Jury Sentences Jason Chen To Life In Prison Without The Possibility Of Parole

A Criminal Court jury on Tuesday sentenced Jason Chen to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Life in prison in Tennessee requires serving 51 full calendar years before there can be parole eligibility. The option the jury chose means no parole consideration.

The jury, that was selected in Nashville, earlier found the UTC computer science student guilty of first-degree murder in the savage attack on 22-year-old Jasmine Pace. Authorities said Chen stabbed her 60 times while she was shackled at his apartment in North Chattanooga, then stuffed her body in a suitcase and dumped it along Suck Creek Road.

At a sentencing hearing, Chen's mother spoke in a dialect of Mandarin Chinese in a sobbing voice, pleading for the jury to "give him a chance so he can go home and restart his life."

She said he was "a very obedient child, diligent in his studies, and who would help with the housework." She said he never got in trouble in school.

"We are all a law-abiding family," said Ms. Chen, who has one other child.

She said Jason Chen had just a half year left in college and he had plans to study for a masters and get a good-paying job. She said he told her he wanted to help so she would not have to work so hard at their Chinese restaurant.

Ms. Chen said "because of a sudden passion he made a mistake."

A Chinese interpreter at a remote location was initially used. Afterward, an aunt of Jason Chen got on the line to interpret because the family felt the initial interpreter was missing some of her testimony that was in a separate Mandarin dialect.

Ms. Chen was asked several times her family's feelings about the Pace family's loss, and she always returned to talking about her son.

The defense then called her husband, who was also asked about the Paces and said, "We understand your hurt. We are so sorry for your loss."

Gabrielle Pace, older sister of the victim, told of Jasmine losing their 14-year-old brother, Austin, to an ATV accident and of Jasmine being first at the scene. She said the family had other losses, including a cousin to COVID and their beloved grandmother on the night that Jasmine Pace went over to Chen's apartment, Nov. 22, 2022.

She said Chen had never shown any remorse while the family continues to relive Jasmine's tragic final minutes.

Jacqueline White, a cousin, went to the witness stand and methodically dropped 60 stones into a jar - illustrating the 60 stab wounds.

She said Jasmine was the glue that held the family together, contrasting her with Chen, whom she termed a "sub human and a predatory sociopath."

She noted he had also torn up his own family, recalling seeing the Chen mother in the hallway "hyperventilating."

Ms. White said Chen "has never shown a shred of remorse in this empty-eyed head. He is beyond saving."

Travis Pace, her father, said she was a beautiful, intelligent child who ran the family's very successful business and might have inherited it.

He said the family keeps thinking about her final terrifying minutes.

District Attorney Coty Wamp said, "All we are asking is that he never get out of prison. Jasmine Pace never got out of that suitcase until she was in a coffin."

She also said, "I feel terrible for the Chen family. It's terrible to see his mother up on that witness stand sobbing. Shame on him."

He said of Chen that "he took everything that the family gave him and he squandered it."

Defense attorney Josh Weiss asked jurors, "Are you willing to grant him the hope of redemption?"

He said if Chen got out of prison at age 73 "he would be an old man and no threat to society."

The attorney said, "It would still be a life sentence. It's not leniency."