Jason Chen was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole Tuesday for the murder of Jasmine Pace. Chen’s punishment was handed down following tearful testimony from both families.
A jury found Chen, 24, guilty of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. The panel deliberated less an hour Monday before delivering its verdict.
Chen repeatedly stabbed his girlfriend, Pace, 22, in his Tremont Street apartment on Nov. 23, 2022. He then disposed of her body in the Tennessee River.
Her family was unable to have an open casket funeral because her body was so decomposed, her sister, Gabby Pace, said.
“I will never forget standing there at my sister’s casket and seeing how much wax they had to put on her face and how much mascara was smudged all underneath her eyes and how her hair was stiff from the wax,” Gabby Pace said. “I held my sister’s hand one last time, not even knowing that it was the hand that he stabbed through.”
Jurors unanimously reached the decision that Pace’s murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel and involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death.
Pace’s family quickly cheered as it was announced.
(READ MORE: ‘He panicked’: Defense argues Jason Chen’s actions were not premeditated)
Her cousin, Jacqueline White, dropped 60 stones one by one Tuesday, each vibrating out a chime that represented a stab wound as it hit the bottom of a glass jar.
“I hate that I even have to say this, but if he was going to kill her like he did, he could have done it in other ways,” Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp argued.
Chen could have shot her or stabbed her once or twice, but he chose to repeatedly slice Pace the amount of stones dropped in that glass vase, Wamp said.
“That is vile,” she said. “The entire case is vile.”
White called Chen a “subhuman villain” and “sadistic animal,” who made “wicked, demonic choices.”
“If I were cold, I would be sure to tell you that while you were trying your best to look down and not get excited by the photos of my dead cousin, your mother was hyperventilating alone in a corner outside,” White said to Chen. “If I were spiteful, I would remind you that your last victim, Jason, is your own family.”
Pace was beautiful on the inside and the outside, White said. She maintained a childlike innocence despite facing many hardships from the rejection of her biological father to multiple deaths during her short life. Pace’s grandmother died hours before she was murdered.
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Joshua Weiss, Chen’s attorney, argued the manner in which society treats those accused of crimes is a reflection of humanity as a whole.
Chen should have been granted the hope of remorse, redemption and rehabilitation through the possibility of parole, according to Weiss.
There are two families hurt and destroyed – Pace’s and Chen’s, Weiss said.
Translators interpreted the testimony of Chen’s mother and father for the jury. His mother, Shu Fang Chen, fought through sobs to speak.
“Was he a violent child?” Weiss asked.
Shu Fang Chen said her son never fought in school and was a very good child who came from a law-abiding family.
“He knows right from wrong,” Shu Fang Chen said through the translator. “I told him that mom doesn’t know English and cannot help you with many things.”
Chen had the opportunity to speak to the jury himself but chose to say nothing.
THE TRIAL
Pace and Chen had been dating on and off after meeting on the app Bumble toward the end of 2021, according to text messages shown in court.
They would regularly text and went on a trip to Chicago together in October 2022.
Chen was a senior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and lived alone in his Tremont Street apartment at the time.
Pace lived with her family and worked for the family business, so her mother, Catrina Bean, saw her everyday until Nov. 22, 2022, Bean testified.
That day, Pace left around 11 p.m. to go out and never came back.
Text messages showed the couple had plans to work out, get dinner and have drinks the following day.
Although the exact time is unknown, Pace was murdered by Chen in his apartment sometime around 2:20 a.m.
A downstairs neighbor, Courtney Brewer, testified to hearing a scream that startled her out of sleep at 2:11 a.m. A text message with Pace’s coordinates was sent from her cell phone to her mother, Catrina Bean, at 2:18 a.m.
There were no witnesses to detail the events leading up to the stabbing, but Chen’s defense argued an intoxicated fight broke out between the pair because Chen was found to be communicating with other women on the dating app Tinder.
No alcohol was found in Pace’s blood, Hamilton County Medical Examiner Steven Cogswell testified, and she was not tested for THC.
Chen’s cell phone data showed he wasn’t messaging women on Tinder around the time Pace was killed, Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office Technical Investigator Mark Hamilton testified.
Pace was attacked with a type of butcher knife and stabbed repeatedly on and around her face from the scalp to the chin, autopsy photos showed.
The location of the knife wounds pointed to Pace likely being stabbed while in a fetal position, Cogswell said.
Hours later, Chen was buying cleaning supplies from a nearby Walgreens and Walmart, surveillance footage and receipts showed.
He cleaned up the scene, according to investigators.
Chen handcuffed and shackled Pace’s legs to her arms, wrapped her body in three black trash backs and stuffed her body in a hard-shell suitcase.
He dumped Pace’s body in the area of Suck Creek Road.
Surveillance footage played in court appeared to show Chen leaving his apartment with a suitcase around 6 p.m. Nov. 23, 2022. His cell phone data also put him in the area of Suck Creek Road at least two times that day.
(READ MORE: Fingerprint examiner found Jason Chen’s impressions on trash bag wrapped around body)
All the while, her family was beginning to become concerned about her whereabouts, according to their testimony.
They pursued multiple avenues to find Pace, including using the myChevrolet app to track her car to a Mountain Creek Road apartment complex on Nov. 26, 2022, Bean said, adding her family contacted Chattanooga police in addition to reviewing security footage, which showed her car being dropped off by an unknown driver.
Bean and other family members tracked Pace’s last known location to Chen’s apartment.
They broke in and found her identification and credit cards inside during their search, Bean said.
Bean would go inside Chen’s apartment at least three or four other times.
After Chattanooga police were contacted twice in connection with Pace’s disappearance, the department took over the reins of the investigation, according to statements made by several witnesses.
“Initially, the Chattanooga Police Department was of no help,” Wamp said during opening statements.
Police executed a search warrant at Chen’s apartment, and Pace’s blood was found in every room.
Chattanooga homicide investigator Zack Crawford and crime scene investigator Michele Johnson both noted in their testimony it was likely the largest amount of blood they’d seen during their career.
Chen was later located at his family home in Nolensville, about 20 miles northwest of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Nine days after Pace was last scene, police found her remains on Dec. 1, 2022, along a riverbank off Suck Creek Road.
Contact Sofia Saric at ssaric@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.
Staff photo by Abby White / Jason Chen’s mother, Shu Fang Chen looks at her son in tears as she gives an emotional testimony. Jason Chen was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.