COLUMN: A Most Absurd Circus

*This is an opinion column*

TUSCALOOSA, AL — I stood with a small group of reporters gathered outside the Tuscaloosa County Jail Tuesday as we waited for a statement from the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's Office.

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This followed a three-hour preliminary hearing in the capital murder cases of Darius Miles and Michael Davis, where the tiny courtroom inside the jail was packed to capacity, becoming standing-room only for many in attendance. Both men were denied bond and now the case is set to go to the grand jury and possibly a trial.

The scene outside the jail was a rare one and Assistant District Attorney Paula Whitley justifiably chided the scrum of reporters when asking us if we knew there had been other murders that had occurred since the shooting death of Jamea Harris in the early morning hours of Jan. 15.

The thought sailed right past most as camera equipment was adjusted and soundbite questions began flying before she could even clip on her mic. The media has a job to do and I don't fault them for their urgency.

Save for only a couple, nearly every outlet present had doubled up their coverage and, when considering the level of social media attention the story had already received, the entire event seemed to have devolved into a carnival-like atmosphere of lurid curiosity.

Indeed, by the time I made the 20-minute drive home to Northport and before I could type a single word, there had already been follow-up stories written to accompany the coverage of the preliminary hearing.

What's more, conspiracy theorists and the faceless hordes on Twitter began sharing screenshots of Whitley's profile from the District Attorney's website to argue that she must be running point for some kind of cover-up, given that she is a University of Alabama graduate. Never mind that her boss, District Attorney Hays Webb, got his undergraduate degree from Auburn before attending law school at UA.

"You're overmatched and out of your depth," I kept saying to myself over and over and over.

After weeks of holding off, I can finally say that several of us in the media have known since the morning of the shooting that other University of Alabama basketball players were at least in the periphery when Harris was shot and killed in the passenger seat of her Jeep as it sat on Grace Street. To what degree still remains a question from those of us on the outside.

What we know and what we can prove are two different things and far be it from me to publish rumors and conjecture, which can already be seen in abundance.

Still, these facts were only confirmed on Tuesday when a Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigator on the witness stand mentioned that the gun used in the fatal shooting had been transported to its lawful owner, Darius Miles, by none other than Brandon Miller — a likely top-3 pick in the next NBA Draft and a big reason for much of Alabama's success on the hardwood this year.

This detail, however, realized the sum of all of my fears in regards to this story — a situation where nobody wins.

It's been widely reported, including by myself, that Miller has cooperated with investigators and is not likely to face any charges. It's almost become a foregone conclusion because, after all, intent is what's at the center of this case.

Gun laws have also presented a point of confusion for members of the public, with many questioning the legality of Miles having the gun or the pistol being in Miller's Dodge Charger. What's lost in this angle is knowledge of Alabama's new permitless carry gun law that went into effect Jan. 1, which allows gun owners to carry their unregistered handguns in a vehicle without a pistol permit.

After Miller's attorney released a two-page statement Wednesday reaffirming his client's innocence, the highly touted freshman was allowed to travel with the team and took the court last night in Columbia, South Carolina to a chorus of boos, with some fans chanting "lock him up."

Distractions aside, Miller went on to a career night, scoring 41 points in the overtime win.

Still, despite Miller professing his innocence and showing character on the court, the narrative has been set and his guilt swiftly determined by the court of public opinion.

For instance, college basketball guru Dick Vitale, who is normally a well-respected statesman for the game, said he was "shocked" by the comments made by Alabama coach Nate Oats, but even more shocked that Miller wasn't suspended for "providing a gun to a teammate that was used in a murder."

Were you in the same courtroom I was, Dick?

What are you going to suspend him for? Cooperating with investigators?

Suspending someone until "all the facts are known" does not due process constitute. So, Mr. Vitale, maybe it's best you stick with your cornball catchphrases.

I might be out of my depth with respect to this situation, but the bald-faced absurdity from hucksters in national media, who likely couldn't point out Tuscaloosa on a map, is simply too much to take sitting down.

Clay Travis, a right-wing provocateur and shameless dilettante, also attracted the ire of Alabama fans for his tacky comments about Miller. This, of course, came between his own bragging about how rich and smart he is — the only topics he ever speaks positively on.

Travis rapid-fire tweeted about Miller's guilt throughout Alabama's eventual overtime win at South Carolina, at one point saying "Killer instinct shown by Brandon Miller tonight" — nearly in the same breath as his calling for justice for the "innocent mother" killed in the shooting.

Then, once the game was over, he was on to his next complaint, but not before his openly partisan news outlet OutKick posted a story Thursday that said "Brandon Miller's gun was used in the murder of a 23-year-old woman."

Blatant character assassination for nothing more than cheap hate-clicks.

For a culture warrior seemingly so obsessed with occupying the moral high ground on all issues controversial and otherwise, he seemed more interested in openly jeering at a 20-year-old basketball player than advocating for due process in the case.

And I guess the schtick is working, too, because I'm wasting valuable space writing about it.

At any rate, I and most of my colleagues in the local media certainly derive no pleasure from tagging additional names to such a tragic story. Respect for the victim has already been lost at this point and to reiterate, this is a scenario where nobody wins.

But for many, especially pundits who are paid handsomely for their opinions, the entire situation has ginned up fodder of epic proportions and provided an opportunity for social media engagement that is simply too rich to pass up.

Opportunists, especially in national media, live for such moments and build their entire brands around them. They could care less if you or I think their opinion is nonsense.

While many, especially outside the fan base, were quick to lampoon the capital murder arrest of Darius Miles, it goes without saying that Miles played only a minor role on the team.

My coverage in January did receive substantial engagement based on the notion that Miles was a UA basketball player, but persisted mostly as a local story. Miller, on the other hand, is arguably the most famous player in college basketball right now and his name entering the narrative became the difference in me being asked to speak on a local radio station and getting a request to appear on national television to talk about the case.

The reaction to the news of Miller's presence the night of the murder set off a public relations firestorm for the university, with much of the criticism leveled at head basketball coach Nate Oats and Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne.

To a degree, the criticism is justified, in this reporter's opinion, but not for the same reasons bemoaned by national pundits.

No, the issue for me is in the bungled response by the university and its apparent inability to get out front on the matter to protect the players who are innocent. And for transparency's sake, if nothing else.

Coach Oats, who has done more for this program than anyone expected, deserves the flack he caught for his comment that Miller was at the "wrong spot, wrong time" ... but why was he in a position to make such a tone-deaf statement?

In his follow-up apology immediately following the win over South Carolina, Oats said he would not make any excuses, before going on to make the excuse that he was not privy to the information released during Tuesday's preliminary hearing, which somewhat overlapped with his regular noon press conference.

His boss — Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne — did little to calm the situation earlier in the day and, instead, chastised his coach's poor choice of words in a televised interview with Alabama alum and ESPN commentator Rece Davis.

Were there no conversations had between Byrne and Oats Tuesday regarding the preliminary hearing? Was the planning on Tuesday that poor?

Does the university not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers to counsel their coaches in these kinds of scenarios? Where was the communication?

And what else did the university know at the time of the shooting?

If a lowly ink-stained wretch like me knew the day of the shooting that Miller and Jaden Bradley were also tangentially involved or at the scene, surely the big wigs on campus knew the gist of what happened well before they issued any public comment.

Unfortunately, the narrative that the UA administration only learned of certain details once the preliminary hearing was held Tuesday is a difficult one to reckon with, knowing what we have known about the case for weeks — information that has since been corroborated, but openly discussed on the streets since the shooting occurred.

Even so, I doubt seriously if any of these questions will ever be answered. But with every misstep and each new revelation, this absurd circus only grows in scope and toxicity.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The views expressed in this column are his own and in no way reflective of any views held by our parent company or sponsors.