The Evidence That Jay Was Interviewed Before February 28th, 1999

According to the official timeline/narrative,

(1) On February 26, 1999, Jenn met the detectives at the police station. Upon questioning (at approximately 11:11 9:11 P.M.), Jenn denied any involvement in the death of Hae Min Lee but seemingly could not account for her actions between 1:00 (or noon or 12:30) and 4:30 P.M. on January 13, 1999:

(2) On February 27, 1999, Detectives MacGillivary and Ritz interviewed Jenn at approximately 1:00 P.M. at her attorney’s house. Thereafter, the detectives took Jenn to the police station and interviewed her from approximately 3:45-5:10 P.M. During this interview, Jenn recounted her version of the events of January 13, 1999 and said that Jay told her that Adnan killed Hae.

(3) On February 27, 1999 at around midnight, Detectives MacGillivary and Ritz picked up Jay from work and took him to the police station, where he signed an explanation of right form at 12:35 A.M. on February 28, 1999. During a pre-interview, Jay said that Jeff G. took him to Woodlawn High school between 2:40 and 3:00 P.M. on January 13th, where he met Stephanie in the parking lot. Then, in his official interview, which started at approximately 1:30 P.M., Jay “came clean” and told the detectives his version of the events of January 13th, including the trunk pop (at Edmondson Avenue) and the burial. The interview ended at 2:21 A.M., at which point Jay led the police to Hae’s car.

We’ve already discussed all of this before on the podcast, but I wanted to create a single post that contains all three reasons to doubt this official timeline/narrative. Here they are:

(1) Jay’s Intercept Interview: Here’s a portion of the Q&A between Natasha Vargas-Cooper and Jay:

NVC: Why is this story different from what you originally told the police? Why has your story changed over time?

Jay: Well first of all, I wasn’t openly willing to cooperate with the police. It wasn’t until they made it clear they weren’t interested in my ‘procurement’ of pot that I began to open up any. And then I would only give them information pertaining to my interaction with someone or where I was. They had to chase me around before they could corner me to talk to me, and there came a point where I was just sick of talking to them. And they wouldn’t stop interviewing me or questioning me. I wasn’t fully cooperating, so if they said, ‘Well, we have on phone records that you talked to Jenn.’ I’d say, ‘Nope, I didn’t talk to Jenn.’ Until Jenn told me that she talked with the cops and that it was ok if I did too.

So, according to Jay himself, he not only talked to the police before Jenn taked to the police; he was “sick of talking to them” by the time that Jenn talked to the police, implying that there were multiple prior interrogations.

(2) Sis’s Interview With the Private Investigator: Sis was Jay’s supervisor at the adult video store. According to Sis,

and

So, according to Sis, the police interviewed Jay about Hae Min Lee on February 20th, 21st, or 22nd and then questioned him again on February 26th, which would be consistent with Jay’s claim in his Intercept interview about being interrogated multiple times before Jenn was interrogated.

(3) Neighbor Boy’s Interview With the Private Investigator: According to Neighbor Girl, Neighbor Boy told her that Adnan showed him Hae’s body in the trunk of her Nissan Sentra on January 13, 1999. Neighbor Boy has consistently denied that this happened and told Bob Ruff that Jay gave him a version of events where Adnan confronted and killed Hae at work.* According to Neighbor Boy,

So, according to Neighbor Boy, Jay was picked up by the police about a week after Hae’s body was found on February 9th. This could have been a police interaction before the dates listed by Sis, or it could have been the interaction on February 20th, 21st, or 22nd described by Sis.** It likely could not have been Jay’s “first” interview on February 28th, which was (1) 19 days after February 9th; and (2) conducted after Jay was (supposedly) picked up from work.

In conclusion, unless we can write off all three of these statements, Jay was interviewed (1) before February 28th; and (2) before Jenn. As usual, this leaves us with more questions than answers. Here are some of them:

(1) Why did the State hide these prior interviews?

(2) What did the detectives*** tell Jay about the crime prior to February 28th?

(3) What did Jay tell Jenn before her interview(s)?

(4) What does this tell us about the reliability of any of Jay’s official interview statements?

(5) What does this tell us about Jay supposedly leading the police to Hae’s car on February 28th? 

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*Neighbor Boy’s name appears in Jay’s ride along notes from March 18th between Jay leaving the Pusateri residence and arriving at Jeff G’s house before he had met up with Adnan. Neighbor Boy’s house was indeed between these two locations.

**February 16th was a week after February 9th. The 20th, 21st, or 22nd could certainly qualify as “about a week” after February 9th.

***Cooper v. State might give us some insight.

-CM