In what constitutes the most horrific example of domestic violence allegations against a current or former NFL player this offseason, Darron Lee now faces a first-degree murder charge after being formally indicted by a grand jury in Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Lee, a first-round draft pick of the New York Jets in 2016 who also played for the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, was charged 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 death penalty case. Hamilton County Prosecutor Coty Wamp said the case carries a possible death penalty, but a final decision on whether to seek that penalty will be made as the case progresses.
Wamp told Chattanooga’s News 9 that prosecutors dismissed a separate evidence tampering charge against Lee.
“We will just focus on killing Gabriella,” Wamp said.
This case is tragic and also bizarre in that Lee allegedly consulted ChatGPT after Perpétuo’s death to allegedly stage the scene as if she had died after a fall in the shower.
Lee reportedly asked the AI chatbot about injuries that could be consistent with a fall 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 November 10, 2019. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
At Lee’s bond hearing in February, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brian Lockhart, one of the first investigators on 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 microwave glass was broken, other glass was scattered throughout the house and alcohol bottles were everywhere.
Detectives also found cleaning supplies upstairs, including bleach wipes and a spray bottle – all presumably intended for cleaning the premises.
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Lockhart confirmed it was Lee who called police to the scene. Lee told 911 dispatchers that he noticed Perpétuo was unresponsive and suggested she may have fallen in the shower.
But the autopsy suggested something different.
It showed that Perpétuo suffered multiple severe traumatic brain injuries, a broken neck, bruising all over his body, a bite mark on his shoulder, a bite mark on his thigh, stab wounds on his legs, and bruises and cuts on his face. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma.
Darron Lee of the New York Jets passes the ball in the third quarter against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on September 10, 2018. (Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
This was not the first violent incident Lee was involved in that required law enforcement.
He was involved in a 2023 incident at 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.
An agent with the Tennessee Department of Corrections and Parole testified at that bond hearing that Lee was also on probation for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon conviction in Florida. The officer added that Lee moved to Tennessee without approval and violated his conditions 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 in which the official murder charge obviously won’t change.
The NFL has seen a series of domestic violence incidents this offseason, with at least nine current or former players arrested, prosecuted, tried or simply suspected of being involved. The NFL declined to comment on the matter.
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No arraignment date for Lee’s first-degree murder charge has yet been set in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
Lee played three years with the Jets, one with the Chiefs and one with the Bills. He last played in 2020.
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