Alabama basketball star and NBA prospect Brandon Miller has been linked to a murder case against teammate Darius Miles after he provided a firearm used to kill a woman in Tuscaloosa last month, according to police.
On Tuesday, Tuscaloosa Detective Branden Culpepper testified that Miles texted Miller on Jan. 15, asking his then-teammate to take his gun to an off-campus area, where they later killed shots at 23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris. Miller allegedly complied, turning the gun on Miles and another man, Michael Lynn Davis, who face capital murder charges in Harris’s death.
When Miller arrived on the scene, he contacted Miles in a text message, writing that “the heat is in the hat” and adding that “there’s one in the head,” according to Culpepper. As the detective explained, Miller was allegedly indicating that there was a gun in a hat inside his car with a bullet in the chamber.
While Miles was fired from the Crimson Tide basketball team before his murder trial, Miller has not been charged by authorities.
Paula Whitley, Tuscaloosa’s deputy district manager, declined to disclose al.com why Miller was not charged, saying, ‘That’s not a question I can answer. There is nothing we can accuse him of.
Alabama basketball star and NBA prospect Brandon Miller (pictured) has been linked to a murder case against teammate Darius Miles after allegedly providing a firearm used to kill a woman in Tuscaloosa last month, according to police.
Darius Miles (left) and Michael Lynn Davis (right) have been charged with capital murder. Miles has since been cut from the Crimson Tide basketball team.
The school’s athletic department was already aware of the allegations against Miller.
“We knew about that,” Crimson Tide basketball coach Nate Oats told reporters Tuesday. ‘I can’t control everything someone does outside of practice. Nobody knew that this was going to happen. …Brandon hasn’t been in any kind of trouble, nor is he in any kind of trouble in this case. Wrong place at the wrong time.
Oats insisted Tuesday that the program has been “fully cooperating with law enforcement at all times.”
He also said that ‘the whole situation is sad’.
The 6-foot-9 Miller is the Tide’s leading scorer at 18.7 points per game, and is expected to be a lottery pick in the June NBA Draft. Both ESPN and NBADraft.net have Miller among the top five picks.
Last month, the University of Alabama said in a statement that Miles was no longer on the basketball team.
Miles has maintained his innocence and his lawyers say he is “heartbroken” by the tragedy.
“While Darius has been charged with involvement in this tragedy, he maintains his innocence and looks forward to his day in court,” Miles’s lawyers said in January.
The attorneys for Miles and Davis requested that their respective clients release me on bail at Tuesday’s preliminary hearing.
Tuscaloosa County District Judge Joanne Jannik denied the request, ruling there is enough evidence against Miles and Davis to send the case to a grand jury for possible indictment.
Both Miles and Davis were in tears at the end of Tuesday’s hearing, according to AL.com.
Harris, the mother of a five-year-old boy, was visiting her cousin and boyfriend in Tuscaloosa when she was shot and killed in the early morning of January 15.
“She has a 5-year-old son who is still waiting for his mother to come home,” DeCarla Heard, Harris’s mother, told reporters. ‘I want justice for my grandson.’
Jamea Harris, 23, of the Birmingham area was fatally shot, police confirmed.
Alabama’s basketball program was already aware of the allegations against Miller. “We knew about that,” Crimson Tide basketball coach Nate Oats (pictured) told reporters Tuesday. ‘I can’t control everything someone does outside of practice. Nobody knew that this was going to happen. …Brandon hasn’t been in any kind of trouble, nor is he in any kind of trouble in this case. Wrong place at the wrong time’
Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama police were dispatched to the Walk of Champions at Bryant Denny Stadium, the school’s football field, at 1:45 a.m. on January 15 when a shooting was reported.
It was there that police met Harris’s boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, who said he sped away from the scene of the shooting after his vehicle was hit by gunfire. Johnson told police that he returned fire in self-defense and that he may have hit one of the suspects, believed to be Davis.
Investigators later determined that the shooting occurred in the 400 block of Grace Street at University Boulevard, near many bars and restaurants.
Harris’s mother, Heard, previously told AL.com that the suspects tried to talk to her daughter, who told them she had a boyfriend and was not interested in their advances.
Court records obtained by AL.com indicate that Davis fired the fatal shots, while Miles admitted to supplying Davis with the gun.
Miles was originally dropped off at the scene by Miller, who did not stay because the line at a local club, Twelve25, was too long, according to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing.
Miles was originally dropped off at the scene by Miller, who did not stay because the line at a local club, Twelve25, was too long, according to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing.
The initial encounter occurred after Harris, Johnson and Harris’s cousin, Asia Humphrey, left the club for a bite to eat at a nearby grill, where they ran into Davis, according to police.
Davis tried to talk to Harris, but Johnson told her she wasn’t interested in him, Culpepper said, adding that she “got a little high.”
Miles allegedly sent Miller a text, saying, “I need my joint,” which police say is slang for a gun.
Miles has maintained his innocence and his lawyers say he is “heartbroken” by the tragedy.
After Miller returned, Miles and Davis walked to his car before approaching the victims, according to police.
Davis then said, “I told you I was going to get you,” according to Tuesday’s testimony, and fired at least eight shots at the Jeep.
Harris was hit in the face.
Miller’s car was hit twice in the ensuing exchange of fire.
The victims fled in the Jeep to the Paseo de los Campeones, where they were met by police. Harris was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
Police say they received a 911 call from Miles, who said his friend, Davis, had been shot.
Miles told police he did not know how or where it happened.
In later police interviews, Miles said that he and his girlfriend picked Davis up after the shooting.
Police later told Miles that the incident was caught on a nearby surveillance camera, leading Miles to admit that he was at the scene of the shooting.
Miles admitted to contacting Miller to get his gun back, but said Davis was the one who got it from Miller’s vehicle, according to police.
Davis claimed to be drunk and struggled to remember how the shooting occurred.
Defense attorneys have suggested that Miles and Davis may have feared for their lives after initially seeing a gun in the victims’ vehicle.
“The reason the gun was released to Michael Davis was for protection,” attorney Mary Turner argued Tuesday.
