Chen messaged women on Tinder hours after allegedly killing Pace, trial reveals
A series of decoded Tinder messages from Jason Chen’s phone being shown to jurors on day five of his murder trial on Friday.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Friday was day five of the Jason Chen murder trial.
Chen is charged with first degree murder in the November 2022 death of Jasmine Pace.
There were two primary focuses of the testimony throughout the day on Friday.
One was evidence collected from Jason Chen’s finger prints.
Lt. David Franklin of the Chattanooga Police Department testified that fingerprints he analyzed on the garbage bags that Jasmine Pace was found contained inside of a suitcase on Suck Creek Road, matched Chen.
Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp asked Lt. Franklin, “And with those 20 ridges, you were able to look at and then match up a certain person’s fingerprints.”
He confirmed, “That’s correct.”
She responded, “And those were the fingerprints of Jason Chen?”
He confirmed, “That’s correct.”
The other major talking point of the day was Chen and Pace’s cell phone records, which forensic technician Mark Hamilton said painted a clear picture of Chen’s actions following the death of Pace.
Pace traveled to Chen’s Northshore apartment shortly before midnight on November 23, 2022.
She then sent a pindrop to her mother around 2:15 AM, the last known message she sent.
Starting roughly 8 hours later, records show Chen traveling around the city with both his and her phones.
During this, Hamilton says Chen stopped at multiple stores to buy cleaning supplies and visited Suck Creek Road three separate times.
Around 4 the afternoon after Pace was killed, Chen sent a message from his phone to her’s.
Wamp asked, “Are you aware of any activity that you found on both of their cellular records around this time (4:03 PM on November 23, 2022)?”
Hamilton confirmed, “Yes there was a text message sent around here.”
Wamp asked, “And who was that text message from and who was it to?”
Hamilton said, “It was from Jason Chen to Jasmine Pace.”
Wamp further asked, “Mr. Chen texted Jasmine, “Hey, are we still good for dinner tonight?””
Hamilton said, “That’s correct.”
That was far from the only message he was sending though.
Further cell phone records showed Chen messaging a group chat numerous times on November 24, 2022, the day after Pace died.
The purpose of these conversations were to set up playing video games with some friends.
Hamilton additionally showed that Chen was sending numerous messages via the dating app Tinder, just hours after the suspected death of Pace.
Wamp asked, “And do you see here at 9:52, does Jason send a message here on Tinder?”
Hamilton pointed out a specific message to one woman and responded, “He does. He says, “I guess we’re dating now?””
There were messages exchanged between Chen and at least four different women between Pace’s death and Chen’s arrest a week later.
Lead investigator Zackary Crawford also went a whole series of text messages between Chen and Pace, showing weeks of ongoing conversation leading up to Chen inviting Pace over to his apartment on the day that his defense attorney admitted during his opening statement that he killed her.
This trial will continue into the weekend on Saturday.
The Nashville based jury said they only want to take Sunday off.
