--- title: Serial Prosecutor Kevin Urick Goes on the Record About Adnan Syed description: Prosecutor Kevin Urick goes on the record for the first time canonical: https://time.com/3658371/serial-prosecutor-kevin-urick-adnan-syed/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-07T23:26:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T20:22:03.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Serial Prosecutor Kevin Urick Goes on the Record About Adnan Syed og:description: Prosecutor Kevin Urick goes on the record for the first time og:url: https://time.com/3658371/serial-prosecutor-kevin-urick-adnan-syed/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Serial Prosecutor Kevin Urick Goes on the Record About Adnan Syed twitter:description: Prosecutor Kevin Urick goes on the record for the first time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Prosecutor in _Serial_ Case Says Murder Was 'Run of the Mill' Domestic Violence > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:22 PM UTCPublished: Jan 7, 2015 11:26 PM UTC  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 8:22 PM UTCPublished: Jan 7, 2015 11:26 PM UTC Even though _Serial_, the world’s most popular podcast, ended last year, lawyers, journalists and Redditors are still trying to determine whether Adnan Syed killed his high school ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1994. _Serial_ podcast host Sarah Koenig was unable to secure an interview with the prosecutor in Syed’s case, Kevin Urick, on the podcast itself. But the lawyer finally spoke out about the 15-year-old crime story on Wednesday in the [first part](https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/07/prosecutor-serial-case-goes-record/) of a two-part interview with _The Intercept,_ saying that, contrary to the beliefs of many Serial fans, the case was a “run of the mill” domestic violence murder. As Urick tells it, Syed was rightfully convicted of Lee’s murder. He does not believe anyone else could have committed the crime because the testimony of the prosecution’s chief witness, Jay, lined up with the records of cellphone calls made by him and Syed on the supposed day of the murder. What about Syed’s apparent lack of a clear motive? “Motive is not an element of the crime and the state does not have to prove motive,” he said. “We can put it out there as an explanation but it’s not essential to prove guilt.” Urick claimed Sarah Koenig, who reported the case for the podcast, did not reach out to him until less than a week before the podcast’s final episode, and only did so to quiz him on whether he yelled at a witness for not making Syed seem “creepy enough” on the stand. (He claims he did not.) Julie Snyder, a producer on _Serial_, told _The Intercept_ that Koenig’s team had actually tried to contact him many times. “We reached out to Kevin Urick multiple times, at multiple locations, during the winter of 2014, about nine months before the podcast began airing,” she said. “Urick did not respond to any of those interview requests.” **MORE:** [The Innocence Project Tells _Serial_ Fans What Might Happen Next](http://time.com/3639655/serial-innocence-project-deirdre-enright/) The prosecutor told _The Intercept_ he had not responded to a request for interview from Koenig because he didn’t think she would tell his side fairly and he was concerned about “causing any further anguish” for the victim’s family. Urick also claimed that Asia McLean — a fellow student who wrote to Syed before his initial trial, saying that she remembered seeing him in the library at the time of Lee’s murder — contacted the prosecutor before Syed’s post-conviction hearing to say she was under a lot of pressure from the Syed family. Read the first part of the full interview [here.](https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/07/prosecutor-serial-case-goes-record/) **UPDATE:** Serial has responded in a series of tweets to Urick’s claim that the producers of the show only contacted him once. > [](https://twitter.com/serial/status/553251149881831424) > [](https://twitter.com/serial/status/553251254810705921) > [](https://twitter.com/serial/status/553251357545992193) > [](https://twitter.com/serial/status/553251440303812608) **MORE:** [I Started _Serial_, But It Didn’t End the Way I Had Hoped](http://time.com/3641263/serial-adnan-sarah-koenig-murder/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3658371/serial-prosecutor-kevin-urick-adnan-syed/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3658371/serial-prosecutor-kevin-urick-adnan-syed/"},"headline":"Prosecutor in Serial Case Says Murder Was 'Run of the Mill' Domestic Violence","datePublished":"2015-01-07T23:26:08.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T20:22:03.000Z","description":"Prosecutor Kevin Urick goes on the record for the first time","url":"https://time.com/3658371/serial-prosecutor-kevin-urick-adnan-syed/","keywords":["Podcast","Serial"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/podcast/","name":"Podcast"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3658371/serial-prosecutor-kevin-urick-adnan-syed/","name":"Prosecutor in Serial Case Says Murder Was 'Run of the Mill' Domestic Violence"}}]}] ```