Judge Pushes Preliminary Hearing For Former UA Basketball Player Accused Of Capital Murder

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A Tuscaloosa County district judge has continued the preliminary hearing in a capital murder case involving a former Alabama basketball player until later this month.

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Tuscaloosa County District Judge Joanne E. Jannik ruled on Wednesday that the preliminary hearing for former Crimson Tide forward Darius Miles will be moved from the initial date of Feb. 7 until Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. in the courtroom inside the Tuscaloosa County Jail.

According to court documents obtained by Patch, state prosecutors asked to move the date back due to a shortage of other assistant district attorneys available to work the hearing.

The delay was also reportedly caused by an unrelated jury trial that's scheduled through Feb. 17, which prompted a request to push Miles' preliminary hearing.

As Patch previously reported, Miles, 21, and 20-year-old Michael Lynn Davis of Charles County, Maryland were both charged with capital murder in the shooting death of Jamea Harris following a minor altercation on The Strip near the UA campus in the early morning hours Sunday.

The Turner Law Group, which represents Miles and has formally requested he be released on bond, has cited that the former UA basketball player has no prior criminal record, is not a flight risk and would submit to monitoring by Tuscaloosa Community Corrections.

Both Miles and Davis were jailed without bond on the capital charges, due to firing into an occupied vehicle during the fatal shooting as the underlying felony charge.

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Both men have had their initial appearances in court and remain in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond ahead of their preliminary hearings before the case is presented to the grand jury.

As Patch previously reported, both Miles and Davis were identified as suspects after a vehicle where Harris had been riding in the passenger seat pulled up to a University of Alabama Police vehicle at the Walk on Champions Sunday morning around 1:45 a.m.

Harris had been sitting in the passenger seat when she was struck by gunfire and died before receiving medical treatment. The driver of the vehicle claimed he had been involved in a shoot-out after the altercation earlier on the Strip.

Miles admitted to investigators he gave Davis the gun that was used in the fatal shooting, but other circumstances of Harris' death remain unclear.

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