Sarah Koenig

Don't spoil it.

In the first taped interview, the detectives asked Jay, why would Adnan turn to someone he didn't even know all that well to help him with this murder?

I'm the criminal element of Woodlawn, he says.

In her closing argument at trial, prosecutor Casey Murphy posed this why him question to the jury about Jay.

Think about it, she said.

Do you really believe that the defendant, meaning Adan, could go to one of his upstanding magnet school honor student friends or a friend from the mosque to assist him with this act?

Of course not.

He needed someone who behaved a little more dangerously than those people.

He needed someone who took risks.

The defendant hopes that you will look at Jay and say, I don't believe him.

That is why the defendant chose Jay, because if something went wrong, the defendant could point the finger at Jay.

This idea, this is what Jay is more or less trying to communicate to the cops.

But they ask him, if you're actually not the type of guy who knows where to bury a body, then why did you help?

Why didn't you go to the police instead?

Okay, they say.

So if you didn't want to go to the police yourself, how about making an anonymous call then?

You could have done it right after he shows you the body, as you're leaving the Best Buy parking lot.

He says, I just feel bad about it.

That's all I got to say.

The cops have a struggle with Jay.