Dateline: True Crime Weekly
A verdict in Chattanooga. A widow accused of murder. And how to avoid natural disaster scammers.
Thu, 23 Jan 2025
In Tennessee, a jury worked over the long weekend and arrived at a verdict in the murder trial of Jason Chen. Eight years ago, in an upscale neighborhood in Los Angeles, celebrity hair stylist Fabio Sementilli was stabbed to death. This week, the trial finally begins for one of the suspects in the case: his wife, Monica. And Karen Read is making headlines again. Plus, how to avoid scammers trying to take advantage of natural disasters. Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com
Chapter 1: What verdict was reached in the Jason Chen trial?
Did she accept any of those symptoms?
No, she said she was going to let him sleep it off. And a contractor working for the couple recalled speaking to Michael a few months before his death and that Michael told him he was feeling dizzy and that he felt he'd been poisoned.
On Friday, an FBI chemist testified about the evidence central to the prosecution's case against Natalie. The vial of insulin recovered from the Cochran's home. What did he tell the jury?
This chemist confirmed that one of the vials was, in fact, insulin. But during cross, when he was asked if he could confirm whether he knew the vial had been used, this chemist said that was not in his area of expertise. The defense argued that if you're going to murder someone, why would you keep the murder weapon in your fridge, right? Well, we'll keep an eye on this one.
Up next, we're headed to a Las Vegas courtroom with an update in the murder case against hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur's alleged killer. His name is Dwayne Keefy D. Davis. Remind us about the murder itself, Sue. It certainly has been a very long time.
It has been a long time. 1996, to be exact, and that's when Shakur was... fatally shot. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a BMW when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside the car and shots were fired.
So his murder has been unsolved, fueling conspiracy theories until, of course, an arrest was made in 2023. Dwayne Davis, he was charged with the murder. How does law enforcement say he was connected to the crime?
It was really his own words, authorities say, that put him there. He wrote six years ago in his 2019 memoir that he provided the gun that was used in the drive-by shooting.
So they feel that he incriminated himself with those words. Davis's team filed a motion in the beginning of January seeking dismissal of the charges against him.
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Chapter 2: What were the details of the murder of Jasmine Pace?
No, do not give it.
This is on you to reach out to the government, not for someone to call and solicit that information from you, right? Also, if someone comes to you, maybe you're going through the belongings you have at your home and they show up, you want to ask, what is your government ID? A FEMA jacket, that's not enough. You can buy that online and put that on. They should have a registration number as well.
If you've already set up your account, you're going through the process, they should be able to verify information to you, not vice versa. If you are applying for aid through FEMA, you don't have to pay anything. It is free. You do not have to pay an application fee at all. If someone's trying to charge you, that is a scam. Same for any sort of inspection from FEMA. That is free.
There will be a lot of rebuilding in the coming weeks and months and, of course, years.
What I want people to know is contractors will be out. People will be soliciting business. But what you want to do is make sure you get their name, their phone number, their license number. And you can look up whether or not they are a licensed contractor in the area where you're rebuilding because taking the time to do that research will save you so much heartache later on.
The best defense is listening to Vicki because these tips are so, so good. Vicki, thank you for everything you're doing to help people.
We're so grateful for the opportunity to talk about this. So I want people to be empowered with this information and 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.
Such good work on this, Vicki. Thank you.
Thank you.
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Chapter 8: How can you avoid becoming a victim of disaster-related scams?
So on her phone, glued to her – we haven't seen this video yet, so we're waiting to see it in trial – but 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. Right. What do they believe was her motive?
Yeah, you know, we haven't gotten a firm answer on this, but based on what we've been able to put together over these last several years and attending court hearings and listening to prosecutors, Fabio had a sizable life insurance policy, $1.6 million, and they allege that Monica and Baker had plans to be together to take this money and to pursue their relationship together.
In July 2023, Baker ended up pleading no contest to the murder charges.
Yeah, so that plea really took a lot of us by surprise. He decided to do this on his own free will for whatever reasons he decided to do it. No contest is basically a defendant is accepting the conviction without admitting guilt, but saying, okay, I'm prepared to take responsibility for this and accepting the sentence. Okay.
Most of the time with these cases, you know, it's kind of like who's first when there's a couple of people involved and who's going to flip on the other, you know, to get a better deal. Did we see that in this case? Did Baker flip on Monica?
No. Baker, according to court documents, Baker maintains that he was responsible for this, that Monica had no knowledge about this, and that she wasn't involved in any way.
So you mentioned, Shetna, that there were on the video the two men in hoodies. What happened to this other man if Monica's at Target and you've got two guys on the video?
Yeah. So this third suspect for years and years and years. I mean, we waited and it was almost like a forgotten person because the cases were moving forward with Monica and Baker and no real mention of this third suspect. up until October of 2024, and they arrest a man named Christopher Austin. He cooperates with police from everything that we've been able to tell.
And just this past Friday, he ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder. And we've been told that he is going to testify for the state at the trial. And what we expect is that he's going to say that Monica was aware of what was going on as well, was aware of this plan. It'll be interesting to see.
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