Investigator Mark Hamilton
Text messages between Jason Chen and Jasmine Pace showed no arguments or disagreements between them prior to her savage murder at Chen's North Chattanooga apartment on Nov. 23, 2022, it was testified Friday.
Detective Zack Crawford said out of just under 1,400 texts there was no indication of acrimony between the young couple.
He also said it did not appear that one person in the couple was pushing the relationship more than the other. "They were just casual conversations," he said. The detective said Ms. Pace would most often go to Chen's residence rather than he to hers.
It was also testified Friday that, according to phone records, Chen was playing video games with a group on the night of the murder and the delivery of the body to a slope off Suck Creek Road.
Also, Chen was found to have gone on the Tinder dating ap the morning after the murder was carried out. He asked "Sarah" "What's going on?" and to "Victoria" he said, "So I guess we're dating now." One of the women responded to his text.
Chen is standing trial in the courtroom of Judge Boyd Patterson for first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.
Attorney Josh Weiss earlier told the jury that on that night Ms. Pace became enraged when she picked up Chen's phone and saw he had been calling other women. He said she went after him with a wine bottle and Chen wound up stabbing her.
The medical examiner said Ms. Pace, whose body was shackled and stuffed in a suitcase, had 60 stab wounds.
District Attorney Coty Wamp tried to keep out certain text messages said to be of an explicit sexual nature between the couple, but Judge Patterson said they could go before the jury because they dealt with the couple's relationship.
DA Wamp afterward read a number of excerpts from the texts that began Nov. 3, 2021, when the couple met on the Bumble dating site. They corresponded a few days, then Chen picked it back up in late April 2022.
Chen on April 29, 2022, reached out to her for the first time since the previous November. Ms. Pace responded, "I do have you in my phone. You must be okay since I gave you my phone number."
She asked, "Can you send me a picture of yourself?" They then exchanged photos.
Chen asked, "Does 7 or 8 tonight work for you?" She said she was busy that night and a girlfriend wanted her to stay with her that weekend. Ms. Pace said she was going to Rainbow Falls alone and he could join her on that hike the next afternoon.
The couple began seeing each other, and Chen invited her to go on a trip to Chicago with him. Ms. Pace said she worked her schedule around so she could go.
She said, "It's been years since I took a trip. I'm so excited. This is going to be so fun."
The 22-year-old Ms. Pace added, "I've never taken a trip with a guy before. I'm glad it's with you."
A week after the trip Ms. Pace ironically recommended that he go for a drive along Suck Creek Road "before the leaves all fall off."
In another text, she told Chen she was sorry to have missed his birthday. In still another, she said she was going off for a few days because "I just need a break."
On Nov. 20, 2022, she told him, "I don't think I'll be able to make it." Two days later, he asked her over for "fun shower time and cuddle for a bit." Ms. Pace said she was not feeling so well.
Chen told her he had "given me some inspiration to get some doughnuts." She asked, "How were they and where did you get them from?"
Chen, also on Nov. 20, 2022, asked, "What are you doing this Wednesday by the way?" He said, "When I see you I'll give you the biggest hug."
DA Wamp said, "Three days before he murdered her he asked her to his apartment on the date he murdered her."
Also on the 22nd, Ms. Pace asked, "Are you still at the gym?" He said, "Just finishing up." She said, "My schedule is touch and go the next few days." She arrived at his apartment not long before midnight.
The next morning at 11:46 a.m., after Ms. Pace had been killed, Chen wrote to her phone, "Good morning. I slept like a baby. Making myself a mocha."
Cellphone expert Mark Hamilton said there are a number of "likes" and "loves" in the texts, but the preceding text was no longer found. He said those were either deleted or somehow lost.
He said using cellphone pings from Chen's phone off towers and with video from several stores, Chen's exact movements around the time of the murder could be tracked.
The witness said records show that on Nov. 23, 2022, at 6:15 p.m. that Chen left in his Toyota Camry and headed for the Suck Creek Road suitcase dropoff. He left that spot by the river at 6:33 p.m. and headed for Walmart on Signal Mountain Road, then on to Walgreens on North Market. It was testified earlier that he bought cleaning supplies and other items and took them to his blood-covered apartment at 110 Tremont.
It was at Walmart, the witness said, where Chen apparently shut off the phone of Ms. Pace. It was never heard from again.
The investigator said Chen then left the apartment complex at 8:27 p.m. and drove in Ms. Pace's Chevrolet to 900 Mountain Creek Road, where he left the vehicle in a parking lot. He then took a gray Pruis Lyft back to his apartment, arriving back at 9:02 p.m.
Investigator Hamilton said Chen apparently remained at his apartment until Nov. 25 when he drove to the home of his parents at Nolensville, Tn.
There, he said, Chen took the SIM card from his phone and moved it to the larger, newer IPhone of Ms. Pace. Her SIM card was found by police at the parents' home.
Investigator Hamilton said records show that on Nov. 27, 2022, Chen drove back to Chattanooga. He said he was in the neighborhood of his apartment within a block or two, but does not seemed to have gone up to the unit. He went up to Hixson, then later headed back to Nolensville, where he was soon found by police.
Finerprint experts earlier in the day said fingerprints found on one of three garbage bags found around the body were those of Chen.
The trial continues on Saturday morning before a jury from Nashville. It will also be conducted on Monday after a day off on Sunday.
All of the 200 pages of texts were allowed to go to the jury.
The family of Ms. Pace in November filed a $17 million Circuit Court lawsuit against the Chen parents, saying they illegally harbored a fugitive and covered up the murder. It asks $12 million compensatory damages and $5 million punitive damages.
Their attorney, Ben McGowan, has been sitting with the Pace family throughout the trial and at prior hearings.