The ex-NFL player accused of k!lling his partner asked ChatGPT how to get medical help without calling the cops, according to evidence presented at a preliminary hearing on Monday.
Darron Lee, 31, was arrested on February 5 after deputies discovered Gabriella Perpetuo, 29, dead at a home on Snow Cone Way in Ooltewah. He’s charged with first-degree murder and tampering with or fabricating evidence.
He asked the artificial intelligence assistant if a fall could cause bruising in two eyes and “two stabby looking wounds,” according to court evidence.
During testimony, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office detective Brian Lockhart said Lee named his chatbot Allie and sent his messages under the name Xander. Not all of his messages would be published to the court this early in the case, prosecutors said.
In one message sent the day before his arrest, Lee asked the assistant what to do when a friend has to handle someone nonresponsive but doesn’t want to call the police.
“Fiancee did her crazy thing again, and now she’s messed up,” Lee told the chatbot. “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 isnt waking up or responding, what do I do?”
Lee discussed the wounds she had and told the chatbot that she got blood all over the place, according to messages shown in court.
Some of the messages sound as though Lee is asking on behalf of a friend, according to the detective.
“‘Here is exactly what to tell your friend,'” Lockhart read the chatbot’s response aloud in court. “‘This is the safest way to handle it without framing it as police trouble.'”
District Attorney Coty Wamp questioned the detective about the messages. He said they were obtained from a forensic download, and the software appeared to give Lee advice.
“Do you recall what message from Mr. Lee, you may or may not, resulted in ChatGPT telling him to pause the joking?” District Attorney Coty Wamp asked.