

So yes, police finally arrive after he finally calls 911.

And the deputy, you can hear the deputy on the body cam footage asking Darren Lee

what is with all the broken stuff in there.

And his response is, and I am quoting him, glass is shattered

because she had left the window open.

And so when it got warm and when we reheated the house, it just like exploded.

So I was cleaning that up.

That was long before I was just going to sleep.

I thought she was going to come down and finish it up, find a dust pan.

But I come back down and then this is what happened.

Do we need to call a scientist?

Is that even physically possible?

Never heard of that before.

Never covered a case like that in my life.

An explosion usually comes from a gas leak or something that dramatic.

But is his attorney going to try to do an experiment in the defense

and improve why that, how that's possible in a house?

What made me think about, because it's happened to me before,

with the dishwasher.

Is that what he's talking about?

You know, when you do your dishes and it's still hot in there and still steaming

and you open it before it's ready and cooled off,

and some cool air gets in there, maybe a glass or crack.

Is that what he was getting at?

Maybe.

I guess you're right.

I never even thought about that.

That's the only thing you can tell me.

He must have chat GPTed that as well.

It's so hot in here that it got cold.

Then it got hot again.

Glass explodes.

The whole house.

Yeah.

And then when they asked him on the body cam why his fiance was lying unconscious

on the living room floor in the condition she was in,

here was his direct quote.

I don't know.

I thought she would have said something, but I have no idea.

I was upstairs.

He's innocent till proven guilty.

So did he enter a plea?

Oh, is this just a preliminary?

No, maybe not.

No, no, because it's a preliminary hearing from my understanding is now the next thing that happens is

while he is, he wasn't given bond as you pointed out.

He will be behind bars.

But they are actually giving this all to a grand jury to get the specific indictments

because right now the DA said given this case and what they've seen,

they are considering pursuing the death penalty.

So he may go from having a Super Bowl ring to literally sitting on death row

in a matter of a few years.

It's a 31-year-old man.

Young man still, and right now innocent man,

wrote the thing that got me in listening to the judge,

the judge after hearing all this stuff.

Look, a lot of people in listening to us now might be going,

well, obviously the judge knows more than we do has gone through this stuff more than we have.

But this quote from the judge kind of brought it home from me saying,

quote, I'm even more convinced now that the offense was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel

and that it involved torture or physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death.

Robes, that speech, the level of violence we're talking about is personal,

and vicious, and angry in a way that Robes is beyond an accident or one even somebody dead.

Robes, this stuff they describe is awful, and the judge looking at it is like,

you did not need to do all this to kill somebody.

I know the DA described the crime scene as a different level of sinister.

That's not a word you hear often, even in some of the worst cases we have covered

and we have looked at and listened to in court.

Sinister speaks to a whole other level of evil and violence,

and that is what prosecutors and now even the judge who's had a chance to look at it,

believe that is what happened in this case.

So we, of course, will be following this one for you.

In the meantime, though, thank you for listening to us.

We always appreciate it.

I'm Amy Robot, alongside TJ Holmes, and we will talk to you soon.

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