Attorney For Jamea Harris Murder Suspect Files Amended Motion For Dismissal

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The defense attorney for one of the capital murder suspects in the shooting death of a young Birmingham mother nearly a year ago has amended his client's motion for dismissal.

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Initially filed by Birmingham attorney John Robbins on Dec. 26, 2023, the amended motion comes after a hearing earlier in the month lasting roughly three minutes that saw Michael Lynn Davis of Charles County, Maryland, request a pre-trial immunity hearing and dismissal of the capital murder charge against him.

The brief hearing was sparsely attended and lasted roughly three minutes.

As Patch previously reported, Circuit Court Judge Daniel Pruet explained that the wording of the defense's motion was near verbatim to the same motion made over the summer by Darius Miles — the former Alabama basketball player also charged in the Jan. 15 shooting death of Birmingham mother Jamea Harris.

During the hearing on Dec. 12, Pruet granted a request by Robbins for a continuance of 14 days to amend the motion before the hearing resumes later this month.

For the sake of the case's expediency and to avoid redundant arguments that had already been made at length, Judge Pruet cited his decision to deny Miles pre-trial immunity in October as his reasoning for allowing the defense for Davis to retool its motion and return at a later date.

In the amended motion filed just before the new year, Robbins argues that while the Black Jeep owned by Harris was stopped at the corner of Grace Street and University Boulevard, her boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, began to make threatening statements to Davis as he stood on the corner.

It was during this altercation that Miles, during his pre-trial immunity hearing, claimed he saw Harris pass a gun to Johnson, who was sitting in the back seat of the Jeep. Robbins says that Miles told Davis he saw the gun passed to Johnson, while attorneys for the former Alabama basketball player insist he was trying to de-escalate the situation.

"Davis believed that Cedric Johnson's actions, leaving the Grace Street area
and then returning from the parking behind the Houndstooth Bar now driving the black Jeep and with the headlights off, was a threat that the occupants of the Jeep intended to cause him and his friends harm," Robbins wrote in the amended motion.

Robbins went on to say that Johnson — driving his girlfriend's Jeep — turned left onto Grace Street, followed it down to the end of the narrow two-lane street and turned around.

"It is Davis's position that Cedric Johnson turned around and came back down Grace Street with the headlights still off so that he would be in a position to fire his gun out of the driver's side window without having to shoot over or across Ms. Harris," the motion says. "His actions created a reasonable belief in Davis's mind that Cedric Johnson intended to use unlawful deadly physical force against Davis and/or Davis's friends."

Prosecutors, however, have argued that Miles was aware of his friend's intention to use his pistol in an act of violence and provided him with the gun anyway. What's more, the state has pointed to Davis changing coats and donning a non-medical gaiter scarf to deliberately cover his face in the moments before the shots rang out as evidence of pre-meditation.

The state has also said it would not seek the death penalty in the cases against either men.

It's also worth noting that Johnson has not been charged in connection with the shooting and has yet to testify in court regarding his actions that night.

Davis was hit twice during the shootout, while Harris was fatally injured and pronounced dead a short time later at the Walk of Champions.

Robbins argues that the capital murder charge against Davis should be dismissed under Alabama's Stand Your Ground law.

A ruling on the motion has not been issued by Judge Pruet and no date has been set for a possible pre-trial immunity hearing for Davis.

As Patch previously reported, The Turner Law Group in October filed for a new bond hearing for Miles, along with setting a hearing date for the defense's motion to suppress statements Miles gave investigators before being read his Miranda rights on the morning of Jan. 15.

Both hearings for Miles are set for Feb. 22, 2024.

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