Juvenile Justice Case Summary

On January 13, 1999, tragedy struck when Hae Min Lee went missing after what seemed to be a normal day at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Then on February 9, 1999, Lee’s body was found buried in Leakin Park, just a seven minute drive from the high school. Lee’s former boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was seventeen at the time of the murder and attended the same school as Lee. They had an on-and-off relationship that officially ended in December of their senior year, just one month before her disappearance. Syed remained the prime suspect in the case and was arrested on February 28, 1999 and charged with first-degree murder. Throughout the trial, the prosecution claimed that Syed was so broken after the break-up, that he murdered Lee out of rage. Lee’s diary was brought in as evidence as she wrote about Syed’s behavior after the break up and details of their relationship. The prosecution also summoned a witness that spoke of Syed’s suspicious behavior, leading up to and after the murder. There were several pieces of key evidence and convincing claims presented in the 1999-2000 trial. The prosecution’s work convinced the jury to produce Syed’s guilty verdict, sentencing him to life in prison. Syed’s friend, Jay Wilds, was the a crucial witness in the
trial. Jay told investigators that Syed stated he was going to “kill this bitch”, referring to Lee, on several different occasions. In addition to the verbal statements expressing his intent to kill, Jay also told investigators that Syed showed him Lee’s dead body in the trunk of his car following the murder. After showing him the body, Syed persuaded Jay to drop him off at track practice so he could have an alibi for the murder. After investigators searched through phone records, they found that calls were made between the two several times throughout the day, which corroborated Jay’s timeline. These records assisted with the investigator’s official timeline for Syed the day of the murder. One of the few pieces of physical evidence included a note Syed wrote to Aisha while passing notes in class. On one of the notes Syed wrote that he was going to kill Lee. Aisha thought nothing of it and did not report it. Another piece of physical evidence found throughout the investigation was a map with Syed’s fingerprints in the back of Lee’s car. His fingerprints were mainly found on the vicinity of Leakin Park. Experts who testified, however, said that there is no way to tell the exact age of the prints. In the end, the map, note, and witness accounts were clear pieces of evidence pointing to Syed as the murderer. As there was no explicit evidence found pointing to another suspect, the investigation depended on Syed’s verbal and written intent to kill Lee, Jay’s story, and Lee’s diary. The evidence proves that Syed was inarguably guilty of Hae Min Lee’s murder.
Throughout the entire trial, the prosecution proved to be trustworthy.
Prosecutors Kevin Urick with thirteen years on the job, showed their experience from past cases. The entire team was skilled in the courtroom and presented their case in a way that shut down the defense. They were able to connect all the pieces of evidence to complete the story of Hae Min Lee’s death, convincing the jury of Syed’s guilt. The fact that Syed did not want to testify in court, only pushed the jury closer to conviction. This and Jay’s witness account helped the jury to arrive at the guilty verdict. All evidence presented pointed in Adnan Syed’s direction, leaving no doubt that he was guilty of strangling Hae Min Lee to death in
1999.