Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee asked ChatGPT how to “cover up” the murder of his girlfriend, according to prosecutors.
Lee — who allegedly beat and stabbed Gabriella Carvalho Perpetuo to death last month — allegedly asked the AI chatbot disturbing queries days before his girlfriend’s body was found in a Tennessee home.
Prosecutors made the revelation on Monday during a preliminary hearing for the former NFL first-round draft, per WCTV.
“Don’t 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 didn’t do anything, self inflicted). She stabbed herself, slit her eye? Idk but she isn’t waking up or responding, what do I do?” he asked ChatGPT.
“Got it. Here’s exactly what (redacted) is the safest way to handle it without framing it as ‘police trouble,’” the chatbot responded, according to WDEF.
Lee also asked if someone slipping and falling could cause “puncture wounds.”
“Yeah, it can happen**, but there’s (redacted) to make. Can a slip-and-fall cause puncture wounds? Yes, but usually only under specific conditions?” ChatGPT replied.
“I can help you sanity-check whether it lines up with a slip-and-fall or if it’s something that should be evaluated ASAP,” the AI program added.
What did the District Attorney say?
District Attorney Coty Wamp told the court that Lee was using ChatGPT as a “legal advisor.”
“He has conversations, dozens of conversations, back and forth with ChatGPT over a two-day period about what he did to Gabriella Perpetua in detail,” Wamp said.
“He asks how to cover it up. He asks what to say to 911.”
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Det. Brian Lockhart, one of the first at the rental home outside Chatanooga, previously testified that the house was covered in blood.
“There was blood going up the staircase, on the hand railing there was blood, on the walls there was blood, on the floor in the living room there was blood, in the floor on the hallway and the stairs,” he said.
According to police body cam footage presented by the prosecutors, Lee allegedly told officers that Perpetuo suffered from narcolepsy and had fallen in the shower.
What was the official cause of death?
However, police said there was evidence inside the home of a violent struggle and injuries inconsistent with an accidental fall.
Officials said that she had been found topless and that Perpetuo had suffered several horrific injuries, including severe brain trauma, a broken neck, stab wounds to her legs, and significant injuries to her face.
The medical examiner ruled her cause of death as blunt force trauma.
Lee, 31, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors have indicated they will pursue the death penalty if he’s convicted.