Bond Denied For Former Alabama Basketball Player Darius Miles In Capital Murder Case

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court judge on Wednesday denied a new motion to grant bond to capital murder suspect and former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles.

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As Patch previously reported, Miles and his longtime friend Michael Lynn Davis are being tried separately for capital murder in connection to the shooting death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris on Grace Street in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2023.

Judge Daniel Pruet denied the initial bond motion last year by defense attorney Mary Turner, who filed a new motion to grant bond after the state said it would not seek the death penalty in the case.

In court on Wednesday, Turner said that Miles, if given a bond, would live with a family in Phil Campbell, Alabama, he has known for years, in addition to being under house arrest, wearing an ankle monitor and agreeing to any other conditions set by the court.

Turner also pointed to the lack of a criminal record for her client, along with both his mother and stepfather working in law enforcement, in making her case for Miles to receive a bond.

Judge Pruet referred back to the previous bond hearing last year when he told Turner and her team that they had gone "above and beyond" in trying to secure a bond for Miles, even referencing a stack of letters "three inches thick" speaking on his behalf.

Indeed, the judge said one such letter was from someone he has known and respected for over half of his life. Nevertheless, Pruet went on to say that the first time he denied bond for Miles, it was due to the approaching immunity hearing and the "likelihood of conviction" before he once again denied granting a bond on Wednesday.

Wednesday's courtroom action also saw the continuation of a hearing by the defense over motions to suppress evidence and statements made by Miles to investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

The only witness called to the stand by Turner was Tuscaloosa Police officer Branden Culpepper — the lead investigator on the case for the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit.

With Culpepper on the stand, Turner's team played several videos from Grace Street prior to the shooting, the initial investigation beginning at the apartment where Miles and other basketball players lived and Miles in an interrogation room at the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit office.

The video from inside the off-campus apartment at University Downs was shown for the first time and showed several people sitting around as investigators asked questions. Most notably, Davis is seen in the video being treated by paramedics and moaning in pain after being shot.

As Patch previously reported, Davis is accused of using the handgun legally owned by Miles in the shooting with Cedric Johnson — the boyfriend of Jamea Harris who was driving her Jeep at the time of the shooting. Johnson is believed to have shot Davis twice before investigators say Davis fired the shot that killed Harris, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

The two groups did not know each other before the shooting, which appears to have been the result of a verbal altercation between Davis and Johnson on The Strip just a few minutes prior to the first shot being fired at around 1:45 a.m.

Turner on Wednesday revisited her assertion that Miles was treated differently than others by investigators when he was interviewed in the aftermath of the shooting.

She also worked to contradict previous testimony given by investigators that claimed that Johnson was one of the first people to arrive at the Violent Crimes Unit office and one of the last to leave.

To make her argument, Turner played a video from inside the interrogation room where Miles was being interviewed by an investigator. In the room, there is a window facing out into the parking lot of the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office and Turner pointed out a red sedan and two men getting into it — Johnson and his friend Shu’bonte Greene.

As Patch previously reported, Greene was killed in a motorcycle wreck in Birmingham in April and provided little in the way of information when he testified during a previous hearing.

Johnson, who is presumably the state's primary witness, has yet to testify in court.

Judge Pruet eventually denied the defense's motion to suppress evidence.

No date has been set for the next hearing in the case.

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