In what is the most gruesome example of domestic violence allegations against any current or former NFL player this offseason, Darron Lee now faces a first-degree murder charge after being indicted by a grand jury in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Lee, a 2016 first-round pick of the New York Jets who also played for the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, was indicted Wednesday in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Gabriela Carvalho Perpétuo.
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Former New York Jets linebacker Darron Lee was arrested by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office on February 6, 2025 and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. (Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com/Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office)
Lee will be tried in Hamilton County Criminal Court in what could be a capital case. Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp has stated that the case qualifies for the death penalty, but that a final decision will be made as the case progresses.
Wamp told Chattanooga’s News 9 that prosecutors dismissed a separate charge of tampering with evidence against Lee.
“We will focus solely on Gabriella’s murder,” Wamp said.
This case is tragic and also strange because Lee allegedly consulted ChatGPT after Perpétuo’s death to supposedly stage the scene to make it look like she had died after a fall in the shower.
Lee allegedly asked the AI chatbot about injuries that would be consistent with someone falling in the shower.
Darron Lee of the Kansas City Chiefs leaves the field before a game against the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, on Nov. 10, 2019. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
At Lee’s bail hearing in February, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brian Lockhart, one of the first investigators to arrive at the scene, described a violent crime scene.
Lockhart testified that there was blood on the stairs, banisters, walls, floors and in almost every room of the house. The detective added that the glass in the microwave was broken, there was more glass scattered throughout the house and there were bottles of alcohol everywhere.
Detectives also found cleaning supplies upstairs, including bleach wipes and a spray bottle, all presumably intended for mopping up the scene.
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Lockhart confirmed that Lee was the one who called police to the scene. Lee told 911 operators that he found Perpétuo unresponsive and suggested he may have fallen in the shower.
But an autopsy suggested something different.
It showed Perpétuo suffered multiple severe brain trauma, a broken neck, bruising all over his body, a bite mark on his shoulder, a bite mark on his thigh, stab wounds to his legs, and facial bruises and cuts. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma.
Darron Lee of the New York Jets runs the ball in the third quarter against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on September 10, 2018. (Rey Del Río/Getty Images)
This was not the first incident of violence Lee was involved in that required law enforcement.
He was involved in a 2023 incident in Ohio (he played collegiately at Ohio State) where records show Lee pushed a woman and punched her in the face multiple times. He was on probation for that case at the time of his bond hearing in Tennessee.
A Tennessee Department of Corrections and Probation officer testified during that bond hearing that Lee was also on probation for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon conviction in Florida. The officer added that Lee had moved to Tennessee without approval and was violating his terms of supervision.
Lee, who has not played in the NFL since the end of the 2020 season, was denied bail and remains in custody, a circumstance that the official murder charge obviously will not change.
The NFL has seen a number of domestic abuse incidents this offseason, with a minimum of nine current or former players arrested, sued, prosecuted or simply allegedly involved. The NFL has declined to comment on the matter.
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A date has not yet been scheduled for Lee’s first-degree murder arraignment in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
Lee played three years with the Jets, one with the Chiefs and another with the Bills. He last played in 2020.
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