[suspenseful music]
- In 1990, the tech industry
Was heating up in the city of atlanta.
- Jim chao was headhunted to come
To atlanta to work for ibm.
- We tried to call jim, didn't get an answer.
- Jim is always on time.
Something got to be happen to him.
- They opened the door, determined that jim chao,
He was deceased.
- It's definitely a big shock.
- Both wounds were relatively close.
- They were up close and personal.
And that says execution.
- We have no idea why he died.
- This crime scene is strange.
There was cocaine spread on the table.
- No weapons, no shell casings.
This doesn't look right.
- His wife, lisa, said that he not only
Did not take any drugs
But didn't drink alcohol either.
- From all appearances, jim chao let the killer in.
So there had to be some sort of relationship
Between jim chao and the killer.
♪ ♪
- She broke and said, my husband was having an affair.
- Jim chao was telling him, you're not a man,
You can't keep a woman.
- People do crazy things for jealousy,
For anger, for love story.
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[sirens wailing]
[upbeat music]
- In the last decade of the 20th century,
American tech centers become reflections
Of the impending arrival of y2k,
And atlanta is no exception.
- The 1990s in atlanta, it was a booming time.
You had the tech industry, which was one of the biggest
That was going on.
And the glistening business behind it all was ibm.
- Ibm back then probably had 200,000 employees worldwide.
In atlanta, we would have 4,000 to 5,000 ibm-ers.
- The influx of the tech business
Triggers new construction throughout the city.
- Ibm in 1990 was a happening place.
We were busy, so I needed some additional employees
In the atlanta office.
And so we had to go outside of atlanta to look for employees.
- One such person who has been recruited by ibm in atlanta
Is jim chao, a taiwanese immigrant
And programming phenom.
- Jim really was a shining star of the technical ability
That we needed to have on the team in atlanta.
- But before jim can make his mark at ibm in atlanta,
Tragedy strikes.
On Thursday morning, April 26th,
Jim is nowhere to be found.
- And then I asked jimmy ku,
Who was one of my other employees in the department
And a good friend of jim's, to go check on him.
- Jim is always on time, never late.
In my mind, I thought something got to be--
Got to be happen to him.
[suspenseful music]
- When mr. Ku arrives at jim's apartment building,
He finds the security guard, who accompanies him
To jim's door for a welfare check.
- The security guard, he just slowly, using his key,
Opened the door.
Then I saw jim's face right by the door.
♪ ♪
Looks like he's dead.
And then the security guard
Just closed the door immediately.
And then from there, they called the police.
- At 11:00 a.M., cobb county police
Receive the call from outside jim chao's apartment.
Then three uniformed officers raced to the scene.
- They opened the door,
Determined that he was deceased,
Closed the door back, and taped off the scene
And called homicide.
- Cobb county homicide detectives soon arrive
And speak with the man who found the victim, jimmy ku.
Ku confirms that the victim is jim chao.
- When I interviewed jimmy ku outside of the apartment,
Then I found out
That jim chao worked at ibm,
Which is relatively close to the apartment.
And he lived in the apartment by himself.
- I spoke with detective herman.
I basically explained why I was here
Is because my manager asked me to come over
Since jim and I work in the same department.
- Jimmy then explains that jim chao moved to atlanta
Three months earlier, temporarily leaving his family
In austin, texas, after accepting a position
At ibm's atlanta office.
- All of his family, his parents,
They all lived in texas.
And eventually, his wife and his eight-year-old son
Were going to move up here and join him here in atlanta.
- Jimmy also reveals that jim chao's wife, lisa,
Is at the atlanta airport.
- Lisa flew in so that she and jim can do house hunting.
- We learned, in talking with jimmy ku,
That jim chao was supposed to pick her up
At the airport at 9:00 a.M. That Thursday morning.
- According to jimmy, jim chao never showed up at the airport
To pick up his wife, which prompted her
To call his manager at ibm.
- Lisa called me from the airport and said,
Hey, jim's not here. What's going on?
So we tried to call jim, didn't get an answer.
I told lisa to grab a taxi and come on out.
- Shortly after mr. Ku found jim chao's body,
Armed with background information about the victim,
Detectives examine the crime scene,
Starting with jim's body.
♪ ♪
- Being an investigator in 1990,
You carried fingerprint powder.
You carried a polaroid camera.
Detectives worked the scene.
You didn't have the luxury of the csis they have now.
I was an investigator
At the cobb county police department in the 1990s.
I'm currently still involved in law enforcement.
My duties involve a lot of surveillance work,
And therefore, I have to stay in the shadows.
♪ ♪
- You had the deceased individual on the floor.
He had been shot once in the chest,
Then once behind the left ear.
One interesting thing about the victim--
He had a pair of scissors in his right hand.
It didn't look like he was holding them,
Just because of the contortion of the victim's fingers.
It looked like perhaps they had been placed there.
I thought that was kind of odd.
- And as they explore beyond the body,
Investigators make another alarming discovery.
- On the table, there's a couple of cans of coca-cola,
And also on the table is a substance
That looks like cocaine.
♪ ♪
- When the team tests the white substance on the table,
Their suspicions are confirmed.
It's cocaine.
- This is what we normally see in a drug killing.
But, you know, the cocaine had been sprinkled,
And there was some on top of the coke can.
Then you take a look at jim chao.
In his life, he worked for ibm.
You know, this doesn't fit.
It doesn't look right.
- If somebody was involved in drugs,
Why didn't they take the drugs on the way back out?
Why leave them there?
But you have to look at a drug angle.
- You're thinking, what are we dealing with here?
We'll know more when we know more about our victim.
- Before learning more about jim's personal life,
Detectives continue to process the scene.
- The apartment had not been ransacked,
No weapons, no shell casings.
I found the victim's wallet on the scene,
And it had almost $40 in cash.
That was kind of significant because if it was a robbery,
The killer is gonna take the cash.
- With a robbery turned drug deal unlikely,
Detectives turn to processing the scene for fingerprints.
- There were some prints lifted,
Identified as coming from the victim.
There wasn't any evidence that anyone other than the victim
Was on the scene.
- The medical examiner arrives and immediately makes
A disturbing observation.
- There was an entry gunshot wound to the head
And gunshot wound to the chest.
The medical examiner said both of them were relatively close.
- Wasn't somebody that fired from across the room.
They were up close and personal.
And that says execution.
- With no tangible evidence from the crime scene,
Detectives turn their attention back to jimmy ku,
Who is still at the scene.
They ask him if he has any more information
About jim chao's personal life.
- Jim and I, we have a lot of things in common.
We have same common culture, background from taiwan.
We both call ourselves system programmers for ibm.
Another thing kind of drew us together is,
We both like to play tennis and get together,
Play tennis after work.
Also, I invite him to my home to meet with my wife
And have dinner with us.
- Jimmy ku seemed to indicate to me
That he was good friends with him.
So I said, hey, does he use drugs?
Is he involved in the drug trade?
There wasn't anything that jimmy knew
As far as chao being involved in any drugs,
And there wasn't any of that.
- Jimmy also explains he doesn't know of anyone
Who would want to hurt his friend.
- I don't see the characteristic
That this guy is aggressive.
He's just a professional, nice, friendly person
Trying to work hard to raise a child.
- Then herman speaks with the security officer
Who discovered the body.
- The off-duty officer, per his statement to us,
He was adamant that he used his pass key
To unlock the deadbolt.
So the deadbolt on the apartment was locked.
There was no force on the door or any other, you know,
Point of entry into the apartment.
- If jim chao's door was locked from the outside,
That means the killer had taken a key
And used it behind them as they left.
♪ ♪
- From all appearances, jim chao let the killer in.
So there had to be some sort of relationship
Between jim chao and the killer.
- I was circling back around to the victim.
So now are the coworkers not telling me something?
What am I missing?
♪ ♪
We found some cards and letters of affection.
It wasn't just a friendship thing.
- You start looking at the possibility
Of extramarital affair.
- She had taken a phone call from an unidentified male,
And told her, you need to take care of your husband.
To me, that's an inferred threat.
That's huge.
♪ ♪
- Cobb county detectives are investigating
The mysterious murder of jim chao,
Found murdered in his apartment
With a stash of cocaine.
[gunshot]
Investigators have determined
That jim must have let his killer into his home.
[dramatic music]
- We were dealing with somebody
That he most likely knew
And most likely, for a brief period, was comfortable with.
Maybe something goes bad.
♪ ♪
And the question is, what?
And he ends up shot...
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
And killed.
- The team speaks to jim's neighbors
To find out if anyone saw or heard anything
Unusual the night before.
- We knocked on doors, and there was nothing
That stood out that would lead investigators
In any particular direction.
So all you can do then is keep investigating.
- Detectives also check for surveillance cameras
Around the building but find none.
After the canvass, jim's widow, lisa chao,
Arrives on scene.
- And she was brought back to the apartment complex.
I remember, she was sitting in a car,
And then she asked me if I knew what happened.
I said, we're not sure yet,
And then confirmed that her husband was deceased.
And she was--you know, she was crying.
She was upset.
- Detective herman consoles lisa for her devastating loss,
Then asks her to provide a fuller picture of her husband.
- She described the background on him moving here.
And lisa said they talked often,
Usually once, twice a day.
I just asked, when's the last time
You talked to your husband?
She said the last time that she talked
With him was the night before.
He told her he'd pick her up at the airport.
So everything appeared to be ok to her.
♪ ♪
And I asked her if she knew anyone that had anything to do
With this, and she said no.
Then I broached the subject about if there were
Any issues in his background, drugs,
Those kind of things.
She said no, no, no.
- While herman believes mrs. Chao is being truthful,
He knows from experience that there's a chance
Jim could have been leading a double life.
- People have secrets.
There are things people do or are involved in
That their friends don't know about
And sometimes even their immediate family
Doesn't know about.
So you're hearing them say that he does not do drugs,
But you don't write that off as it can't
Be something that he did.
- In that time, cocaine became the big deal
In law enforcement.
That was a battle during that time.
- You have to think, well, is there a possibility
That somebody targeted him, some sort of drug revenge hit
Or something like that?
- Back at the homicide office,
Detectives look into drug-related crimes
In jim chao's area of cobb county.
- Was there any illicit drug trafficking going on
Either in the apartment complex or nearby?
Very quickly, they were able to discover that this really
Didn't fit any of the patterns of other crimes
That were occurring in the area.
- Ruling out any connection to drug crimes
In the neighborhood, it's still a mystery
As to why there was cocaine at the scene.
Then investigators receive the autopsy report,
And it makes this unusual case even more puzzling.
- It was ultimately discovered that there was
No narcotics, certainly no cocaine,
In mr. Chao's system.
I was particularly concerned that amount of cocaine
Didn't seem to fit in with the murder itself.
Nobody's gonna leave that amount of cocaine
At the scene.
- It was less likely we were dealing with drugs.
And it was just--to me, once we got the tox back,
I mean, it just confirmed it.
- Now that it appears jim wasn't involved with drugs,
Investigators come up with a potential reason
For the cocaine and other oddities found at the scene.
- It looked like the scissors were a plant in the hand.
If you see something like that, that's the killer or killers,
You know, thinking, ok, I've shot him.
Now I've got to figure out, what can I do to help myself?
So it's--he plants a scissors.
Then the argument's gonna be, later on,
Hey, he was gonna stab me with his scissors,
So I shot him.
Then you've got the powdered cocaine
On the scene that had been planted
To make it look like a drug deal,
Which just never looked right.
- It was clear at that stage that the cocaine
Found in the apartment was used as a ruse.
For whatever reason, the murderer
Wanted to either taint the reputation of mr. Chao
Or to throw the investigators off guard.
- I mean, to me, they're not giving the cops any credit,
That we can't look at this and say, hey, this is bs.
I mean, this is a staged scene.
And we were probably dealing with somebody that knew him
Very well and went to the extreme
To have him killed for whatever reason.
Then the question is, who and why?
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Cobb county investigators initially suspected
Jim chao's death was drug-related
Due to the cocaine found near his body,
But when the me revealed jim had no drugs in his system,
Detectives had to rethink their theory.
Now the team believes the crime scene was staged,
And the autopsy report paints a vivid picture
Of how jim was killed.
- We learned that there wasn't any type of defense wounds,
So whatever happened happened fast.
And our victim was unsuspecting
That it was gonna happen.
Again, goes back to him being somewhat
Comfortable with whoever he was with.
- Although no bullet casings were found at the crime scene,
The me recovers two bullets from jim's body.
- The projectiles were removed.
They identified as .380-caliber.
First thing I did, obviously, was check
Any local stolen reports,
Metropolitan police departments
That had any weapons that fit that were stolen,
And nothing significant was found.
And so we put the bolo out for that type of handgun.
- While waiting for the bolo to pay off,
The team focuses on who may have wanted jim chao dead.
- Jim chao has only been in the area since January.
How many people has he gotten to know well enough
In the area that he would be letting them
In the front door?
- With jim's family residing in texas,
The only people he knows in atlanta are his coworkers,
So investigators head to ibm tower,
Hoping for a break.
- I got with ibm security at the wildwood office
To search jim chao's desk, which was ibm property.
Ibm can access it at any time.
In a drawer on the right side,
We found some cards and letters,
Letters of affection,
That were addressed from austin, texas,
From lina lee, which was a name
That I wasn't familiar with.
But it wasn't just a friendship thing.
Found that to be very significant, obviously.
- Jim's widow, lisa chao, had previously
Told investigators that the two had a happy marriage.
Now they wonder why a woman who is not jim chao's wife
Is sending him love notes.
- You start looking at the possibility
Of extramarital affair.
- Detectives ask jim's coworkers about the letters,
But none of them know anything about the possible affair.
- There wasn't anything else at his desk that stood out.
So we secured those cards and brought them back.
- The only other person who may know lina lee
Or her relationship with jim is his widow, lisa.
Herman learns lisa is still in atlanta,
Making arrangements to bring jim's body back to texas.
- I was able to interview lisa chao
In a controlled setting,
The homicide office.
It's very difficult to interview
A grieving family member.
It was tough.
You're trying to get the information.
If you say the wrong thing and you press too hard,
She's shutting down, and then we're not getting anywhere.
And I don't want to hurt any feelings,
But you get into two, three days, 48 to 72 hours,
And things really start to fizzle.
So I asked her if she knew anything about lina lee.
And she was hesitant,
And that's when she broke and said,
There were rumors going around
That my husband
Was having an affair with lina lee,
Cc lee's ex-wife,
And asked her husband about it, and he denied it.
I remember thinking that she wanted to believe him.
She wanted her family to be intact.
- The name cc lee is a new one for investigators,
So detective herman asks lisa who he is.
Lisa says that cc lee is a former colleague
Of jim's at ibm who currently lives in houston, texas.
- I was told that cc lee and lina lee
Were divorced in late 1989.
And cc transferred from austin to houston
After their divorce.
Then lisa told me that at some point a few months
Before the murder, she had taken a phone call
From an unidentified male.
She said he was asian and told her,
You need to take care of your husband, keep him happy,
Because two families could be hurt.
To me, that's an inferred threat.
- In an alarming twist, lisa says the disturbing
Phone call was followed up with a visit to her home
By the same person.
- Lisa chao told me that after jim had moved to atlanta,
Cc lee came to her house in austin
And knocked on the door.
♪ ♪
He asked her if she knew where her husband was.
She wouldn't let him in.
When she was describing that, I had a bad feeling
About what she was telling me.
- The troubling revelation raises red flags,
Turning the investigators' attention to cc lee.
- I think cc lee was desperate to get back with his ex-wife
And get his family back together
But was convinced that his ex-wife
Was having an affair.
He was upset and consumed with the fact
That it potentially could continue.
- With cc lee's name coming up, you have a suspect.
Did cc lee come out to georgia and commit a murder
Over an affair with an ex-wife?
That's a big question there.
♪ ♪
If I had to have somebody in another state
To help me on a case, this is the guy I want.
From the boots to the stetson, he had a presence.
- I remember him telling me, this is something
Straight out of a movie.
I said, well, stranger things have happened.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Three days after jim chao
Was found dead in his apartment
Just outside of atlanta,
Investigators discover he was allegedly having an affair
With a woman in texas.
Jim's widow, lisa, tells detectives
That the mistress' ex-husband, cc lee,
Has been threatening her.
- The first thing that came to all of our minds was,
How is that going to be tied into a homicide
That just happened here in georgia?
There could have been bad blood,
But mr. Chao has been gone in atlanta for some months.
♪ ♪
It seemed, at that time, a long shot.
- However, investigators theorize
That jim chao knew his killer.
And according to lisa, cc lee and her husband
Were colleagues.
So detective herman asks lisa if she thinks
Lee could have murdered jim.
- She was adamant she didn't think that cc lee
Had anything to do with it.
But, you know, jealousy,
It's one of the oldest motives in the book.
It falls right up there with money and dope.
So I contacted ibm security
And requested information on cc lee.
- Investigators learn that lee,
Also a taiwanese immigrant, is highly educated
And was part of ibm's nasa program.
- I was told that he worked
Out of the houston, texas, office.
It turns out that cc had worked in austin
With jim chao at some point.
And other than that, I mean, his file
Didn't have anything outstanding,
No issues, no complaints, anything like that.
Cc lee's in texas.
I remember thinking, eh, kind of a long shot.
He's packing a gun on an airline
And going to all this trouble to kill jim chao?
But it's a possibility, so we're gonna run it out.
♪ ♪
That's when I reached out to the texas rangers,
Texas state police,
And I was eventually put in touch with joe harrelson.
♪ ♪
I gave him the background on the case
And the alleged affair,
And I remember him telling me, he said,
This is something straight out of a movie.
I said, well, yeah, it seems like it.
♪ ♪
I said, look, see what you can find out about cc lee.
He said, absolutely.
- While it's far-fetched to believe that cc lee traveled
1,000 miles to atlanta and killed his ex-wife's lover,
The team still needs to follow the trail of evidence.
So ranger harrelson pays a visit
To the ibm offices in houston
To gather information on cc lee.
- Joe harrelson talked to somebody at ibm down there,
So I wasn't expecting anything earth-shattering.
But he calls me back,
And he says, cc lee called in sick to work
April 24, 25,
And a half day on the 26th.
- The investigators make a disturbing connection.
Jim chao was murdered the evening of April 25th,
One of the days lee was allegedly sick.
- That's huge, ok?
You know, as a detective, you're thinking,
Ok, it's a puzzle, but that's a big piece.
- Not only does his absence destroy any potential alibi.
Lee's coworkers reveal something even more damning:
Confirmation of his motive.
- Coworkers of mr. Lee said he was mad
About an extramarital relationship
Between mr. Chao and mr. Lee's former wife.
- The eyewitness reports establishing lee's motive,
Coupled with his mysterious whereabouts
The night of the murder, are enough for harrelson
To confront the suspect.
- Ranger harrelson called me after he had gone out
To meet with cc lee, and he said,
I went out, knocked on the door, introduced myself.
He let me in.
He didn't seem out of sorts.
♪ ♪
- He was very candid and open, never requested an attorney,
Seemed to answer all of the questions
That the detectives had, particularly as it related
To the extramarital affair that he was aware of
Between his former wife and mr. Chao
And the fact that he was trying to get back together with her.
- Then harrelson asks lee where he was
At the time of jim chao's murder.
- Cc lee had told him that he was out sick during those days
Preceding the homicide
And he had no knowledge or no part
In the death of jim chao.
- Him being out of work was important,
So harrelson asked him, hey, can anybody confirm?
He said, no, I was here by myself.
Before cell phones, that's the alibi.
But he said he had not gone anywhere.
He was by himself.
- Without anyone else to corroborate lee's story,
Harrelson notes his suspect is growing defensive.
♪ ♪
- Cc said, I don't have anything to hide.
I didn't do anything.
Ranger harrelson asked him if he had
Previously owned any handguns.
And, you know, cc said, yes, I had a handgun.
He said he pawned it in the last couple of days.
- Cc lee said he had had a .380 browning,
.380 semiautomatic,
And that was the same make and caliber
As the murder weapon.
- Here's a guy, coincidentally, for two days,
Calls in sick with the flu
That coincides with the murder in atlanta,
And now he's saying he did own a gun
That he just recently pawned.
♪ ♪
Obviously, at this point,
There's something about ready to break here.
- It was a game changer.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Cobb county detectives investigating
The brutal execution of jim chao
Have identified a suspect:
Cc lee, the ex-husband of jim's mistress.
Lee just revealed he had a handgun
That matches the make and model of the murder weapon.
♪ ♪
[phone rings]
- Harrelson calls me and said,
Cc lee had a pistol,
And he just pawned it a couple days ago.
♪ ♪
- Cc lee actually gave him the address of the pawnshop
Where the gun was.
- I remember when joe harrelson called me.
Him and I talked about it.
I mean, what's cc lee gonna say?
He doesn't want to get caught in a lie on it.
Harrelson said, I think this is your guy.
- Detectives herman and banks immediately leave for texas.
Meanwhile, ranger harrelson visits the pawnshop
Where lee allegedly sold his pistol.
- Harrelson confirmed that cc lee had pawned
A browning .380 automatic
And brought in a box of shells
With two missing.
We got our victim shot twice with a browning .380.
This is the gun he pawned.
That was the bang moment.
- Harrelson obtains the gun from the pawnshop
And goes to headquarters to meet with herman and banks.
- I remember pat banks saying on the trip down there,
That's too good to be true.
Surely, surely, he didn't go hock the murder weapon
And come forward with it, and I said, well,
Stranger things have happened.
♪ ♪
- When we arrived, we met joe harrelson.
And one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind is,
If I had to have somebody in another state
To help me on a case, this is the guy I want.
From the boots to the stetson, he had a presence.
If we walked in somewhere and he identified himself,
Things moved in a hurry.
♪ ♪
- After talking with harrelson, I said, you know,
I'm gonna cold-call him, and he agreed.
- At first, it appeared unlikely cc lee
Traveled to atlanta, gained access to chao's apartment,
And killed him.
But with the recent revelations
About his sick time and gun ownership,
Lee's involvement in jim's death
No longer looks like such a long shot.
♪ ♪
- I call cc. He was at home.
I said, we're investigating the murder of jim chao,
And we just wanted to clear a couple things up.
I know you knew him.
And he says, yeah, I heard about that.
That's so sad.
Jim and I were friends, and we knew each other
When we worked together in austin.
So I just segued into, hey, listen,
Can we meet you tomorrow?
He said, ok, I'll meet you.
- The following day, may 4th,
A week after jim chao's murder,
Cobb county detectives meet with cc lee
At houston pd's clear lake substation.
♪ ♪
- Pat banks and I sat down with cc lee.
I read him his miranda rights, and we started from there.
♪ ♪
He said, I'll talk to you.
I'll be glad to, you know,
Answer any questions that you have.
But I don't have a whole lot of time,
'cause I need to get back to austin to visit my family.
And didn't appear to be unusually nervous
Dealing with the police,
But at this point, he wasn't leaving.
I had not officially told him he's under arrest,
But he wasn't leaving.
- Lee explains he misses his kids because
He recently moved to houston from austin
After his divorce from lina.
- When I asked him about jim chao,
He said, oh, he's a friend.
We worked together.
You know, he's just kind of--
He's just kind of circling around.
- Lee continues to calmly deny
He had any involvement in the cobb county murder,
Frustrating herman and banks.
- I got into a little more confrontational with him,
You know, and I asked him about the affair,
The phone call to lisa chao.
He admitted to that.
And I asked him about the pistol,
And he admitted to that.
When I asked him about traveling to atlanta,
You know, he said, no, I didn't have
Anything to do with this.
At that point, I remember, you know,
I'm just gonna cut straight to it with him,
Because we don't have anything to lose at this point.
Worst thing that's gonna happen is,
He's gonna shut down and say, I'm not talking to you anymore.
- It was then that detective herman
Decided to play what he had.
♪ ♪
- I said, cc, we're gonna get the handgun that you pawned,
And we're gonna take it back to georgia,
And we are going to test it and compare it
Against the bullets that were removed
From the victim at autopsy.
And we're gonna be able to tell
If it's the gun used in the killing.
And I get this long stare.
And his shoulders droop down.
And he looks at me, he says, you mean
You can match one gun with one bullet?
- He said, eddie, are you trying to fool me?
And he's very animated.
He's got his arms going while he's doing this,
Like, waving in the air.
Are you trying to tell me, of all the guns,
You can match a bullet?
- I said, yes, it's called ballistics.
[gunshot]
♪ ♪
I said, tell us what happened up there.
And then he says to me, let me go visit my family.
Let me go up for the weekend, and I'll meet you
On Sunday evening, and I'll tell you
Everything that happened.
♪ ♪
And I said, I can't do that. I can't make you any deals.
Well, you know, at that point, we knew he was our guy.
- Cc lee finally gets to a point where he says,
I need to talk to a lawyer.
- I said, ok.
I'll honor that request.
So we took a break.
Pat went and got him a sandwich,
And then he tells banks, you know,
He wants to speak with me again.
I said, ok, by law, I can talk to you again,
But I've got to read your miranda.
I read him miranda.
He waived his rights again.
♪ ♪
- It was at this point that he looked down
And then started to break down and cry.
♪ ♪
- And he says, I want to tell you what happened.
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
♪ ♪
- A week after jim chao was murdered in cobb county,
Detectives are in houston, texas,
Questioning their lead suspect, cc lee.
A few hours into the interrogation,
Lee says he's finally ready to confess
What really happened the night jim was killed.
[dramatic music]
- He said, yes, I want to tell you what happened.
- Lee explains to the team he found letters from jim chao
Addressed to his ex-wife.
- And he said jim chao was still calling his ex-wife
And that it needed to stop.
He just wanted to go and talk to jim chao in person.
♪ ♪
And then he goes into booking the flight,
Continental airlines to atlanta.
He checked the weapon.
And back then, it was easy.
Before 9/11, you could take a bazooka on an airline.
- It's now clear to the team how cc lee and his gun
Got to atlanta.
Lee then goes on to tell investigators
That he arrived the night of April 24th.
The next evening, he paid jim chao a visit.
- Lee said chao opened the door and said,
What are you doing here?
He said that he asked jim chao to stop seeing his ex-wife.
And then cc lee said that chao
Started questioning his manhood.
Chao was being confrontational to him.
[camera shutter snapping]
- Jim chao was telling him, you're not a man.
You can't keep a woman.
- And then lee said, I had the gun with me,
And I pulled it out, and I fired.
And then he said it was self-defense.
That's not an accident, and that's not self-defense.
But I didn't want to say, hey, that's bull[bleep].
I wanted him to keep talking.
And he did.
Then I asked him about the powdered cocaine.
He said that when he had got into town
He had saw an individual standing on the street,
Said he paid $50 for two packets of cocaine.
- Mr. Lee said that he bought cocaine
To spread around the scene to taint mr. Chao.
- He said that he got chao's keys.
He locked the deadbolt, took the keys with him,
And he threw them out somewhere in the woods
By the hotel parking lot.
He got up the next morning, and he flew
Back to houston with the gun.
- Lee's confession goes beyond what detectives expected.
He's admitted to premeditated murder.
- I always felt like my mission was to get
An admission or a confession.
That's what happened here.
- It was just incredible that this turnaround
And this confession happened in such a short period of time.
♪ ♪
- With cc lee's confession,
Investigators secure a warrant for his arrest
And take him into custody.
♪ ♪
The team secures lee's gun
To submit to georgia crime lab for testing.
Detectives herman and banks, along with cc lee,
Travel back to atlanta.
- Once I got to know the chao family,
It was satisfying to be able to give them the news
That we had made the arrest.
- It really confused us as to why someone would go
All the way to atlanta and murder someone
That was having an affair with the guy's ex-wife.
Jim was light-years away in atlanta
And was obviously staying there.
It just made no sense to us at all.
Why would he care at that point?
I think it was a sad time for all of us.
- Cc lee is charged with the murder of jim chao,
And if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life
In prison.
One year after jim's death,
Lee's trial begins in cobb county.
- This case was a very fast-track case
Because the evidence was so good.
- The ballistics tests definitively prove
That lee's gun fired the bullets that killed jim.
Despite the evidence and his confession,
Lee pleads not guilty to the murder.
- We had cc lee's confessions that were allowed in.
And as far as murder weapons go,
I mean, we had the ballistics records.
It was a rock-solid case.
- On may 11, 1991,
Cc lee is found guilty of felony murder
And is sentenced to life in prison.
♪ ♪
- We had a certain amount of relief
After we heard the verdict that he was guilty
And sentenced to life in prison.
It never would bring jim back, though.
All of us really felt bad that
Here lisa was without a husband.
Her son was without a father.
It was so sad.
- I believe, if jim was still alive,
We two probably will continue to be friends,
Play tennis, and his family and my family
Will get to know each other.
Yes, I do believe so.
- And it was just still sad whenever we thought about jim
And what his family was going through.
It was all about missing a very happy man
That we all loved and enjoyed hanging around.
♪ ♪