Former New York Jets linebacker Darron Lee will remain held without bail while he faces charges of murdering his girlfriend, a Tennessee judge ruled on Wednesday.
Lee, 31, stands accused of killing Gabriella Perpetuo at a home the couple was renting in Ooltewah, Tenn., a far east suburb of Chattanooga.
“Mr. Lee was in a home with a female that was, for lack of a better term, beaten to death,” Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp said at Lee’s arraignment on Wednesday.
Wamp added that the explanation Lee gave police “doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”
Cops arrived to the home last Thursday to find Perpetuo suffering from multiple injuries, and the county coroner ruled her probable cause of death to be blunt force trauma.
Lee initially told investigators he found his girlfriend unconscious on the couch and believed that she fell in the shower. However, investigators said the scene didn’t match that claim.
Cops found Perpetuo had been stabbed in the abdomen and legs, had a large bruise on her head, a severe brain injury, a broken neck, black eyes and dried blood on her face and neck, prosecutors said in court.
“On the walls there was blood, on the floor in the living room there was blood, in the floor on the hallway and the stairs,” detective Brian Lockhart testified, according to local ABC affiliate WTVC. “There was blood in just about every room except one.”
According to an affidavit, detectives also identified blood that had been attempted to be cleaned up, as well as cleaning supplies near where testing confirmed blood stains despite no visible blood.
While arguing for Lee to remain held without bail, authorities also cited previous criminal cases against him. At the time of the killing, he was already on probation after cutting a plea deal in a domestic violence case in Ohio.
Lee has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with or fabricating evidence. He remains behind bars at the Hamilton County Jail, with a preliminary hearing set for March 9.
With News Wire Services