Sequestered: A Juror’s Perspective on the Murder Trial of Jasmine Pace 

Episode 6: The Evidence Tells The Story

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Before we begin, please be advised that this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence as presented during the trial. Please take care while listening.

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It’s Friday, January 17, 2025—Day Five of the trial. If you've been following along, you know that Day Four of the trial was brutal. We saw the autopsy photos, heard the forensic details, and imagined the unthinkable. As medical examiner Dr. Steven Cogswell walked us through the condition of Jasmine's body inside that suitcase, I didn't have time to process it in the moment, and I didn't want to think about it after we left the courthouse. Alone in my silent hotel room, when my eyes finally closed that night, I couldn't think about anything else.

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During Dr. Cogswell’s testimony, when the pictures of Jasmine’s body were shown, I made an intentional decision not to look at the features on her face—focusing only on her wounds. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it was out of respect. Maybe it was my way of staying somewhat detached so that I could do my job. I know everyone who sat through the testimony yesterday left the courtroom heavy—not just by what happened to Jasmine, but with the realization of how intentional it all was.

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Today’s details won’t focus on the violence that occurred inside of Jason Chen’s apartment. It’s about the trail he left behind—the fingerprints, the cell phone pings, the digital breadcrumbs that tracked his every move. Each piece coming together like literal coordinates on a map, showing us not just what happened, but how. Because evidence tells its own story, and today, the evidence leading us is digital.

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Sequestered: A Juror's Perspective on the Murder Trial for Jasmine Pace

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I’m Sara, Juror #11. Each episode, I’ll take you inside the courtroom, behind the scenes, and into the weighty moments of this trial as we honor Jasmine’s life and navigate the complexities of seeking justice. Let’s begin.

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District Attorney Generals Explained

Before we get into today's testimony, I wanted to explain why I keep calling the District Attorneys General. If you're not from Tennessee, it probably sounds a little strange, but here’s the deal: in Tennessee, state prosecutors are officially titled District Attorney General.

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That’s why you’ll hear me say General Wamp or General Moyle throughout the podcast. It’s a tradition that dates back to the earliest days of Tennessee’s legal system, meant to emphasize that these attorneys represent the entire state—not just a local district—in criminal cases. So next time you hear me say General, think of it as shorthand for that full title, District Attorney General.

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Day Five of the Trial

Judge Patterson opens the morning the way he always does, reminding the jury of our responsibility: No outside research, no talking about the case, no news or social media. By now, this ritual feels familiar—almost automatic. We all nod in agreement.

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He then lays out our weekend schedule. It was the Friday before a holiday weekend, but no one would get that holiday weekend. Instead, court will be in session the following day, even though it's Saturday. And after a quick vote in the jury room earlier that morning, we all agreed to take Sunday off, but would return to work on Monday, despite it being a national holiday—Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

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Another round of nods from the jury box are acknowledged, and with that, Day Five of the trial was underway.

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Jennifer Moody - Fingerprint Technician

The state calls their first witness of the day, Jennifer Moody, a fingerprint technician with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. Her testimony is quick and straightforward. She explains to the jury how fingerprints are collected, stored, and compared. It’s not flashy, but it’s foundational—setting up the state’s next witness with finesse. Every smudge and swirl could be a clue, and Moody’s job is to make sure those clues get documented the right way.

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Lou David Franklin - Fingerprint Analysis Expert

Next on the stand was Lou David Franklin of the Chattanooga Police Department. With years of experience in fingerprint analysis and comparisons, Franklin had built a reputation as a go-to expert in this field. From Franklin, we learned that fingerprints aren’t just random smudges left behind on surfaces.

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They’re made up of ridges, tiny raised lines on the surface of our skin, and those ridges form distinct patterns known as:

• Loops: The most common, curving back on themselves like a river bending around a rock.

• Arches: More rare, simple wave-like patterns that rise and fall across the fingertip.

• Whorls: The most intricate, spiraling, circular designs—almost like tiny thumbprint hurricanes.

 

We all know that no two fingerprints are exactly alike, not even for identical twins. And once those ridges form in utero, they stay with us for life.

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Lifting Prints from Evidence

We also got a primer on how investigators lift prints from evidence. Sometimes they use magnetic powders, which are fine particles that cling to the natural oils left behind by our fingers. Other times, they rely on a chemical process called cyanoacrylate fuming—essentially using super glue vapor to coat invisible prints, making them easier to see and photograph.

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It’s super sciency and a little bit of CSI magic that turns a fingerprint into evidence, and today, that evidence was about to tell us a story.

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Crime Scene Prints and a Chilling Discovery

Crime scene investigators submitted four separate fingerprint impressions to Lieutenant Franklin’s unit.

• The first print was found on the exterior of the front passenger door of Jasmine's Chevy Equinox. It turned out to belong to Jim Cooper, a locksmith and friend of the Pace family who had helped tow Jasmine’s car.

• The other three prints submitted, including two fingerprints and a palm print, belonged to Investigator Crawford.

• The final fingerprint was found on the outside of the outermost garbage bag—the third and final bag that held Jasmine’s body.

And that print belonged to Jason Chen.

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Fingerprint Evidence and Digital Forensics

The only examinable fingerprints found on the Toyota were from Investigator Crawford. But the two prints of quality to examine from that garbage bag around Jasmine Pace's body—who were they made by?

Made by Jason Chen.
Prints of value, made by Jason Chen.

The defense tries to poke holes here. How certain can you really be? Could there have been a mistake, a smudge, a mix-up in the lab? But Franklin doesn't budge. He leans into the microphone and says, clear as day,

“Jason Chen made this print.”

 

Here's Latricia Thomas from News Channel Nine discussing this testimony during a break in court with Chattanooga attorney Bill Speak.

Latricia Thomas:

“This particular fingerprint was made by the left middle finger or left ring finger of Jason Chen.”

Bill Speak (Attorney):

“Certainly. So fingerprints are considered unique and if you get complete fingerprints, the expert would have talked about this. There’s going to be so many points that they would look for on a fingerprint. If you just have one or two points on a fingerprint that are similar or matching, that would not be enough for a positive identification. But if you get up to 11 or 12 points, at that point, it becomes what we call a match because of the uniqueness—just mathematically—of having those fingerprints match. So you know, there are similarities in every fingerprint, but when you look at a complete fingerprint, the number of points that are matching points is what determines the identification of the individual.”

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Latricia Thomas (News Channel Nine):

“And that’s what we’re seeing now from this Chattanooga Police fingerprint supervisor that testified this morning. And then something that I didn’t realize—each one of these cases is then corroborated by another person that doesn’t know what the first person came up with. So, they look at the two things again to match. And in this case, the second person also said that he believes those fingerprints on the garbage bag that contained Jasmine Pace’s body were those of Jason Chen.”

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Digital Forensics - Investigator Mark Hamilton

Fingerprint evidence is powerful. But digital forensics? That’s where the case really starts to close in. Next on the stand was Investigator Mark Hamilton, the state’s expert in cell phone data, GPS tracking, and radio frequency analysis. It became immediately clear that his testimony wasn’t supposed to happen until after the lunch break, because instead of a suit and tie, Hamilton arrived in casual office attire, having been summoned straight from his desk at the DA’s office. I guess we were ahead of schedule.

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General Wamp made a point to mention this, acknowledging his unexpected wardrobe and maybe offering him a little grace to settle in before facing the jury. But before diving into his qualifications, General Wamp addressed something important head-on.

“You actually work for me, don’t you?”

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It was an intentional move designed to make sure the jury knew the facts: Hamilton works directly under District Attorney General Coty Wamp. The subtext was clear—this was not a secret, and we should know about it. But Wamp didn’t just rely on their working relationship to establish his credibility. Instead, she laid out his decades-long career in digital forensics, emphasizing his deep expertise in tracking cell data, which is:

• How signals move between towers

• How GPS records a person's every step

• How our phones can tell a story more detailed than we ever realized

 

Hamilton had spent 60 to 70 hours analyzing the digital footprints of both Jasmine Pace and Jason Chen, and now he was about to take us through that timeline minute by minute. Because while people can lie, our cell phones don’t.

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Timeline of Cell Phone Data

General Wamp:
“Let’s start with Ms. Pace’s phone on 11/22/2022. This is Exhibit Number One. Have you seen this exhibit before?”

Hamilton:
“Yes, ma’am.”

General Wamp:
“What does this show to your knowledge?”

Hamilton:
“It is a screenshot from an app on her phone. It records days and times—start and stop.”

 

Cell Phone Data Analysis

Reviewing the records, Hamilton confirms that cell phone data shows Jasmine departing her home in Hixon, Tennessee at 11:27 PM and arriving at Jason Chen's apartment at 11:42 PM on November 22.

At 2:18 AM on November 23, Jasmine’s phone sends a location pin to Katrina Bean’s cell phone.

At 10:40 AM the morning of November 23, Jason Chen’s phone heads to Walmart. Hamilton reveals that Jasmine’s phone is also traveling with him.

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General Wamp:
“So, we’re still going chronologically. Mr. Hamilton, after this, at some point in the morning hours of 11/23, did Mr. Chen’s phone travel to Walmart?”

Hamilton:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“From your memory, was that travel around 10:40 in the morning?”

Hamilton:
“Yes, ma’am.”

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Once again, General Wamp pulls up the video footage: Jason Chen casually walking through Walmart, wearing his now infamous “Anything Goes” hat. She reminds the jury exactly what they’re looking at.

This isn’t some random shopping trip. This is the morning after Jasmine Pace was last seen alive. Jason Chen is shopping for cleaning supplies and band-aids, wearing a hat that seems to mock the very idea of accountability.

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Phones Gone Dark

Hamilton points out something critical:
Where Jason went, Jasmine’s phone went too. Until, just like that, it went dark.

General Wamp:
“If a phone is turned off or a SIM card is removed, would her phone have gone dark?”

Hamilton:
“Yes, it would.”

General Wamp:
“Where did Jason Chen go next?”

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Based on cell phone records, Jason’s location was at Walgreens at 1:41 PM, corroborated by video of Chen walking into Walgreens. At this time, Jasmine’s phone is still off.

Then, around 4:00 PM, both phones ping from the same cell tower.

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Questioning and Text Messages

General Wamp:
“Are you aware of any activity that you found on both of their cellular records around this time? And who is that text message from? And who’s it to?”

If that was hard to hear, Hamilton said that a text message was sent from Jason Chen to Jasmine Pace at this time.

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The Text Message

“Hey, are we still good for dinner tonight?”

Sent at 3:50 PM. Both of their phones showed back up in downtown Chattanooga around this time.

General Wamp:
“Are you able to tell the jury if Ms. Pace's phone had been on immediately before that, or is this the first time you see it back on?”

Hamilton:
“No, it didn’t get on for a little while. His was off and hers was on, and it was driving behind—off and on—yes, for the first quarter today, on 11/23.”

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Return to Suck Creek Road

At this point, General Wamp takes us back to Suck Creek Road, and Hamilton confirms something chilling for the second time:

Jason Chen’s phone data shows him driving up and down Suck Creek Road.

It’s hard not to wonder—why? Was he scouting, searching for the perfect spot? Presumably, he was looking for a place to dump that suitcase.

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Surveillance Footage - Tremont Street

At 5:08 PM, Jason Chen returns to his apartment at 110 Tremont. And then we see it—the footage we’ve now seen so many times it’s burned into memory.

At 5:59 PM, Jason Chen is seen exiting the front entrance of The Lofts at Tremont, pulling a heavy suitcase up a handful of steps, then rolling it down the sidewalk before he disappears out of frame and into the parking lot.

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Analyzing the Surveillance Footage

The video comes from the Arctic Cam mounted at the corner of Tremont and Frazier. It’s angled straight down Tremont Street, with The Lofts at Tremont visible on the right-hand side. The front entrance to the apartment complex sits slightly below sidewalk level, with a short set of steps leading down to the door.

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In the footage, you see a figure at the base of those steps struggling to make his way up. We immediately recognize him. By now, the state has done a meticulous job pointing out the identifiers:

• His ‘Henny Thing Goes’ trucker hat

• His clothes

• His movements

 

As Chen reaches the top step, you can see he’s dragging something behind him, and then the suitcase comes into view. When the suitcase hits the sidewalk, there’s this moment—Chen’s arm drops under the weight of it. He readjusts, finds his grip, and starts pulling it towards the camera’s view before disappearing into the parking lot.

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The Weight of the Suitcase

That suitcase wasn’t empty.

If you’ve ever traveled, you know most airlines cap checked bags at 50 pounds. Now imagine doubling that. That’s what Jason was hauling up those stairs and down Tremont Street.

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After the trial, my producer and I made the trip to Chattanooga, and 110 Tremont was the first place we visited. Seeing it in person—this building that had become a central character in Jasmine’s story—was surreal.

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When we were pulling out of the back parking lot by the dumpsters, I saw those steps and the sidewalk—the exact spot where Jason pulled that suitcase.

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On Location - Chattanooga

Producer:
“Describe how you feel seeing it in person.”

Sara:
“Yeah, this is pretty surreal. My heart is beating being here, just seeing the sidewalk that he walked, the steps that that suitcase got pulled up. And seeing the footage of his arm drop when the weight of that bag got rolling—you could just tell it was so heavy. Even though we know she was only 98 pounds, most suitcases are like 50 pounds. So that was twice as heavy as the average suitcase you would travel with at an airport. And anyway, it’s just pretty crazy to be seeing the sidewalk where we saw the footage of him rolling her out of the Tremont apartments.”

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The Final Drive to Suck Creek Road

After Jason rolls the suitcase into the parking lot, the Arctic Cam captures the next piece of the puzzle: a 2018 gray Toyota Camry pulls out of the lot. Behind the wheel? Jason Chen.

The camera shows him turning right onto Frazier Avenue, leaving The Lofts at Tremont behind.

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The Disposal

Minutes later, at 6:13 PM, cell phone records confirm exactly where he’s headed—Suck Creek Road. He waited until it was dark enough, then pulled off onto the gravel turnout.

• He popped the trunk.

• Dragged the 100-pound suitcase out.

• Pulled it to the edge of the riverbank, shoving it as deep as he could into the dried kudzu brush, forcing it out of sight.

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Back to Walmart

20 minutes later, at 6:33 PM, Jason Chen leaves Suck Creek Road and the body of Jasmine Pace. He drives back to the Walmart he visited earlier that day.

He arrives in the Walmart parking lot, and at 6:49 PM, Jasmine’s phone goes dark.

That’s the last time her phone ever sends out a signal.

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We know Jason kept her SIM card, but just to be clear—Jasmine's actual phone has never been found.

• Not in his apartment.

• Not in his car.

• Not anywhere.

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As if the device that once held her messages, her photos, her entire digital life simply vanished. The courtroom audio from this part of the trial is hard to make out, but the message is crystal clear:

This is where Jasmine's digital trail ends.

 

Jason Chen’s Movements - The Final Hours

General Wamp:
“So based on this photo, you can tell he's actually leaving the location at the bottom. Yes. Do you recall where Mr. Chen’s phone goes from this location?”

Hamilton:
“This is the same Walmart that he was at earlier in the day. It’s nearby.”

General Wamp:
“Is that correct? And do you recall if there’s anything significant about Mr. Chen’s phone being back at the Walmart again? So when you say ‘reappears,’ what do you mean? It’s been dark.”

 

The Walgreens Stop

At 7:00 PM, Jason Chen walks into the Walgreens on Market Street in Chattanooga. Footage from the store and his cell phone records confirm it.

What I know now, especially after visiting these locations myself, is that this Walgreens sits directly along the route back to Jason's apartment from Suck Creek Road, where Jasmine’s body had already been left behind.

After a quick stop in the Walmart parking lot to handle the final details of her never-to-be-seen-again phone, Jason makes one more stop at this Walgreens on Market Street before returning to his apartment just a few blocks away.

 

Jason Leaves Again

But he doesn’t stay home for long.

A little after 8:00 PM, a neighbor’s Ring cam catches him slipping out the side door of the building. He’s still wearing the “Henny Thing Goes” hat, but this time, he’s added a blue face mask and pulled up the hood of his gray sweatshirt.

 

The Final Drive

Moments later, the Arctic Cam captures a masked figure wearing:

• A red and white trucker hat

• A hooded gray sweatshirt

 

He’s pulling out of the apartments in a white Chevy Equinox and turning right onto Frazier Avenue.

That’s Jasmine’s car, and Jason is driving it. But he’s not out to run errands.

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No. He’s driving to 900 Mountain Creek Road, where he’ll abandon the vehicle—the same place Jasmine’s family will find it just three days later, desperate for answers.

 

Returning to Tremont

General Wamp:
“And at some point, a while later, do we see Mr. Chen back at Tremont?”

Hamilton:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“In your review of the evidence, were you able to see this video?”

Hamilton:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“Would you agree that that person appears to be leaving a building?”

Hamilton:
“Yes, ma’am.”

 

Back to the Phone Records

General Wamp:
“And now we go back to phone records. Did Mr. Chen’s phone indicate that he was leaving the Tremont apartments around this time, around the exact same time that he is seen leaving the Tremont apartment building? Is that correct?”

Hamilton:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“Do you recall where he went, and is there other evidence that you reviewed that would corroborate his travel to 900 Mountain Creek Road?”

Hamilton:
“There is the camera that’s across the street from Tremont.”

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The Final Trip of Jasmine’s Car

Remember the MyChevy app, the one Jasmine's mom used to locate her car on the night of November 26? That app captured the final trip Jasmine's car ever took, starting at 8:27 PM when Jason pulls out of his apartment complex at 110 Tremont Street, and ending just 18 minutes later at 8:45 PM when he parks it for the last time, abandoning the vehicle in a dark back parking lot at 900 Mountain Creek Road.

Now, let's listen in as General Coty Wamp walks the jury through the surveillance footage.

 

Surveillance Footage Examination

General Wamp:
“Okay. Is this video taken from the Mountain Creek Road apartment buildings? UV, at this point in time, is Mr. Chen’s cell phone location data showing that he is in or around 900 Mountain Creek Road?”

Hamilton:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“And then, have you also seen the next part of this video that shows what looks like—or has been testified to—a Prius pulling into this parking lot?”

Hamilton:
“Yes, ma’am.”

 

The Prius - Jason’s Lyft Ride

Remember that Prius captured on the surveillance video at 900 Mountain Creek Road? The one that pulls into the same parking lot Jason did after abandoning Jasmine’s car?

That Prius was Jason’s Lyft ride—the same driver who would later drop him off back at his apartment.

Detective Hamilton walks the jury through data extracted from Jason’s phone, showing that the Lyft app was accessed at 8:39 PM—just minutes after Jason left the Equinox. A notification then comes through at 8:50 PM, likely telling him his ride was arriving.

• Jason's cell phone data still places him at 900 Mountain Creek Road at this time.

• By 9:02 PM, Jason Chen and his phone are delivered to 110 Tremont Street.

Hamilton confirms via cell phone data, while General Wamp queues up the Arctic footage capturing Jason exiting the Lyft outside of his apartment building.

 

Returning to Tremont

General Wamp:
“And at this point in time, are Mr. Chen’s phone records showing that he is back in his apartment on Tremont Street?”

Hamilton:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“The next question I asked you is significant. Where was Mr. Chen’s cell phone from this time on 11/23 until midday on 11/25?”

Hamilton:
“It was at his apartment.”

General Wamp:
“The entire time?”

Hamilton:
“Yes, didn’t go anywhere.”

General Wamp:
“Would you agree that’s basically a day and a half?”

Hamilton:
“It is.”

 

Deleted Apps and Calculated Moves

A quick side note here: Both the Lyft app and the Tinder app had been deleted from Jason’s phone before investigators got their hands on it. But thanks to the forensic data extraction, Hamilton was still able to recover key information from both apps.

Not long after Jason returns home that night, he makes a move that’s both calculated and revealing. Why, we may never know.

What we do know is this: Jason inserts his own SIM card into Jasmine’s phone, activating it with his personal data and tying himself directly to her device.

 

Timeline Recap

Let’s step back through the timeline real quick.

• After Jason drops Jasmine’s car off at Mountain Creek Road, he takes a Lyft home, arriving back at his apartment at exactly 9:02 PM on November 23.

• From this time on November 23 until midday on November 25, Jason Chen does not leave his apartment.

• Was this when he was cleaning, rearranging the furniture to cover up what happened inside of his bedroom, preparing to head home for the holiday as if nothing had happened?

By this point, Jason had made three separate trips to Walmart and Walgreens, stocking up on supplies. Jasmine’s body and the suitcase were already left behind on Suck Creek Road. And inside his apartment, we know there was blood—almost a gallon of it actually.

For context, Thanksgiving Day was on November 24 that year.

 

Leaving Chattanooga for Thanksgiving

Jason didn’t leave Chattanooga until Friday afternoon, finally getting into his car around 3:00 PM Eastern Time and arriving at his parents’ house in Nolensville, Tennessee at 4:50 PM Central Time.

 

The Return to Chattanooga

Two days later, on Sunday, November 27, Jason Chen returns to the North Shore area of Chattanooga.

But here’s the thing: He never goes back into his apartment.

• Cell Phone records show him stopping just west of Tremont Street, near Renaissance Park, a small green space just a few blocks away from The Lofts at Tremont, where he lived.

 

Search Warrant Issued

At this point, General Wamp makes an effort to ask Hamilton what time the Chattanooga Police Department secured Chen’s apartment on this day.

Hamilton confirms it happened sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 PM on Sunday, November 27, after Chen’s cell phone data shows he was first seen back in the area.

We know from Investigator Crawford’s testimony that the search warrant for Jason Chen’s apartment was granted at 11:45 PM that same night.

 

Why Did Jason Return to Chattanooga?

So what was Jason back in town for?

• Surely by now, Investigator Crawford had already been calling his phone.

• Was he curious about any activity around his apartment, checking to see if the police were already involved?

• Or was there something else, pulling him back?

 

Another Twist

Hamilton reveals another twist.

Jason leaves the North Shore area around 9:30 PM, heading towards Hixson, a community just north of Chattanooga. And according to his phone records, Jason stays in the Hixson area until about 10:15 PM before heading back to Nolensville.

 

Why Hixson?

So what’s in Hixson?

• Jasmine’s house.

• Her family’s house.

 

What in the world was Jason doing there? And more importantly, why?

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Jasmine’s Phone Activity and Jason’s Text Messages

Next, the state shifts the jury’s attention to Jasmine’s phone activity, more specifically, her text messages and app usage in the hours after she was last seen alive. What Hamilton uncovers is deeply unsettling.

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At 4:00 AM on the morning of November 23, Jasmine’s phone received a series of notifications. They were password reset requests for her banking apps.

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By 9:52 AM that same morning, Jason was already back on Tinder, messaging somebody new. He sends this message to a person named Victoria:

Jason:
“So I guess we’re dating now.”

Victoria:
“Ha, really? Why is that?”

Jason didn’t stop there, though. He also reached out to two other women on Tinder that same morning.

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I keep thinking about these women he messaged. As far as they knew, it was just flirty banter on a dating app. How could they possibly know that the guy messaging them had just murdered his girlfriend? Her lifeless body was still laying on the floor of his bedroom.

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As Investigator Hamilton’s testimony continues, he shares even more text data recovered from Jason Chen’s phone.

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I was actually glad I could watch this part back, because there was just so much information flying at us during this part of the trial—texts, dates, times, different time zones—it was nearly impossible to keep up with in the moment.

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It wasn’t until re-watching it for this episode that I fully caught on to what General Wamp was getting at with this next group of messages.

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But before we get there, Hamilton also confirms something that directly contradicts the defense’s opening statement.

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He testifies that the Tinder app on Jason’s phone was not accessed at all on the day of November 22.

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That’s a direct conflict with what the defense had claimed about Jasmine becoming upset after seeing Tinder messages popping up on Jason’s phone that night.

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With General Wamp’s leading, Hamilton then shifts and explains to the jury that we’re looking at a text thread from Jason Chen’s phone, a group chat between Jason and his gamer friends.

Around 9:30 PM on November 23, a handful of texts roll in. The guys are checking in to see who’s available and who’s getting on to play that night.

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General Wamp points out that all of these texts are being read by Jason as they come in. She continues scrolling down the report, showing more conversation over the next couple of hours.

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Just before midnight, someone named Mina writes:
“You guys running more Warzone?”

Then, at 1:06 AM, now officially Thanksgiving Day, Jason chimes in:

Jason:
“I’m getting on in like five.”

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“You’re getting on in like five.”

As in, you’re calm enough to sit on your couch and play video games with your buddies just seven hours after you dumped your girlfriend’s body in a suitcase by the side of the Tennessee River.

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There’s a short mid-morning break at this point, and although I had no idea at the time, the defense used that break to submit a motion—a move that would quietly set the stage for what was coming next.

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A motion is a formal request made to the court asking the judge to rule on a specific issue. In this case, Mr. Weiss filed a motion requesting that the entirety of the text messages between Jasmine Pace and Jason Chen be admitted into evidence.

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With the jury now out of earshot, the courtroom quickly turns into a legal tug-of-war—Weiss arguing for full transparency, while Wamp raises serious concerns about their relevance.

They go back and forth over whether these texts, even the ones from a year before Jasmine’s murder, are actually hearsay.

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Then General Wamp plants her feet and calls it out directly, saying:

“We just received this motion approximately four and a half minutes ago.”

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Judge Patterson appears open to admitting the full 240 pages of text, but General Wamp pushes back hard, arguing that messages from 2021 have nothing to do with the murder of Jasmine Pace.

She also makes one thing crystal clear: If these pages are to be submitted, any texts that are sexual in nature should be redacted before they’re shown to the jury.

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Defense (Mr. Weiss):
“Proof that the defendant and the decedent had a sexual relationship. They were dating of some kind, and that needs to be shown. The relationship between the defendant and the decedent is central to the defense case. So we would like to have the entirety of the text messages submitted to show this relationship.”

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“Lastly, the State’s opened the door. They’ve already had Mr. Hamilton go through the data extraction of how they obtained these messages the same way that we received them. They have gone through the defendant’s Tinder. They’ve gone through the defendant’s iMessages. None of those messages were redacted, even though we talk about relevance, and so all those came in. So I believe the State has opened the door to allowing these text messages to come in. If their argument is relevance, well, then they shouldn’t have introduced the messages when the State uses them.”

 

General Wamp:
“Statements from a party opponent are a well-recognized hearsay exception. Mr. Williams cannot use Mr. Chen’s statement in court because it’s not a party opponent. So that’s slightly different.”

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“I did not agree that we opened the door. However, Your Honor, if we can agree to eliminate the irrelevant text messages—and there’s not many of them—but irrelevant text messages regarding sexual activity, and I’ve only noticed, then you’ll agree to the text messages coming in.”

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“I do not believe that text messages about sexual activity are relevant to Mr. Weiss’s case or the homicide of Jasmine Pace.”

“Okay, so we're tailoring. So, please show me the sexual messages you’re talking about, because…”

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DA Wamp:
“Your Honor, hold on. Because I'll point it out for you. Case by case.”

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Mr. Weiss (Defense Attorney):
“To me, I just mentioned that I—I don't intend to ask, ‘Tell me about this sexual text message.’ I wanted to…”

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DA Wamp:
“No, he intends to tell the jury in closing argument, ‘Go back and read all the messages that they will be in evidence.’ That we object to them. I will go through them with Mr. Hamilton.”

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The footage that follows this exchange is muted, but you don't need sound to pick up on what's happening. Their body language says it all—tension, frustration, and the two sides digging in.

It's clear this was important to both the prosecution and the defense, each for very different reasons.

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After a tense back-and-forth, Judge Patterson allows some of the texts in, but only if they're relevant. The jury never saw the messages that were sexual in nature, and honestly, we didn’t need to.

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What’s interesting is those 240 pages of text messages were actually the very first thing I reached for when the evidence box was brought into the jury room during our deliberations.

There was no way I could have read through it all, but I wanted to see for myself if their relationship really looked as lopsided as the defense claimed.

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From the texts I did have time to read, what I saw looked like a pretty normal relationship.

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When we returned from the mid-morning break, Mark Hamilton was still on the stand—this time ready for the defense’s cross-examination.

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Defense Attorney Amanda Morrison approaches the podium.

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This is the first time I've really mentioned her, so let me paint the picture:

• Dressed in a solid-colored skirt suit, Amanda Morrison carries herself with a quiet confidence.

• Her straight reddish-brown hair frames her face, and there’s a deliberate calmness in her demeanor.

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Morrison starts by asking Hamilton to confirm something:

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Amanda Morrison:
“Can you actually prove that Jason Chen went to his apartment when he returned to Chattanooga from Nolensville on November 27?”

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Hamilton answers carefully. He can place Chen in the area of his apartment based on cell phone data, but he can’t say for certain whether or not Jason actually entered his apartment that day.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure why this mattered, but the defense made a point to put it on the record.

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Next, Judge Patterson addresses the jury directly, explaining how we’re allowed to consider the text messages that were submitted.

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Essentially saying that the texts are only to be used for the non-hearsay purpose of establishing the length of Jason and Jasmine’s relationship.

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Morrison dives right in, suggesting that someone could have fabricated the pin screenshot sent to Jasmine’s mom at 2:18 AM on November 23.

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She pushes Hamilton, asking if it’s possible that someone could have faked that screenshot that Katrina Bean showed of the text message from Jasmine with her location pin.

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Hamilton stands firm. He says it would be extremely difficult to fabricate because of the sheer amount of detail embedded in the screenshot’s metadata.

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Eventually, Hamilton concedes that, in theory, anything is possible, but in his expert opinion, the screenshot is authentic.

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Before Investigator Hamilton stepped down, we had a few questions of our own.

“Was Jason’s SIM card in his phone when investigators recovered it from his parents’ house?”

 

Hamilton:
“Yes, it was.”

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He reminded the jury that Jason had moved that same SIM card into Jasmine’s phone for a period of time, but that it had been returned to his own phone by the time it was recovered for extraction.

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“What would happen if text messages were deleted from Jason’s phone? Would they still show up in the conversation log?”

 

Hamilton:
“Depending on the make and model of the phone, the log would be able to tell that a message had been deleted, but the actual content of those messages would likely not appear.”

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As Hamilton’s testimony came to a close, Investigator Zach Crawford was called back to the witness stand, serving as the final witness of the day.

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General Wamp recalled him, and he was sworn in for a second time.

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She started by addressing a point the defense had raised earlier, asking Crawford to explain why his own palm and fingerprints were found on the hood of Jason Chen’s car.

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Crawford admitted that during the search of Jason Chen’s parents’ house, he accidentally touched the vehicle, explaining that the tight space around the car, packed with his family’s belongings, made it difficult to avoid and he accidentally fell forward, bracing himself on the hood.

He was careful to mention that this was the first time his fingerprints had ever shown up on a TBI report.

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Confronting the Defense Theory

Before shifting gears, General Wamp made sure to tackle one more defense theory head-on—the suggestion that the screenshot of the location pin Jasmine sent to her mom was somehow fake.

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General Wamp:
“You were the investigator in November 2022 who was investigating this case, is that correct?”

 

Crawford:
“In November 27, I was brought to the investigation in 2020.”

 

General Wamp:
“Were you present when Katrina Bean scrolled up in her text messages to show you that location drop?”

 

Crawford:
“Yes, I was personally present. When she told me about the location drop, I personally requested that we observe those. I actually requested a crimes investigator come out and document those issues.”

 

General Wamp:
“And was that done?”

 

Crawford:
“Yes.”

 

General Wamp:
“And what time was the location shared from Jasmine’s phone?”

 

Crawford:
“On her phone, I actually had her name saved as ‘Jazzy’ with the pictures. I verified. I looked at the contact itself, had her click on it, and observed it to be the phone number that we know to be the victim’s. Subsequently, I looked at the content of the text message group, at which point I observed a pin drop location that was shared on November 23, 2022 at 2:18 AM.”

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Shifting Focus - Text Messages Between Jason and Jasmine

Next, General Wamp shifts her focus, turning the jury’s attention to text messages between Jason Chen and Jasmine Pace.

Investigator Crawford walks us through their text message history, explaining how their conversation started briefly in November of 2021, then dropped off completely until April of 2022.

And here’s something interesting: When their messages resumed in April of 2022, Jason actually reminded Jasmine that they had originally matched on Bumble the year before, not Tinder.

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Contradiction to the Defense’s Claim

This was another direct contradiction from what the defense claimed in their opening statement, that the two of them had met on Tinder.

From there, Crawford explains their messages show no arguments or signs of conflict, just casual conversations.

As they started seeing each other more regularly, Jason frequently asked Jasmine to come over, and their relationship seemed to progress naturally.

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Trip to Chicago

By late October of 2022, Jason had even invited Jasmine to go to Chicago with him, a trip they eventually took together.

As Wamp and Crawford take the jury through these text messages, we begin to see how their relationship evolved from casual conversation to planning trips together.

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November 1, 2022 - Chilling Text Message

On November 1, 2022, Jason liked a text that Jasmine sent him around 11:00 AM.

Here’s Jasmine’s actual message, read in an AI-generated voice:

Jasmine:
“Oh, and you should go on the Sutt Creek drive before all the leaves are really dropped.”

This was one of the most chilling moments of the trial for me.

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I've mentioned this text message before in an earlier episode. Jasmine either spelled the street name wrong, or maybe it was autocorrected. But the typo didn't matter.

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What mattered now was Jason’s reaction to it, because only 22 days later, Jason wouldn’t just take that drive on Suck Creek Road. He would leave Jasmine there.

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The Chicago Trip

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. Let’s back up to that trip to Chicago late in October.

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Here’s a bit of the text conversation leading up to that trip:

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Jason:
“How’s the Chicago update look like?”

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Jasmine:
“Let you know by noon. Plus, I said I would get it to you by Monday before you were going to your parents for the next couple of days. I don't want to bother you while you're out there. Yes, my answer is yes. I got it worked out and my office covered while I'm gone. Mark me as coming with you and excited.”

They took this trip to Chicago together, even stopping to visit an uncle of Jasmine’s that she had never met.

By mid-November, their conversations continued with casual back-and-forth texting. There were gaps of time where they didn’t talk for a few days, but nothing unusual.

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November 18, 2022 - Suggestive Message

On November 18, Jason sends Jasmine a more suggestive message:

Jason:
“I’m heading home now if you want to come over for some fun, shower time and cuddles for a bit.”

Jasmine:
“Oh. Nice, just cuddles, maybe shower time. I really haven’t been feeling too well.”

Jason:
“Okay, I’ll babysit you for a bit.”

Jasmine reacted with a laugh to that last text from Jason, and by 7:18 PM that night, she had arrived at his apartment.

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November 20, 2022 - Planning Their Next Date

On November 20, Jason sends a text to Jasmine about how she inspired him to get donuts that morning.

They exchange casual dialogue, then Jason asks her:

Jason:
“What are you doing this Wednesday, by the way?”

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General Wamp Establishes the Timeline

At this point, General Wamp pauses and turns to Investigator Crawford. She asks him a simple but deliberate question:

General Wamp:
“Would you agree that November 20, 2022 is just two days before November 22, 2022?”

Crawford:
“Yes.”

General Wamp:
“And what day of the week was November 22, 2022?”

Crawford:
“Tuesday.”

General Wamp:
“And that would mean November 23 was a Wednesday?”

Crawford:
“Yes.”

Timeline locked in, General Wamp returns to the text messages.

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Final Text Messages

Jason:
“What are you doing this Wednesday? By the way, let’s get a light workout in, and then go for dinner and drinks.”

Jasmine:
“Okay, that sounds nice, like a real date.”

Jason:
“Perfect. Anyways, I have to go to the lab to finish some work. Looking forward to Wednesday.”

Jasmine: (Reacted with a heart emoji)
“Have a good lab. Get your homework done. Looking forward to Wednesday.”

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Jasmine reacted with a heart emoji to Jason’s last text, then replied with a message telling him to have a good lab, to get his homework done, and that she was looking forward to Wednesday.

These final texts show no sign of fear, hesitation, or suspicion. Jasmine was engaged in the conversation. Her words were casual, natural, and warm.

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The defense had tried to suggest a power imbalance, implying that one of them was more invested in the relationship than the other. But Investigator Crawford confirms there’s nothing in these texts to suggest that was true.

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Their messages remained even in their exchange, and their back-and-forth tone was affectionate without coming across obsessive.

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And yet, just two days later, all of this would change.

Hearing investigators walk through Jason and Jasmine’s messages today hit hard. Jasmine wasn’t upset. She wasn’t angry. She was just living her life, making plans, sending heart emojis, and looking forward to Wednesday.

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And then she was gone.

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It’s haunting to think about. These weren’t the messages of someone who was afraid or planning an escape.

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She wasn’t breaking up with Jason. She wasn’t even pulling away from him.

Jasmine had no idea what Wednesday held in store for her.
She had no idea that on Tuesday, she would lose her beloved grandmother.
And she definitely had no idea that just hours after that, her own life would be taken from her.

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Next Time on Sequestered

The State rests its case.

After everything we've seen—the fingerprints, the timeline, the chilling digital evidence—one question remains:

What will Jason Chen’s defense have to say?

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“There was a scream that startled me. Ultimately, I checked my phone to see the time because I was going to call them. One was around 2 AM. There was a voice that was screaming words, the words I couldn’t understand fully.”

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You don't want to miss Episode Seven. It's about to get complicated.

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Thank you for listening to Sequestered: A Juror’s Perspective on the Murder Trial for Jasmine Pace.

Each episode brings us closer to understanding the trial, the people involved, and the weight of seeking justice.

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If this story speaks to you, please follow, share, and continue the conversation with us. Jasmine’s story deserves to be remembered.

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This is a BP Production.
The show is written, edited, and produced by Sara Reid, with co-production by Andrea Kleid.
News clips featured in this episode were sourced from WTBC News Channel Nine, Local Three News Chattanooga, and the Law and Crime Network.

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Music and sound design are curated to reflect the gravity and sensitivity of this story, with the intent to honor Jasmine, her family, and the community affected by her death.

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For more information or to connect with us, visit SequesteredPod.com or follow us on Instagram at @SequesteredPod.

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Thank You For Listening

Until next time, stay curious and stay safe.