New Revelations As First Witness Takes The Stand In Michael Davis Capital Murder Trial

TUSCALOOSA, AL — A few new revelations came to the surface Tuesday when the first witness was called in the capital murder trial of Maryland native Michael Lynn Davis, who is accused along with former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles in the 2023 shooting death of Birmingham native Jamea Harris.

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

As Patch previously reported, Harris was shot and killed in the passenger seat of her Jeep in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2023, during an exchange of gunfire between Davis and her boyfriend Cedric Johnson on Grace Street near The Strip.

Jury selection was extensive in the capital murder case for Davis, who is being tried separately from his co-defendant Miles. Miles is accused of knowingly giving Davis his legally owned handgun in the minutes before the shooting.

A trial date for Miles has not been set as of the publication of this story.

Jury selection concluded just before noon Tuesday after 70 potential jurors were considered on Monday. The jury is made up of six Black women, five White women and three White men.

Opening statements followed a break for lunch, with Assistant District Attorney Cristen Mejia speaking to the jury for the prosecution and calling the fatal shooting a "cold and calculated ambush."

She then took the jurors on the prosecution's overview of the timeline leading up to the moment that the black Jeep owned by Harris and driven by Johnson pulled in behind two cars parked on Grace Street — cars belonging to former Alabama basketball standouts Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley.

ALSO READ: Video Evidence Provides Most Compelling Account Yet Of Alabama Basketball Murder Case

The jurors were shown video of the Jeep, with its headlights off and followed by a stolen Chevrolet Impala, pulling in behind the two cars. It's at this point that Davis can be seen running up from behind the Jeep and up to the driver's side door in the seconds before the first shots rang out.

Mejia said a total of eight shots were fired in quick succession.

One new assertion made on Tuesday came when Mejia told the jurors that right before the shooting, Davis asked Miles' girlfriend — Skylar Essex — if she had seen the black Jeep. This came just minutes after Davis and Johnson could be seen in a verbal altercation while the Jeep was parked at the intersection of Grace Street and University Boulevard.

Mejia then said Essex is shown on security camera video turning to her left and pointing toward the direction of the Jeep.

"Unknowingly, Skylar has just put a target on that Jeep," she said.

Like Miller, Essex has never been mentioned as a suspect or accused of any wrongdoing.

It was during the prosecution's opening statement that Mejia also seemed to confirm the longstanding assertion of the defense that a third shooter was involved in the fatal incident.

As Patch previously reported in September 2023 as a self-defense hearing was being held for Miles, one witness who had been served a subpoena to testify — Jack Thompson — had been called to the stand but never showed up to court.

This is important because Turner Law Group, the firm representing Miles, has claimed since early on in the case that it was Thompson who can be seen getting something out of the trunk of a stolen red Impala driven by Shu'Bonte Greene when the group had a brief meeting with Johnson and the occupants of the Jeep in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Grace Street.

Defense attorney Mary Turner has said that Thompson retrieved a shotgun that was later fired during the shootout on Grace Street — a theory that was questioned and disputed by prosecutors in the early stages of the murder cases against both suspects.

Indeed, District Attorney Hays Webb, during the immunity hearing in the fall of 2023, initially objected to Turner's comments about Thompson retrieving a shotgun and said there was no evidence to support such claims.

This has apparently changed, with Mejia saying the jury would hear a 911 call from a woman on Grace Street who reports someone not matching the description of Johnson or Davis firing a gun.

Defense attorneys have also said investigators recovered evidence to show that a shotgun had been fired during the shootout.

Other claims made by the prosecution focused on Davis wearing a Shiesty-style face-covering and putting on a puffer jacket to conceal his identity before running up to the Jeep and opening fire.

As Patch previously reported on Monday, a Shiesty is a kind of balaclava or ski mask first made popular by the rapper Pooh Shiesty and used by many during the pandemic.

The defense has argued several times during different hearings that Davis had been wearing the face-covering the entire night, which was quite cold in mid-January, and had gotten his coat out of Bradley's car parked nearby for that reason.

Birmingham attorney John Robbins followed Mejia with his opening statement that presented a sharp contrast to the events as told by the state.

"The prosecution wants you to have tunnel vision about the actual facts of this case," Robbins told the jury. "This case is mostly about Cedric Johnson's pride, jealousy and insecurities."

Indeed, Robbins claims Johnson was the lone aggressor who "hunted" his client after Davis made him angry by dancing in front of the Jeep as it was parked at the intersection of Grace Street and University Boulevard. He also claims Johnson fired first and Davis shot back in self-defense.

"He acted to protect himself and his friends," Robbins said.

Security camera footage depicted this exchange but little has been mentioned in court about what the two men said to each other during the tense altercation. Robbins also insisted this was not the only altercation Johnson had that morning with other men who had been talking to his girlfriend.

Asia Humphrey — a Montgomery native and recent UA graduate who was cousins with Harris and in the back seat of the Jeep during the shooting — was the first witness called to the stand on Tuesday as the trial began.

Humphrey said under oath that she never heard any threats made but admitted she wasn't paying close attention as she talked to people coming up to the Jeep that she knew. The only words she claimed she heard were Johnson say to Davis "Nah, they're good bro."

She also said she didn't know Johnson was angry when asked about his disposition after he asked her to swap seats and got behind the wheel of the Jeep in the aftermath the verbal exchange.

Robbins claims Davis, who had been dancing in front of the Jeep, responded to Johnson with something to the effect of "I don't want your girl."

After Robbins mentioned to jurors that they would learn more about Harris passing a gun from the front seat to the back seat to Johnson during the verbal altercation on The Strip, Humphrey later confirmed this assertion.

While testifying for the prosecution, Humphrey made the revelation that she saw Harris "slide the gun between the passenger seat and arm rest" to Johnson.

As Patch previously reported during the preliminary hearing in the Tuscaloosa County Jail in February 2023, Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigator Branden Culpepper was asked about Miles claiming that he saw Harris pass Johnson a gun. This is what Miles said prompted him to fear for the safety of everyone in his group.

Culpepper, who was recently promoted to sergeant by the Tuscaloosa Police Department and is no longer an investigator in the Violent Crimes Unit, said on the stand in 2023 that it was just as likely Harris was passing food to Johnson after he was recorded returning to the Jeep with food from Quick Grill on University Boulevard.

While on the stand Tuesday, Humphrey's testimony was mostly consistent with what she said on the stand during that same preliminary hearing two years ago, apart from confirming Tuesday that she saw Harris pass the gun to Johnson.

Humphrey also insisted more than once that there were many details she doesn't remember about that tragic morning.

When under cross-examination by Robbins, Humphrey was asked about anything she heard during the verbal altercation on The Strip or the shootout on Grace Street. She said that when the gunshots started, she dropped to the floorboard of the Jeep and everything was a blur.

As for the initial incident on The Strip, Humphrey testified that she and Harris were talking to people they knew when Johnson and Davis began to get into it but she didn't pay it much mind until things got heated between the two men.

"It just felt chaotic, like too much going on at this point," she recalled Tuesday. And it was at this moment when she said Harris quietly gave the revolver to Johnson that was later used to shoot Davis twice.

Johnson was never charged or mentioned as a suspect and has been in the courthouse this week having yet to testify in court over the last two years of proceedings. The defense has also accused him of intentionally avoiding being served subpoenas to testify apart from one instance where he was served in open court during a pre-trial hearing.

Johnson is expected to be the state's star witness but the defense has raised questions at every turn about his credibility. This also includes the fact that Johnson was once a defendant in a recently settled wrongful death lawsuit against Miller, Miles and Davis but was dropped from the lawsuit for unspecified reasons ahead of the settlement.

ALSO READ: Settlement Reached In Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Murder Suspects, Brandon Miller

Video played for the jury on Tuesday showed Miles and his Crimson Tide teammate Jaden Bradley leading Davis away from the argument at the busy intersection and the group then sets out down Grace Street to where Bradley had parked his car.

Miles rode to The Strip with teammate Brandon Miller earlier in the night following Alabama basketball's 40-point win over LSU in Coleman Coliseum, while Davis rode with Bradley.

It's been widely reported that upon seeing the crowd on The Strip and at Club 1225 where both groups spent the evening without interacting with one another, Miller dropped off Miles and instead went to a restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa for dinner.

Miles left his handgun in Miller's car and both sides seem to agree the eventual No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft was already on his way to pick his up friend just before 2 a.m. when Miles sent a text asking him to bring his handgun after seeing Harris pass the gun to Johnson on The Strip.

Just prior of the shooting, video viewed by Patch and corroborated in court shows the Jeep turn its headlights off with Johnson behind the wheel just a couple minutes or so before pulling in behind the cars driven by Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley.

It's worth noting that during jury selection on Monday, one potential juror who struck from the panel, made the unsolicited comment that the first thing he would do if carrying out a drive-by shooting at night would be to turn off his headlights.

The evidentiary phase of the trial is set to continue on Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. Email news tips to ryan.phillips@patch.com.