Sara Reid and 15 strangers were whisked away last month from their daily routines in Davidson County and tasked with the eye-opening experience of being fact-finders in the high-profile Jason Chen trial, Reid said by phone.
Reid, Juror No. 11, said she intends to bring her unique, firsthand perspective to a murder that garnered national attention in her upcoming true crime podcast, “Sequestered: A Juror’s Perspective on the Murder Trial for Jasmine Pace.”
Chen was dating Pace in November 2022 while he was a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He stabbed Pace 60 times inside his apartment, stuffed her inside a suitcase and disposed of her body in the Tennessee River.
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Twelve jurors, including Reid, found him guilty Jan. 20 of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in Hamilton County. The following day, they sentenced Chen to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Reid intentionally named it “the murder trial for Jasmine Pace” based on District Attorney Coty Wamp’s impactful closing argument, she said.
At the time, Wamp asked jurors not to minimize Pace’s meaningful life to a case and trial for Chen.
“I hope it honors her family and her, of course,” Reid said. “The undertone and the overtone is to really try and honor Jasmine and her story and her life.”
(READ MORE: Detective describes blood-filled crime scene as Jason Chen trial continues)
Wamp said she was honored that not only jurors, but onlookers all across the community have acknowledged this trial as one for Jasmine Pace.
“My office will continue to emphasize the importance of the innocent, and not the guilty,” Wamp said by email.
While Reid’s podcast will provide an overview of the trial, it will also cover all of the ethical responsibilities of being a sequestered juror and the emotional cost of being enveloped in a brutal murder case, she said.
Not many people get called for jury duty, and it’s not usually for a murder trial when they do, Reid said.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Judge Boyd Patterson looks on Jan. 20, 2025, as District Attorney Coty Wamp delivers the prosecution’s closing argument in the Jason Chen trial at the courts building in Chattanooga. One juror, Sara Reid, is expected to begin releasing a podcast about the trial experience Feb. 10, 2025.Reid said she is a “total true crime fan.”
“We’ve got ‘Dateline’ on all the time,” she said. “It’s pretty normal in our house.”
But she hadn’t heard of Chen’s case prior to responding Jan. 8 to jury service along with more than a hundred other residents of Davidson County, which is part of a combined metro government with Nashville.
Reid said some of the potential jurors got hit with pretty personal questions: How do you feel about murder? Do you like police? Have you been arrested? Have you ever been in an abusive relationship?
“As time got closer and my name got called, it became much more real,” she said.
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Days later, Reid left her life behind to travel to Chattanooga, she said.
A group of total strangers were forced to get to know one another without any technology. A deputy was knocking at their hotel door every day at 6 a.m. to wake them because there wasn’t an alarm clock in their room, she said.
They are bonded by this experience, she said.
“It’s an interesting social experiment,” Reid said.
Chen’s defense attorney confirmed on the first day of trial that Chen killed Pace and abused her corpse, Reid said.
Attorney Joshua Weiss did not respond to two emails requesting comment.
Jurors deliberated for less than an hour after the evidence was presented and arguments were made.
“When we got in that room, it was solemn, but I would say there wasn’t a ton to talk about,” she said.
They ultimately decided on a sentence of life without parole because it wouldn’t have been an even exchange for Chen to have the option to come back to society when Pace cannot, Reid said.
“Jasmine’s family doesn’t get that for Jasmine,” she said. “They don’t get 51 years and then the option to see her again.”
Each episode will walk listeners through a day of Chen’s trial from jury duty to sentencing. Reid expects to begin releasing the 10-part series Monday.
If given the choice, Reid said she would perform jury duty again.
Sequestered jury service takes civic duty to the next level, and it’s representative of how seriously the United States takes fairness in criminal justice, Wamp said.
“There is never a ‘good’ outcome in murder case,” Wamp said. “In this case, absolute evil took Jasmine Pace from her family. Their lives will never be the same. Another family will only ever see their son in a jumpsuit at the Tennessee Department of Corrections. There is no ‘winning.’ But luckily, there is justice, and justice is always a victory.”
Contact Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.
Staff photo by Abby White / Defense attorney Joshua Weiss speaks with Jason Chen’s family on Jan. 21, 2025.