LEXINGTON, S.C. — A Lexington County man will spend life in prison for killing his estranged wife, who was also an employee of the county sheriff's department.
It took a jury just over an hour to convict 40-year-old Jason Lee Friday of the murder of Lindsey Lee. Judge Thomas W. Cooper then sentenced Jason Lee to life.
“This man brutally took Lindsey’s life and, today, I know her family and her friends will sleep a little easier knowing the man responsible for taking Lindsey from them will spend the rest of his life in prison," Eleven Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard said. Hubbard's office prosecuted the case.
During the trial, prosecutors said Jason Lee had severe financial troubles, and that he and Lindsey has separated in April of 2016. Their divorce was set to be finalized in April of 2017. But on March 13, 2017, Jason Lee traveled from his home in Simpsonville to his Lindsey Lee's home in West Columbia where he murdered her.
When she didn't show up for work the next day at the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, a co-worker did a welfare check on her home and found her body in the bathroom.
Officers say he gave conflicting stories about where he was on the day of the killing. Investigators with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division were able to determine he removed his Fitbit device for 12 hours on the day of the murder, which wasn't normal for him, and that surveillance footage proved where he'd traveled.
DNA evidence collected at the scene also linked him to the crime.
A woman who dated Jason Lee told jurors the man was upset that his wife was going to receive between $30-50,000 from the sale of their home. At the same time, he was being evicted from his apartment, was behind on car payments, had overmaxed his credit cad, and had nearly no money in his bank account.
The woman also testified that Jason Lee told her a day after the killing that his financial problems were over and that he was going to get the house.
"I'd like to thank SLED for its assistance throughout the investigation into Lindsey's death and the trial. "I'm also grateful for the effort of Solicitor Rick Hubbard and his team in successfully prosecuting this case," Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said after the sentence was handed down.