Detectives say an NFL player accused of killing his girlfriend may have turned to ChatGPT for guidance.
Darron Lee, 31, a former New York Jets linebacker, is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Gabriella Carvalho Perpétuo. Investigators allege that in the day before she was found dead at the couple’s home in Tennessee, Lee exchanged a series of troubling messages with the AI chatbot ChatGPT.
During a preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented the conversations in court, arguing that the former NFL player appeared to seek advice on what to do after the alleged killing and how to avoid consequences.
District Attorney Coty Wamp told the court that Lee had allegedly treated the chatbot 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 Perpétuo in detail,” said Wamp.
“He asks how to cover it up. He asks what to say to 911.”
One of the messages shown in court reportedly claimed that Perpétuo had harmed herself, with Lee asking what steps to take because she was not responding.
The query read: “Don’t know what to do right now. Fiancee [sic] 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?”
According to reporting from WDEF, the chatbot replied: “Got it. Here’s exactly what [redacted] is the safest way to handle it without framing it as ‘police trouble.'”
ChatGPT also reportedly told Lee: “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.”
Jurors were also shown footage from officers’ body-worn cameras capturing Lee speaking at the scene.
In one clip, he said: “She wasn’t saying anything, and that’s when I called 911 immediately, and I was like what is going on… I was asleep for a long time.”
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brian Lockhart, one of the first responders, testified about what he saw inside the home.
Lockhart described widespread blood throughout the property, saying: “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.”
Lee has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. He is being held without bond.
Prosecutors have indicated they plan to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.