Defense attorney Joshua Weiss told jurors he wasn’t going to waste their time, telling them straight out, his client Jason Chen killed his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jasmine Pace.
Chen, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. He faced his first day of trial Monday in front of Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson.
A heated and intoxicated fight broke out Nov. 23, 2022, between the couple after Chen was found to be messaging other women on dating apps, Weiss argued.
Pace tried to attack Chen with an empty wine bottle, Weiss said. Then they chased each other around Chen’s apartment until Chen grabbed a knife and “blacked out,” Weiss argued.
When Chen came to, he was sickened by what he had done, Weiss said, adding that his client then did a poor job cleaning up the crime scene in an attempted cover-up.