Former Alabama basketball star Darius Miles will stand trial for capital murder on December 1, more than two years after he was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Jamea Harris in Tuscaloosa.
The date has been set and the trial will take place in Alabama Circuit Court, after Miles – now 23 – was accused of ‘aiding and abetting’ co-defendant Michael Lynn Davis.
Davis has already been found guilty of capital murder, after firing a gun into Harris’ Jeep during a shootout with her boyfriend Cedric Johnson in January 2023.
A bullet struck and killed the 23-year-old Harris while she sat in the front passenger seat of the vehicle.
Prosecutors will argue that ex-Alabama star Miles provided childhood friend Davis with the gun. In Davis’ trial, his defense attorneys made the argument that Davis was protecting himself from Johnson when he fired the gun.
Previously, the death penalty was taken off the table for Miles by the state of Alabama, and he has been held without bond in Tuscaloosa County Jail since his arrest on January 15, 2023.
Former Alabama forward Darius Miles will face capital murder charges at a trial in December
Jamea Harris was shot to death near the University of Alabama campus on January 15, 2023
He was removed from the Alabama basketball team on the same day, after playing 53 games and averaging 4.2 points per game.
The shocking case also previously involved now-Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller.
Tuscaloosa police testified that Miller delivered a handgun to then-Alabama teammate Miles, which was ultimately used by another man, Michael Lynn Davis, to kill Harris.
While Davis has been found guilty and Miles is awaiting his capital murder trial, Miller has now been arrested in the case. His attorneys have always stated that he never handled the firearm and did not have any idea that the shooting would take place.
Brandon Miller continued to star for Alabama and has since been drafted to the NBA
In June 2023, five months after the shooting, he was drafted to the NBA – and Michael Jordan’s team in Charlotte – with the No 2 overall pick.
It is as yet unclear whether Miller will return to Alabama to testify in Miles’ capital murder trial. He did at Davis’ trial, which resulted in him being found guilty of capital murder in May of this year.
Davis was sentenced – by Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court judge Daniel F. Pruet – to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
