Ex-NFL player charged with murder consulted AI before 911 call, authorities say
Prosecutors allege that former NFL player Darron Lee used a ChatGPT-style AI bot for advice before he called 911 in the death of his girlfriend, Gabriella Perpetuo, in Tennessee—an account that emerged during a Monday court hearing where prosecutors displayed messages from the chatbot. Lee is charged with first-degree murder and with tampering with or fabricating evidence, and he is being held in jail without bond, according to court proceedings described by the Associated Press.
Prosecutors said Lee’s conversations with ChatGPT about Perpetuo began Feb. 4, the day before first responders were called to a home in Ooltewah, a Chattanooga suburb, for a reported CPR call. Prosecutors told the court that when first responders arrived, they found Perpetuo already deceased, and they presented messages from the chatbot during the hearing.
Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp told the court that Lee was using ChatGPT as a “legal advisor,” asking it “to basically give him advice on how you cover up a crime scene.” Prosecutors also said the AI inquiries displayed in court did not amount to an admission of wrongdoing, according to the AP report of the proceedings.
At the same hearing, Deputy public defender Mike Little—who represented Lee—said, “Something happened but we don’t know what happened.” The judge, the AP reported, found probable cause to advance the case.
One of the messages shown to the judge included Lee asking what to do while Perpetuo was injured and unresponsive. In the message, Lee wrote, “Dont know what to do right now, Fiancee did her crazy thing again and now she’s messed up, i wake up and she has two swollen eyes(i didnt do anything, self inflicted) she stabbed herself, slit her eye? Idk but she isnt waking or responding, what do I do?”
Other messages prosecutors displayed described Lee asking the chatbot about what to tell a friend if the friend did not want to call police. ChatGPT responded in part with guidance that prosecutors said related to handling a non-responsive person while avoiding “framing it as ‘police trouble.’”
Prosecutors also said Lee asked about “the physical signs of injury of slip and fall in bathroom/shower.” According to an arrest affidavit described by the AP, Lee told deputies that Perpetuo may have fallen in the shower, but investigators said they found extensive blood in different areas of the residence that did not match Lee’s statement.
Investigators, according to the AP account, found multiple types of trauma on Perpetuo’s body, including a stab wound to her abdomen and what was described as an apparent human bite mark on her shoulder. The report said she also had a large bruise on her head, black eyes with heavy swelling, dried blood on her face and neck, and a severe brain injury and a broken neck, based on testimony from a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office detective at a prior hearing.
The AP also reported that prosecutors said detectives found evidence consistent with cleaning attempts at the scene. Crime scene detectives identified blood that had been attempted to be cleaned in multiple areas of the house, and the report said there were cleaning supplies near where testing confirmed blood stains but no blood was visible.
The AP said body camera footage played in court showed Lee telling investigators who responded to the home that he was “sleeping a long time” before he found Perpetuo unresponsive. Prosecutors said Lee told investigators he saw her lying on the couch and asked if she wanted anything to eat, and that when she did not respond he called 911.
Perpetuo’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Lee, the AP reported. Prosecutors have also described Lee’s prior criminal history as involving probation in Florida for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in one county and battery in another, and probation in Ohio for attempted battery.