{"id":125916,"date":"2026-02-07T02:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125916\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T02:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T02:13:05","slug":"former-new-york-jets-first-round-pick-charged-with-first-degree-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125916\/","title":{"rendered":"Former New York Jets first-round pick charged with first-degree murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated Feb. 6, 2026, 8:33 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Former first-round pick Darron Lee has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Reportedly, Lee murdered his girlfriend per various outlets including TMZ Sports.<\/p>\n

According to jail records, Lee is being held without bond and has a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 11. Lee’s girlfriend was found on Thursday:<\/p>\n

Lee, 31, was the 20th overall pick of the Jets<\/a> in the 2016 NFL draft. He spent three seasons in New York.<\/p>\n

Lee went on to play for the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills<\/a> briefly before an early retirement.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Feb. 6, 2026, 8:33 p.m. ET Former first-round pick Darron Lee has been charged with first-degree murder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,9,11,10,1673,1674,948,4503,10217,1935,1052,9609,17730,1334,950,1675,932,947,1047,691,6568,949,9608,682],"class_list":{"0":"post-125916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-sstssportsnfljets","13":"tag-sstsnjets","14":"tag-tagamerican-football","15":"tag-tagbasketball","16":"tag-tagbuffalo-bills","17":"tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","18":"tag-tagcrime-justice","19":"tag-tagdeath-tragedy","20":"tag-taggossip-tabloid-news","21":"tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnew-york-jets","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagnfl-hub","26":"tag-tagoverall-negative","27":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","28":"tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-tagviolence-abuse","31":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}