A verdict in Chattanooga. A widow accused of murder. And how to avoid natural disaster scammers.
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Good morning.
You're listening in to Dateline's morning meeting in 30 Rockefeller Center.
Good morning, Jim. You got a weather report?
Yes. Today it is cold. Our editorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country.
Probably will get really big. It's a crazy story. It's contrary to what he said in our interview.
He breaks down on the stand and they basically have to end his testimony because he is so upset.
Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's January 23rd, and here's what's on our docket. In California, eight years after a celebrity hairstylist was found stabbed to death on his patio, his widow is set to stand trial for allegedly masterminding his murder with her lover.
She's apparently glued to her phone watching her home security system when the intruders had broken into the home and were murdering her husband.
In Dateline Roundup, rap icon Tupac Shakur was gunned down 30 years ago. This week, his accused killer appeared in court. And an update on the trial of the West Virginia pharmacist accused of poisoning her husband.
The defense argued that if you're going to murder someone, why would you keep the murder weapon in your fridge, right?
Plus, NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent Vicky Nguyen is back. In the wake of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, Vicky has tips on how to avoid disaster-related scams wherever you live.
Just do a gut check, always pause, get a second opinion before you ever give out your personal information or pay a penny to anyone.
But before all that, we're heading to Chattanooga, where there have been some big developments in a story we've been watching closely on the podcast, the murder trial of Jason Chen. There were sobs and cheering in a Tennessee courtroom earlier this week when Jason Chen's 10-day trial for murdering his girlfriend, Jasmine Pace, came to a rapid conclusion.
Oh, the jury has the verdict. Are you receiving the verdict? Yes, sir. That's right. Yes, sir.
Are you in the jury?
Chen had been facing charges of first-degree premeditated murder for allegedly stabbing Jasmine 60 times in 2022, then packing her into a suitcase and leaving the suitcase next to a creek. His defense? That Jasmine had actually attacked him and that he'd killed her spontaneously before covering up her death out of shame. When we talked about this trial last week, the prosecution was making its case. The defense took over on the holiday weekend. Here to fill us in on what we missed is Dateline producer Mario Garcia and associate producer Jess Koenig. Hey, guys.
Hey, Andrea.
Hey, Andrea. Thanks for having us. All right, let's do a quick reminder of this case. It's the one where Jasmine's family took matters into their own hands.
They did indeed, Andrea. I mean, in court, we found out that they went into Jason Chen's, the accused department, at least three times. And then they called 911 after the first time. But they were desperate. And they, as Katrina, the mother, said on the stand, I would have done anything to try and find my daughter.
And according to the prosecution and the defense, their actions of going in there kind of lit a fire under the police. And then that led to a search warrant. And they found blood on the rug and floors, which was huge in this. The blood, in their words, all over the apartment, bedroom, bathroom. It was everywhere. So Jason Chen has admitted to killing Jasmine. His defense lawyer said as much in his opening statement.
Jason Chen is guilty. But he's not guilty of the crime that he's charged.
So really, at the heart of this is, was it premeditated or not? The medical examiner testified last week for the prosecution. Did the medical examiner's testimony support that it was premeditated?
The medical examiner went through very precisely and said, look, all 60 of the wounds were in a very focused, small area. And really, the only sense that it made was that she was already bound in that fetal position that she was found in.
Right. In the suitcase, she had handcuffs on that locked her wrist to her ankle. One of the key witnesses for the defense was a neighbor who overheard something.
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