A December 1999 trial ended in mistrial. Statement of Facts undated, relates to the above. In episode eight of “Serial,” Koenig mentions a conversation she had with Pusateri at the time of the recording. When the first season of the wildly popular podcast "Serial" debuted in 2014, millions of listeners learned about the 1999 murder of high school senior Hae Min Lee. However he ended up doing it—whether it was premeditated, an involuntary reaction at that point in time—he just couldn’t come to grips with being a loser and failing. Both “Serial” and “The Case Against Adnan Syed highlight Pusateri’s discussions with police and in-court testimony, examining what it meant for Syed, as well as her tight relationship with Wilds in their teen years. Hae’s car could have been in the parking lot, but I didn’t know what it looked like so I don’t remember. By the time I graduated [Woodlawn] high school in 1998, I wasn’t exactly angry, but I did resent the school. I don’t know what happened, what occurred between them that day. Just normal conversation like, ‘I think she’s fucking around. Didn’t say that much. Matt Tinoco provided research for this interview. The group of people I hung out with were different from the group of people I was from. “I spoke to [Pusateri] briefly at her work, she works at a discount store. Normal high school ‘I’m mad at her and I’ll scratch her car’ sort of stuff. I made him smoke one time, he got a little high, got a little weird. From your perspective, what was Adnan’s reputation at Woodlawn? I pick him up — he doesn’t have any car with him. The way she moved and went about her day. But he didn’t call me unless he needed something. I played lacrosse, was a bit of a jock. Yes. Jay Wilds – The Drug Dealer Ok, so you arrive at Cathy’s with Adnan after he tells you he murdered Hae? Jay’s testimony changed every time it was told, therefore making him a non-credible source. The star witness at Syed’s trial was Jay Wilds, a former classmate who testified that he helped Syed dispose of Lee’s body. What was your life like during 1998 and 1999? Since Jay’s testimony was not completely credible; I believe that Adnan was wrongfully convicted for a crime he did not commit. The following has been edited and condensed for clarity. During this time, Jay says Adnan received two phone calls from Hae’s family and one from a police officer, all looking for Hae. They both graduated a year before Syed in 1998. Don is mentioned briefly in the investigation of Syed’s case on Serial, the viral podcast, but his life and relationship to the investigation goes in depth in the documentary Hae Lee was a Korean-American and Adnan Syed was an Afghanistan-American, and they both attended in Woodlawn High School, Maryland. I didn’t know that he planned to murder her that day. Take my car, take my cellphone. A big part of the ‘Serial’ podcast is to speculate on Adnan’s motive. “Jay obviously picks and chooses what he tells, and at this point it’s created such a mess," Jenn Pusateri says in HBO's new docu-series The Case Against Adnan Syed.". Why did you agree to help Adnan bury Hae? I told [Adnan] that I wouldn’t touch her car, or any of her possessions, and I say, ‘Fuck it. I stonewalled them that way. He was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. I don’t think that’s wrong, it’s high school, you know. Their close friendship would ultimately drag Pusateri into Lee’s murder case: Phone logs showed that several calls between Pusateri and Syed’s cell phone (which Wilds was allegedly using on the night of the murder) had taken place, and Wilds claimed he spoke to Pusateri after he and Syed supposedly buried Lee’s body in Leakin Park. Why has your story changed over time? Fossil Fuel Executives Gloat About Profits, PR From Texas Winter Storm Crisis, Corporate Lawyers Line Up for Justice Department Top Slots, FBI Seized Congressional Cellphone Records Related to Capitol Attack. I rode BMX freestyle. I had cops show up and harass me before at my house. On Jan. 13, 1999, Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old high school student from Baltimore, went missing. And it was really hard for him to deal with being on the losing end. They didn’t have to go by us, except to come to lunch, and that was it. I thought at worst he’d throw a rock through her window or something. In that situation, he was the loser. I don’t think it meant that much to her. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. When the first season of the wildly popular podcast "Serial" debuted in 2014, millions of listeners learned about the 1999 murder of high school senior Hae Min Lee. He had a professional job in high school, he was a paramedic or something [Ed. It wasn’t until they made it clear they weren’t interested in my ‘procurement’ of pot that I began to open up any. It was Jay’s testimony that helped to put Adnan in prison with a life sentence for the February 1999 murder of his high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. But their gym, lockers, parking, was down in the magnet wing. He was a little pompous, a little arrogant, but he seemed really driven as far as his academics, but all those magnet students were. I say, ‘Well we need to part ways.’ I don’t remember if he dropped me off at my house or if I got a ride from somebody else. When we were digging the hole, it’s not like Hae’s body was just lying next to us. I might have sat next to him in a class, and joked or something. It’s just on the street. Though the popular podcast wrapped up on Dec. 18, Serial continues to stir conversation online after Jay Wilds, the state's key witness in the case against Adnan Syed for the 1999 murder of … Perhaps most crucially, however, Pusateri told the cops that Wilds called her that day and told her to come get him at Best Buy. This is where it was produced. No. True crime stories existed long before Serial brought us the case of Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee — look back at the coverage of Jack the Ripper and Black Dahlia in their time. I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a cop. Well first of all, I wasn’t openly willing to cooperate with the police. Like, he’s not in a car or anything. I didn’t think he was going to go kill her. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. And the other thing about it, I mean, there looked like there was real hurt and pain. Yes. Why is this story different from what you originally told the police? The podcast Serial changed the way listeners examined the 1999 murder of a Baltimore High School student and created a true crime phenomenon. Sarah Koenig's Serial podcast did a deep dive into the murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of Adnan Syed. I didn’t tell the cops it was in front of my house because I didn’t want to involve my grandmother. Never really a big group of friends. It was just at the end of my junior year, so about 16. Although Syed eventually confessed to killing Lee, the evidence for and against Syed’s innocence is still debatable. He said, ‘I’m gonna drive back down there [to the grave]. I only smoked with him two or three times. That’s about burying her. He says, ‘OK, follow me halfway back down the hill [towards the grave site],” so he doesn’t have to walk all the way back up the hill to get back to me in his car. Jay Wilds, Maryland's key (and only) witness at Adnan Syed's 2000 trial for murdering Hae Min Lee — which was chronicled on the hotly debated Serial podcast, which launched in October 2014 and completed its 12-episode run earlier this month — has consented to a single interview (with The Intercept) in an attempt to tell his side of the story. Jay Wilds and Adnan Syed were reportedly not close friends — but the Woodlawn High School seniors’ fates would eventually become inextricably linked through a brutal Jan. 1999 murder case, when Syed was arrested and ultimately convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Jay feels strongly that he was unfairly depicted by Koenig and that she painted a highly misleading portrayal of him and his role in the case. What else could motivate you to choke the life out of someone you cared about? She had nothing to hide, she said, she just did not want to talk about that time in her life, period,” Koenig says. His father, Don Clinedinst, still lives in the Baltimore area to this day, according to Facebook. He says he's innocent - though he can't exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. Koenig recreated the timeline, just barely making the 21-minute limit. Now I don’t wanna tell the people at Cathy’s that this guy I’m with just killed his girlfriend and the cops just called because then they would all be a part of this fucked up thing. I was also around a bunch of people earlier the day [at Cathy’s], and I didn’t want them to get fucked up with homicide. But that belief seems to have been shaken in the years since, considering what Pusateri says on camera in the docu-series. She looked kinda purple, blue, her legs were tucked behind her, she had stockings on, none of her clothes were removed, nothing like that. Before you would just go down there for drafting, shop, and everyone would co-mingle, and all the students interacted. It wasn’t just like I was selling a nickel bag here and there. When Woodlawn put in the magnet thing, they took out all the vocational classes. He knew I was afraid of that. I know it didn’t happen anywhere other than my grandmother’s house. I remember the highway traffic to my right, and I remember standing there on the curb. Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. I didn’t know it was that close. When did he first talk to you about hurting her? He calls me and says ‘I’m outside,’ so I come outside to talk to him and followed him to a different car, not his. And then I would only give them information pertaining to my interaction with someone or where I was. 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. I think that was his first real girlfriend, and I think that’s why his reaction was so strong. I think — and, look, it’s been 15 years — about 6 p.m. But on Feb. 27, 1999, investigators interviewed Pusateri again, this time with her lawyer and her mother. But that, according to what I learned later, is probably not what happened. Adnan was convicted of killing Hae in 1999, and after serving 16 years in prison he was granted a new trial thanks, in … Like she was a junior in college. And at a certain point I say, ‘Well fuck, I’m finished. Photo:  Natasha Vargas-Cooper for The Intercept, Natasha Vargas-Cooper[email protected]​theintercept.org@natashavc, Comstock Resources, a shale drilling company, apologized for describing gas prices from the Texas storm as a “jackpot.”. I’ll help you dig the hole.’. You follow me some of the way, and then I’ll take care of it.’. We got in his car and start driving. Syed is currently serving a life sentence. The other thing to understand is something about the culture of Baltimore—this is where the ‘Stop Snitching’ video comes from. I didn’t resent the students, I resented the school for setting it up like that. "She did answer my one big question, though, and her answer was yes. Yes we dig for about 40 minutes and we dig and dig, and he’s digging less and less. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn’t done it? This interview is the first time Jay has spoken publicly about events surrounding Lee’s death and the trial that ended in Syed’s conviction. I’m going to be late for practice, so just drop me off. I was a bit of an outdoorsman, adventure seeker, fishing, camping, learned to ride a motorcycle. How old were you when you first met Adnan Syed? He never said anything like, ‘Hey, what gauge gun should I use?’ or ‘How many minutes am I supposed to hold somebody under the water for?’ or, ‘Is there a statute of limitation on murder?’ I thought he was just blowing off steam and bullshitting. It takes him about half an hour, 45 minutes, and he comes back with gloves on, panting, like, ‘She was really heavy.’ That’s all he says. But when they put the magnet wing in, it was kinda like ‘these people were different from us.’ And they didn’t have to interact with us anymore. was 22 years old when he and Lee started dating; like Lee, he grew up in the Baltimore area. In “Serial” you are depicted as a petty weed dealer. During that sit-down, Pusateri said that Wilds told her Syed “strangled [Lee],” and that Wilds “said that Adnan said that Hae broke his heart.”. This is where people would have their house firebombed and still tell the police they knew nothing about it rather than to try to make some sense of what’s going on. Wherever her car was at the time I picked him up from Best Buy, it probably stayed there until he picked me up later that evening. From the way he carried himself, at least, it looked like he had never lost anything before. I guess I was being kind of a jury on whether or not people needed to be involved or whatever, but these people didn’t have anything to do with it, and I knew they didn’t have anything to do with it. Hae Min Lee The 18-year-old high school senior played varsity field hockey and lacrosse and managed the boys' wrestling team, and was due to graduate with honors with the class of 1999. He’s gone with Hae’s car. She wasn’t rude, but she was totally uninterested in talking to me. Jay’s testimony was critical to the state’s case; indeed, without his testimony it’s virtually impossible that the state could have even brought Syed to trial. What did you know about Adnan and his relationship with Hae Min Lee? The podcast asked whether her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, who was convicted of her murder, may actually be innocent, which led to several key people involved in the case being re-examined. Lee’s ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, 17, became the primary suspect in her homicide after an anonymous caller told the police to investigate him. I think there was another dude or something, or whatever. We’re sitting there smoking and he receives a phone call from the police and gets all panicky. The Serial podcast, the story of Adnan Syed and the death of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, captured the interest of millions after it aired on NPR. On Jan. 13, 1999, Hae Min Lee, an 18-year-old high school student from Baltimore, went missing. The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. I saw her body later, in front of of my grandmother’s house where I was living. The day Hae Lee was murdered, Asia McClain, a classmate of Adnan, remembers seeing and talking to him in the library. Before becoming the subject of the 2014 podcast, Serial, Adnan Syed was convicted of kidnapping and murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 2000.During that trial, there was a … I had friends but the groups were small. He seemed a little bit more uptight than the other Muslim kids that I knew. I believe I told them it was in front of ‘Cathy’s [not her real name] house, but it was in front of my grandmother’s house. What do you think? I’m also thinking, ‘What’s making him think I’m totally okay with this?’ Like if a car goes by, and I jump out and wave at them saying, ‘Hey, this is a murderer right here.’ But I didn’t. He just couldn’t come to grips with those feelings. Because at the time I was convinced that I would be going to jail for a long time if he turned me in for drug dealing, especially to high school kids. Their close friendship would ultimately drag Pusateri into Lee’s murder case: “I spoke to [Pusateri] briefly at her work, she works at a discount store. In the podcast Koenig pointedly challenged Jay’s account of events and his motivation for assisting Adnan. I’m fucking done.’ And Adnan’s like, ‘Oh, well, you’re not going to help me move her are you?’ And I’m like ‘No, I’m not gonna help you move her.’ He says, ‘Ok, well, I’m gonna need you to drive back to her car.”, Somewhere up around a corner up a hill, parked in a strange neighborhood. I don’t know. “Everything was told to me by someone else.”. Pusateri also provided more details about her interactions with Wilds after the murder — most notably Wilds tossing the dirty clothes and boots he wore that night, as well as dumping the shovels he and Syed supposedly used to dig Lee’s grave — which eventually lead to the police interviewing Wilds and then using his interviews to help justify their case against Syed. She just seemed like an older chick who happened to be in high school. He seemed under a lot of pressure to please. This is the first part in a multipart interview. She wasn’t rude, but she was totally uninterested in talking to me. There are so many reasons that explain why Adnan did not murder Hae Min Lee. Getting them in trouble for anything that they knew or that I had told them — I couldn’t have that. The victim was Hae Min Lee, whose body was found partially buried in Leakin Park, just outside of Baltimore City in Maryland after she had been missing for a month. And he’s like, ‘I’ve gotta put her car somewhere.’ So I follow him around for a few minutes, and he just picks a place at random behind some row houses, leaves her car, gets into his car, takes me home. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? “He would make you believe your shirt was green if it was blue.”. It’s starting to get dark, so between 3p.m. I had a lot more on the line than just a few bags of weed. Adnan says, ‘Just help me dig the hole.’ And I’m still thinking, ‘Inner-city black guy, selling pot to high school kids.’ The cops are going to fry me. I said, ‘Drug dealers, people who get killed by drug dealers,’ and I’m thinking to myself, ‘When did I ever say that?’ So, as I’m riding with him to the park and it starts raining and I’m thinking to myself as he pulls over—and I’m thinking this is the spot he’s chosen. ... (Jay … Initially, as “Serial” pointed out, she lied during her first interview — essentially denying she knew anything — seemingly out of fear. Is that why you didn’t initially cooperate with the police? Adnan Syed was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999. And people were starting to find out he was a loser, ‘Oh, you and Hae aren’t together anymore. “I guess at first, you know, like, I ran from it,” Pusateri says in the docu-series. It’s where I’m from. At the time, this was Maryland in the ’90s, the drug laws were extremely serious. The podcast asked whether her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, who was convicted of her murder, may actually be innocent, which led to several key people involved in the case being re-examined. Let’s back up, tell me what happened when you arrived at the Best Buy to pick up Adnan. Yeah. The docu-series, however, gets Pusateri herself on camera to discuss her relationship with Wilds. Syed was actually convicted in February 2000. So that would ruin her life too. I saw the ATF and DEA take down guys in my neighborhood for selling much less than I was at the time. After driving Wilds to the mall, Syed gives leaves both his phone and car with him. I believe she had a job also. This highlighted a major inconsistency in Wilds’ story: He flip-flopped between telling the police that he saw Lee’s dead body in the trunk of her car either behind rowhouses on Edmonson Ave or the parking lot of Best Buy. At the time of Lee's death, she was no longer dating Syed. I’m gonna kill that bitch, man.’ Nothing real pointed or anything, not like, ‘I know his name,’ or ‘I caught her.’ But I just thought he was just shooting off like everyone else shoots off when they’re mad at their girlfriend. And I found that to be a bit of a slap in the face. COMING NEXT: PART 2, Jay’s theory on the anonymous caller, why he agreed to testify in the state’s case against Adnan, and how “Serial” showed up at his front door. Pusateri and Wilds were close friends, and their matching stories helped put away Syed for life for Lee’s murder. State v. Jay Wilds Charging Papers 7 September 1999, Jay was charged with Accessory after the Fact, signed by Kevin Urick. Although parts of Wilds’ account would change as the case carried on, Pusateri would ultimately tell a court that Wilds told her that Syed confessed to killing Lee, and that Syed had shown him Lee’s dead body after the murder. We met over the weekend at his two-story suburban home. Although. So I said, ‘Look man, I’m not touching [Hae]. These connections led to police tracking down Pusateri for questioning. At that point, Lee had been missing for almost an entire month and officials had yet to assess just how exactly she died, though they did suspect homicide. When Adnan loaned you his car on Jan. 13, 1999, did he tell you it was because he planned on murdering Hae? Adnan left and then returned to my house several hours later, closer to midnight in his own car. She believed Jay then, and that hasn’t changed in the intervening years.”. But she seemed to be more mature, like she was two, three, four years older than us. I remember Adnan standing next to me. Still, despite the holes in Wilds’ recollection, Pusateri seemed to have believed her friend’s version of events before. “Me and Jay we were pretty inseparable, we were pretty tight,” Pusateri says in the second episode. I’m pretty sure it was my fear of going to prison for having a bunch of weed in my grandma’s house. Pusateri’s police interviews and court testimony (along with Wilds’ own) were instrumental in convicting Syed of the killing. I don’t necessarily know if he meant to kill Hae before he did it or if it was a sudden moment thing, but looking at his life, from what I saw, he seemed to be far out of his realm when it came to Hae leaving him. He said, ‘You’ve gotta help me, or I’m gonna tell the cops about you and the weed and all that shit.’ And then he popped the trunk and I saw Hae’s body. How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters weren’t on the beat? He might really have just been bullshitting at the time. note: Adnan worked as an emergency medical technician, not a paramedic.]. Theory: Adnan Syed Killed Hae Min Lee. We were in the car together during last period—he was ditching the last period. And I said, ‘Hey, I need to run to the mall ’cause I need to get a gift for Stephanie.’, He said then, ‘No, I gotta go do something. Joining is simple and doesn’t need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. Here are 5 of those reasons: 1. About a month later, police uncovered her body in a nearby park; an autopsy would later find that she was choked to death. She was an athlete who played lacrosse and field hockey. She had nothing to hide, she said, she just did not want to talk about that time in her life, period,”. Robert Chambers Jr. "The Preppy Killer," Explained, A Short History of ”Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy, The Teresa Halbach Murder Case, Explained, The Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes Case, Explained, Pusateri’s police interviews and court testimony (along with Wilds’ own) were instrumental in convicting Syed of the killing. I also ran the operation out of my grandmother’s house and that also put my family at risk. Jay chose not to be formally interviewed by either “This American Life” or by “Serial” host and producer, Sarah Koenig. He was having a hard enough time with that itself. It was at least a week before she died, when he found out she was either cheating on him or leaving him. We drive over to Cathy’s house to smoke. I’m being manipulated into what’s being done right now.’. 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. Because I knew football had paid for all of that, but there were few football players down there. I know that he came from a very strict religious background and that he was uneasy with some of the things he was doing. I asked him where we’re going and he says, ‘Didn’t you say everyone gets dumped in Leakin Park?’. I said, ‘Alright, cool.’ I dropped him off at school, went to the mall, then when I was done, I go back to my friend Jenn’s house, where I normally go, sit and smoke with my friend. I don’t know if she said something he couldn’t handle, and he went off the edge or if he had been seriously speculating about it. Is this when you first saw Hae’s body in the trunk of her car? The first season of Serial examined the complex case of the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, in which there seemed to be much evidence but no conclusive proof of … “Jay obviously picks and chooses what he tells, and at this point it’s created such a mess.”. “You know, I didn’t really want to face it — was hoping I could just do anything to make it go away.”. For our age group, she was really independent. I’ll call you from someone else’s phone when I’m done.’. There are three incoming calls on the call log - at 6:07 p.m., 6:09 p.m. and 6:24 p.m. - that could be these calls. But an older Pusateri seems to be questioning Wilds’ version of events several years after the fact. There are so many reasons that explain why Adnan did not murder Hae Min Lee. and 4p.m. Jay’s police and/or court interactions 1999 to 2015 submitted as evidence with Adnan’s … According to Lee's journal and her … There’s plenty of mysterious physical evidence (or a lack thereof) The big reveal of the final episode … It doesn’t seem like enough of a reason to not talk to the police. Stephanie [Jay’s girlfriend] came to me and said ‘Adnan is pretty cool,’ plus he wanted to buy some weed. Pusateri and Wilds were close friends, and their matching stories helped put away Syed for life for Lee’s murder. I knew him because I knew Muslims in the community from playing basketball at the mosque. I worked a lot. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. According to the state's timeline, Hae Min Lee would have had to make that trip -- and Adnan would have had to strangle her and run to the pay phone to call Jay -- in 21 minutes, right as post-school bell traffic was in full force. ... when Syed calls his friend Jay Wilds. But there was a grand jury hearing on this case, and I have an idea who might have based on that hearing. Went canoeing. He was magnet. No. Don. When was the first time you hung out with Adnan? I follow him halfway back down the hill, park, smoke some cigarettes. Once the police made it clear that my drug dealing wasn’t gonna affect the outcome of what was going on, I became a little bit more transparent. The inclusion of congressional phone data in the FBI investigation raises thorny constitutional questions. No. Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland defended hiring lawyers with Big Tech experience at yesterday’s confirmation hearing. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more! Where was Hae’s car? The story of Syed, who was convicted in 2000 of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in Baltimore, was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.” ... Jay Wilds. Did you make the anonymous call to the police to tip them off about Adnan? A retrial was called in 2016 because of a potential mistrial. He came back with no tools or anything. “I really thought that everything I knew was like hearsay, because I didn’t see anything, I didn’t experience anything,” Pusateri says in the docu-series.

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