'Life Can Be Cruel': Kai Spears Testifies As New Details Surface In NYT Defamation Trial

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Former University of Alabama men's basketball player Kai Spears testified Monday as his defamation trial against the New York Times entered its second week.

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The eight-person jury also heard additional video testimony from former Crimson Tide basketball manager Cooper Lee, which provided even more insight into the night and morning of a fatal shooting near the Tuscaloosa Strip that resulted in the death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris of Birmingham.

As Patch previously reported, Lee was in the passenger seat of former Alabama standout and eventual No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft Brandon Miller's car when the shootout on Grace Street occurred in the early morning jours of Jan. 15, 2023.

New York Times sportswriter Billy Witz later published a story on March 15, 2023 — the eve of Alabama's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament opener against Texas A&M Corpus Christi the following day— that relied on a lone anonymous source who said it was actually Spears in the vehicle with Miller.

Despite the University of Alabama, Spears' family and the young basketball player himself all issuing statements in the immediate aftermath of the story's publication, an official correction was not published by the newspaper until June 2023.

While on the stand Monday, Spears reflected back to the hours before the shooting, which followed Alabama's 106–66 blowout win over LSU in Coleman Coliseum.

Spears recalled how he and some friends who were visiting from out of town had dinner at Waffle House on The Strip following the game and then spent some time at Bryant Hall before going to another friend's apartment.

Spears went on to say he and at least one of his friends were picked up by Miller, before the group went to Moe's Original BBQ on University Boulevard for about an hour.

"[Miller] was one of the best players I've ever seen in person and just a good dude," Spears testified.

A walk-on at the time who received a scholarship during his sophomore season in Tuscaloosa, Spears said the group decided to call it a night around 1:40 a.m. and said he never heard the gunshots that rang out about five minutes later.

Spears later testified that he was 18 years old at the time, so would not have been old enough to get into Moe's. Miller, considered one of the best players in the country, was a 20-year-old freshman and also would not have been old enough to purchase alcohol.

"Brandon Miller got us in because he's Brandon Miller," Lee testified about how the group was able to get past bouncers at Moe's.

Nevertheless, Spears said on the stand that he had enough to drink to become intoxicated but not to the point he couldn't remember what happened.

It should be pointed out here that Spears had decided to stay a little longer with his friends at Moe's, while Miller opted to leave with Lee in his passenger seat.

Spears' group then made the short drive back to Bryant Hall, where they sat in the dorm's parking lot.

It was around this time that Spears testified he received a FaceTime call from his Crimson Tide teammate Jaden Bradley, who was present on Grace Street at the time of the shooting.

While on the call, Bradley showed Spears two bullet holes in the windshield of a vehicle that was later determined to belong to Miller.

Lee also made his way to the dorm, where he testified that he sought out Spears to speak with him about what had just happened on Grace Street.

During his video testimony, Lee provided some new insights into the events of the shooting, namely when the jury saw dash camera video from Miller's car that has not been shown in previous proceedings for the criminal cases.

This revelation comes after Michael Lynn Davis and former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles can be seen walking up to Miller's car and retrieving Miles' handgun from the back seat during a brief verbal exchange that has since become infamous in media coverage.

Still, Lee can be heard at one point asking what the two men are doing before someone, presumably Miller, can be heard saying something to the effect of "That [n-word] Buzz [Davis] is about to handle some business."

Lee said under oath that he initially did not recall relating this exchange to investigators before changing his story when he was shown the dash camera video.

At another point in his testimony, Lee said Miller told him "don't tell anyone you saw this," before Lee explained "I didn't get the sense [Miller] was concerned about himself."

Lee also testified that he was thrown into a panic by the shooting — something corroborated by Spears on the stand.

"He was scared and he just wanted someone to listen to him and be there with him in that moment because he was just struggling," Spears said. " You could see it on his face. He's crying and, honestly, he just needed someone to love on him then."

The next morning, Spears awoke to numerous missed calls and messages as news of the shooting began to circulate just hours before the public learned that Miles, along with his childhood friend from Maryland, had both been charged with capital murder.

After speaking with his father who encouraged Spears to establish a clear timeline for police to clear his name, he then met with law enforcement and was never considered to have any involvement in the fatal shooting.

A Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigator then drove Spears to Coleman Coliseum, where the team had been called for a meeting with the coaching staff and UA Athletic Department administrators.

Spears testified that during this meeting, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats told the team that it would soon be facing adversity but needed to be there for Miles, while also acknowledging the tragic death of Harris, who left behind a young son.

"[Oats] was emphasizing that we need to stick together as a team and that we got to uplift each other and that we also need to be there and be praying for Darius," Spears said. "And even though we've just got to be supportive of him and try to help him out the best we can, he also really emphasized the tragedy that happened that night with Ms. Harris and he told us about her having a young son."

Regarding this team meeting where Oats addressed players and staff, Lee testified that the coach was "hammering" the fact that they had to support Miles.

"Oats came in to talk to us about last night and said 'we've got to be sympathetic to Darius, we have to be by his side during this tragedy,'" Lee testified. "Oats is an interesting guy. Sometimes he says things that don't really make sense and this was one of them. ... [It wasn't about defending Miles] but being on his side. Oats' way with words is interesting."

Before Spears' name would be dragged into the narrative by the New York Times' erroneous reporting, he testified about how Miller reacted when his name first entered the conversation around the fatal shooting following a highly publicized preliminary hearing on Feb. 21, 2023.

Spears told the jury that he and Miller, who were both freshmen at the time, were in a study hall session in a hotel during a road game trip when the news broke on ESPN that Miller had not just been at the scene but had allegedly brought Miles the gun eventually used by Davis during the deadly shooting.

He then remembered how ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith said Miller should not be on the team and "should be in jail."

"[Miller] got pretty emotional that night in the hotel and ended up calling his mom," Spears said. "I didn't really know what to do, but I was trying to be the best friend I could to him at the moment."

Testimony on Monday once again returned to the open locker room media availability at Birmingham's Legacy Arena where Spears was approached for the first and only time by Witz.

The jury was played Witz's own recording of the exchange and Spears recalled how the reporter "stammered" over his words and had a difficult time asking his lone question about what it was like for the walk-on to have been in Miller's car during the shooting.

Spears told the jury that Witz did not seem "empathetic" in the moment and never asked Spears if he had actually been the passenger seat in the vehicle.

Instead, based on his own testimony earlier this week, Witz had already concluded Spears had been in the car and tailored his question to reflect this belief that was only reinforced by information from one anonymous source.

Following a players-only meeting that evening, Spears was making his way down a hotel hallway when his teammate Rylan Griffen showed him the New York Times article that had been posted to social media and was already gaining significant traction.

"[L]ife can be cruel sometimes and this was like kind of the first moment for me when I experienced that moment where life is cruel," Spears said. "I was just by myself in that moment, too, and yeah, it was sad. I felt a little helpless in the moment. I wasn't sure how to react."

Spears said he also was concerned about his father, Christian Spears, who was named in the story due to his role as the athletic director at Marshall University.

"I was worried about it because I didn't want what the
article said about me to negatively reflect anything on him ... so that's kind of where my initial thoughts went," Spears testified.

Christian Spears, along with Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne and the University of Alabama Athletic Department, each released statements saying the details of the New York Times story were inaccurate.

However, despite the newspaper updating its story with all three denials, Spears' name remained in the story as its central focus and he would eventually begin to feel some of the personal heat that had been aimed at Miller.

He then mentioned the No. 1 overall seed Crimson Tide's tournament opener against Texas A&M Corpus Christi the day after the NYT story was published.

"It was the first time I've ever been heckled like that," he told the jury. "There were people screaming my name and number, saying I was a killer and a murderer. ... I was really just hurt. All of those people are strangers and don't know who you are."

The heckling wasn't limited to faceless fans in the crowd, either.

Spears told the jury about one incident in particular where he was walking along The Strip to get something to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill.

"I was walking alone," Spears said. "I knew they were kind of fraternity dudes and they were across the street. They recognized me and these are my fellow students and they're screaming at me that I'm a killer in public on The Strip."

The pressure began to affect his ability to focus that spring semester and his grades began to suffer, Spears said, resulting in the freshman having to drop the only class of his college career when his marks started to slip.

When asked about how he felt after it was revealed that it was Lee in the car with Miller, Spears testified that it didn't provide much relief.

"It would have never taken away from what I had to deal with when it originally was published," he said. "Then also I was feeling for Cooper, too, because he was worried about having his name mentioned because he didn't want to go through anything that [Miller] and I went through and I was thinking of that, too."

Cross examination of Spears will resume Tuesday morning in the Richard Shelby Federal Building and Courthouse.

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