Detective Zack Crawford testifies
A detective testified Tuesday that notes were found in Jason Chen's bedroom at his parents house in which he listed derogatory items about the background of Jasmine Pace.
Chen is standing trial in the courtroom of Judge Boyd Patterson for first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the grisy death of the 22-year-old Ms. Pace.
Detective Zack Crawford said he finally located Chen at the two-story family residence in Nolensville, Tn., and got a search warrant to examine the house. He said he had thought it unusual that Chen was not taking any role in the search for his former girlfriend.
He said there were notes pinned to the wall in which Chen made reference to Ms. Pace, saying she had run away from home several times, went to Canada, was homeless at one point, she had a restraining order against her ex, and that her mother was an alcoholic.
One note said, "If law enforcement contacts other family members, what do they do?"
He wrote of Ms. Pace, "She would call me once a day every day."
In one note, he said the last time he saw Ms. Pace was Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, and the last time they spoke on the phone was Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022.
It was testified earlier that Ms. Pace and Chen had a one hour and 10 minute phone conversation on the late morning of Nov. 22, 2022, then she drove over to his apartment at 110 Tremont St.
She was never seen alive again, and her body was found stuffed in a suitcase that had been dumped along Suck Creek Road near the Tennessee River on Dec. 1, 2022.
Detective Crawford told of finding a large amount of blood in the Chen apartment and asking the TBI lab in Knoxville for a quick test. The blood came back to be that of Ms. Pace.
He and other detectives then went to the Chen home, arriving around 2 a.m. He said the parents answered the door, and the father called out, "Jason." He said Jason Chen then emerged from an upstairs bedroom and came down to the front door.
Detective Crawford said Chen's attitude was "defensive," asking if they had spoken to his lawyer yet.
He said Chen was wearing a "Henny Thing Goes" cap at the time, and was seen in it on other occasions.
Detective Crawford said Chen's white 2018 Toyota Camry was in the garage. It was confiscated along with a number of items from the house, including the notes and Chen's cellphone.
On phone records, the witness said one photo was found of Ms. Pace in Chen's bathroom the night of her disappearance.
He said there were multiple screen shots on Chen's phone of text messages he had gotten from Ms. Pace, but the actual texts themselves were missing.
In one message from Ms. Pace to Chen on the day she disappeared, she asked, "Hey, are we still good on dinner tonight?"
Detective Crawford said he received a call from the apartment building and told that workmen renovating the small unit had found new evidence.
He went to the apartment and said he saw a large amount of blood that had been overlooked before. It was under where Chen's bed had been.
He said pools of blood had soaked into the carpet, on down to the padding, and on to the subsurface.
He said before the apartment had been dimly lit and the bed was covering up that area.
Attorney Josh Weiss said in an opening statement on Monday afternoon that Chen had indeed killed Ms. Pace, but he said so after she became jealous and took after him with a wine bottle. He said there was no pre-meditation.
Photo of Chen in his bedroom that was found on his phone