Darron Lee appeared in a Tennessee courtroom on Monday, March 9 for a preliminary hearing ahead of his murder trial
Credit: GoFundMe; Rich Graessle/PPI/Icon Sportswire via Getty
A former NFL linebacker and first-round draft pick was back in a Tennessee courtroom on Monday, March 9 for a preliminary hearing in his case after being charged with first-degree murder.
Darron Lee appeared in Hamilton County Court a little over a month after his 29-year-old girlfriend Gabriella Perpétuo was found dead inside the couple's home in Ooltewah, a suburb of Chattanooga.
Prosecutors used the hearing to introduce evidence in the case, including body camera footage taken by officers who responded to the crime scene on Feb. 5, as well as alleged ChatGPT messages that Lee sent to the generative AI bot just before police arrived on the scene.
“You have Mr. Lee using ChatGPT as a legal advisor, as a defense attorney, asking ChatGPT to give him advice on how to cover up a crime scene," Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp said in court, according to WTVC.
Credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
Wamp made this argument after presenting some of the prompts that Lee, 31, allegedly sent to ChatGPT on the morning of Perpétuo's death.
"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, silt her eye? Idk but she isn’t waking up or responding, what do I do?" read one of those prompts allegedly sent by Lee, WDEF reported.
Lee then allegedly asked: "Allie what should I tell my friend to handle someone non responsive but wants to call the police."
In subsequent prompts exhibited by prosecutors, WDEF reported that Lee further asked if "stab wound like punctures" could be caused by a fall, and in his final message, allegedly wrote that "she got blood all over the damn place."
Body camera footage was also played in court showing Lee's interactions with the responding deputy that day.
"I came down and she was laying on the couch on her side and then I was like, 'hey baby, what do you want to eat?' and she wouldn't say anything, and that's when I called 911 immediately, because I'm like what is going on, because when I get up I'm like what the hell happened, I was sleeping a long time," Lee could be seen on video telling the deputy, WRCB reported.
According to the outlet, deputies said they found evidence of a violent fight, large amounts of blood and shattered glass inside the home.
Mike Little, Lee's public defender, responded to this by saying: "We don’t know what happened inside of that house. We know something happened inside of that house but we don’t know what."
Credit: Getty Images
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
An autopsy found that Perpétuo had suffered a number of concerning injuries, including multiple hematomas, abrasions, fractures and lacerations on her face.
Those injuries all contributed to her cause of death, which the autopsy determined to be blunt force trauma.
Lee, a first-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft who went on to win a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019, has been held without bail at the Hamilton County Jail since Feb. 5.
He had previously been arrested in 2023 for allegedly assaulting his own mother and in a prior incident the mother of his child, but he avoided serious time after agreeing to a deal with prosecutors in Ohio.
In February 2025, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted assault and was ordered to pay a $500 fine and serve two years of probation, Local 3 News reported.
The judge Monday ruled that Lee will remain in custody without bail and bound the murder case over to a grand jury.
Womp has previously said that she may seek the death penalty if the case proceeds to trial.
Perpétuo's family, meanwhile, has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Lee.
On the GoFundMe created for funeral expenses after her passing, Perpétuo's cousin wrote: "She was loved by so many and loved those around her with her whole heart."
Read the full article here
