A Chattanooga police sergeant found Jason Chen’s impressions on one of the garbage bags wrapped around Jasmine Pace’s body, and cell phone records placed him in the area her body was dumped on multiple occasions.
Prosecutors continued calling witnesses until 6:30 p.m. Friday, as the fifth day of Chen’s first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse trial unfolded in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
Chen, 24, allegedly fatally stabbed his girlfriend, Pace, on Nov. 23, 2022, inside his Tremont Street apartment.
He was a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga at the time.
In what his attorney, Joshua Weiss, previously called a “poor job” of a cleanup, Chen allegedly wrapped Pace in black trash bags, stuffed her in a hard-sided suitcase and disposed of her in the Tennessee River.