Transcript
Sarah Reed (0:02)
Hey, it's Sarah. Juror number 11 from the sequestered podcast. Here's exciting news. Dateline NBC has just released a new episode titled the pin at apartment 210. In this episode, DATELINE correspondent Blaine Alexander explores the investigation, the trial, and the key moments that define the search for justice in the murder of Jasmine Pace. If you've been listening to Sequestered, you know how personal this case became for me. I had the opportunity to briefly share about my experience as a juror in this episode, and I feel incredibly honored to be a part of something that helps amplify Jasmine's story on a national level. This episode isn't about the trial or the jurors. It's about Jasmine. Her voice, her family, and the lasting impact of what happened. Now streaming on Peacock. You can watch this episode of Dateline tonight or anytime you want, so check it out and help us continue to honor Jasmine Pace's memory. Go to peacocktv.com to start your free trial. Before we begin, please be advised that this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence as presented during the trial. Please take care while listening. It's Friday, January 17, 2025, day five of the trial. If you've been following along, you know that day four of the trial was brutal. We saw the autopsy photos, heard the forensic details, and imagined the unthinkable as Medical Examiner Dr. Steven Cogswell walked us through the condition of Jasmine's body inside that suitcase. I didn't have time to process it in the moment, and I didn't want to think about it after we left the courthouse, alone in my silent hotel room. But when my eyes finally closed that night, I couldn't think about anything else. During Dr. Cogswell's testimony, when the pictures of Jasmine's body were shown, I made an intentional decision not to look at the features on her face, instead focusing only on her wounds. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it was out of respect. Maybe it was my way of staying somewhat detached so that I could do my job. I know everyone who sat through the testimony yesterday left the courtroom heavy, not just by what happened to Jasmine, but with the realization of how intentional it all was. Today's details won't focus on the violence that occurred inside of Jason Chen's apartment. It's about the trail he left behind. The fingerprints, the cell phone pings, the digital breadcrumbs that tracked his every move, each piece coming together like literal coordinates on a map showing us not just what happened, but how. Because evidence tells its own story. And today, the evidence leading us is. This is Sequestered A juror's perspective on the murder trial. For Jasmine Pace, I'm Sarah, juror number 11. Each episode, I'll take you inside the courtroom, behind the scenes, and into the weighty moments of this trial as we honor Jasmine's life and navigate the complexities of seeking justice. Let's begin. This is episode six. The evidence tells the story. Before we get into today's testimony, I wanted to explain why I keep calling the district attorneys general. If you're not from Tennessee, it probably sounds a little strange, but here's the deal. In Tennessee, state prosecutors are officially titled District Attorney General. That's why you'll hear me say General Womp or General Moyle throughout the podcast. It's a tradition that dates back to the earliest days of Tennessee's legal system, meant to emphasize that these attorneys represent the entire state, not just a local district, in criminal cases. So next time you hear me say general, think of it as shorthand for that full title District Attorney General. All right, let's head back to the courtroom. Judge Patterson opens the morning the way he always does, reminding the jury of our responsibility. No outside research, no talking about the case, no news or social media. By now, this ritual feels familiar, almost automatic. We all nod in agreement. He then lays out our weekend schedule. It was the Friday before, a holiday weekend, but no one would get that holiday weekend. Instead, court will be in session the following day, even though it's Saturday. And after a quick vote in the jury room earlier that morning, we all agreed to take Sunday off, but will return to work on Monday despite it being a national holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Another round of nods from the jury box are acknowledged. And with that, day five of the trial was underway. The state calls their first witness of the day, Jennifer Moody, a fingerprint technician with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. Her testimony is quick and straightforward. She explains to the jury how fingerprints are collected, stored, and compared. It's not flashy, but it's foundational, setting up the state's next witness with finesse. Every smudge and swirl could be a clue, and Moody's job is to make sure those clues get documented the right way. Next on the stand was Lieutenant David Franklin of the Chattanooga Police Department. With years of experience in fingerprint analysis and comparisons, Franklin had built a reputation as a go to expert in this field. From Franklin, we learned that fingerprints aren't just random smudges left behind on surfaces made up of ridges, tiny raised lines on the surface of our skin, and Those ridges form distinct patterns known as loops, arches, and whorls, unique ridge patterns that form while we're still in utero before we ever touch the world around us. Loops are the most common, curving back on themselves like a river bending around a rock. Arches are more rare, simple wave like patterns that rise and fall across the fingertips. Whorls are the most intricate, spiraling, circular designs, almost like tiny thumbprint hurricanes. We all know that no two fingerprints are exactly alike, not even for identical twins. And once those ridges form in utero, they stay with us for life. We also got a primer on how investigators lift prints from evidence. Sometimes they use magnetic powders, which are fine particles that cling to the natural oils left behind by our feet fingers. Other times, they rely on a chemical process called cyanoacrylate fuming, essentially using superglue vapor to coat invisible prints, making them easier to see and photograph. It's super sciency and a little bit of CSI magic that turns a fingerprint into evidence. And today, that evidence was about to tell us a story. Crime scene Investigators submitted four separate fingerprint impressions to Lt. Franklin's unit. The first print was found on the exterior of the front passenger door of Jasmine's Chevy Equinox. At the time, I remember thinking, this could be a twist. Who did that print belong to? Someone unexpected. Someone connected to Jason. Turns out the print matched a set of known impressions already in the system, belonging to a man named Jim Cooper. We would later learn that Jim Cooper was not only a locksmith, but also a friend of the Pace family. He's actually the one who helped tow jasmine's car from 900 Mountain Creek Road, the spot where her family eventually found it, back to their home on the early hours of November 27. The other three prints submitted, two of them, along with a palm print, belong to investigator Crawford. There's a reason for that, and we'll come back to it later. But the most chilling discovery is the final fingerprint. It was found on the outside of the outermost garbage bag, the third and final bag that held Jasmine's body. And that print belonged to Jason Chen. If you've been following the podcast, we've got something new for you. Now you can dive even deeper into each episode on our website, SequesteredPod.com we've added exclusive blogs for every episode, packed with extra details, behind the scenes insights, and key moments from the trial. Plus, we've organized all the trial and news coverage by each day of the trial so you can follow along just like we did in the jury room. Head over to SequesteredPod.com now to explore the case in a whole new way.