Jury Selection Begins For First Of Two Suspects In Jamea Harris Murder Case

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Jury selection began Monday in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court for the capital murder trial of Maryland native Michael Lynn Davis, who is one of two men charged for the 2023 shooting death of 23-year-old Birmingham mother Jamea Harris on Grace Street near the University of Alabama campus.

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

Davis and former Crimson Tide basketball player Darius Miles were arrested shortly after the shooting that occurred just before 2 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2023.

Harris was shot in the head and killed instantly as she sat in the passenger seat of her Jeep when gunfire was exchanged between her boyfriend in the driver's seat — Cedric Johnson — and Davis, who used a handgun allegedly owned by and lent to him by Miles just minutes before.

The capital murder cases against Davis and Miles are being tried separately, with no trial date set for Miles as of the publication of this story.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Paula Whitley on Monday reiterated that the death penalty is not being sought in this case after there was some recent speculation that this longstanding position by prosecutors could change on the eve of the trial.

Johnson was also present in the courtroom for jury selection on Monday, along with his deceased girlfriend's family, and is considered the state's star witness going into trial.

ALSO READ: Defense Puts Focus On Boyfriend Of Jamea Harris Ahead Of Trial

Johnson allegedly shot Davis twice during the exchange of gunfire, has yet to testify under oath in court and defense attorneys for Miles have claimed he has avoided being served subpoenas to testify in previous hearings over the last two years.

Near the end of the day's proceedings Monday, Birmingham defense attorney John Robbins, representing Davis, pointed out that Johnson was in the crowd — clad in a crisp white dress shirt, black pants and a large gold watch. Johnson stood up when asked and all 70 members of the jury pool craned around to look at him in the very back of the seventh-floor courtroom when asked to do so by Robbins.

It's worth noting and was recently pointed out in court, as Patch previously reported, that Johnson was at one time a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit by Harris' family along with Miles, Davis and former Alabama basketball standout Brandon Miller.

Johnson was ultimately dropped as a defendant before the settlement was reached in the civil suit, which called for a judge to grant a jury trial to award damages to the victim's family in an amount exceeding $75,000.

The exact total of the settlement has not been disclosed.

Monday's jury selection lasted the entire workday as a total pool of 70 jurors is being considered — a number that Circuit Court Judge Daniel Pruet said is about twice the size of the average jury pool for a capital murder case.

Like many of the previous hearings, Davis' parents were in attendance and were able to visit with their son in a little side room in Judge Pruet's courtroom.

Early Monday morning, as they sat in folding chairs in the hallway outside of the courtroom with this reporter amid the tedium of jury selection, several potential jurors exiting the courtroom spoke to them in passing, completely unaware of who they were and thinking nothing of it.

"I would be a terrible juror," an older woman told us as she waited in a long line of other jurors for the elevator. "I just don't trust the legal system."

Despite the tragic circumstances and the brutal slog of the last two years, this off-hand remark managed to get a smile and laugh from Michael Davis Sr. — "Big Mike" — who told Patch their family was exhausted and strained but still holding out hope for justice for their son.

Davis also stood up at one point to face the jury pool, wearing a light blue sports coat and button-down shirt, navy pants and dress shoes. This marked the first time he has appeared in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court without leg irons, handcuffs and a Tuscaloosa County Jail jumpsuit.

Before attorneys from both sides began asking questions to the jury pool, each potential juror was given a paper questionnaire to fill out, with attorneys on both sides agreeing that this usually unconventional tactic would help them get a better understanding of the jurors they are working with and any potential issues.

The courtroom was standing-room only when the jury pool returned after a break for lunch as Whitley opened the afternoon's questions by showing the courtroom a poster with three pictures of Jamea Harris, including one of her on graduation day and another with her and Johnson's son, who was around five years old when his mother was killed.

Robbins objected to the photos being shown to the jury pool and argued such a tactic painted a one-sided narrative of the case for the jurors during the trial's earliest stages.

"There's no other way for me to demonstrate to the jury to determine if they knew [Harris]," Whitley told Judge Pruet when asked about the objection from Robbins that was ultimately overruled.

Explaining the most basic details of the case as they are understood by the District Attorney's office, Whitley said Harris, Johnson and Asia Humphrey — Harris' cousin — were planning to head back to Birmingham after spending the evening at Club 1225 on The Strip.

As Patch previously reported, this group from Birmingham left the club and then got into a brief verbal altercation with a group consisting of Davis, Miles and former Alabama basketball player Jaden Bradley.

Davis and Johnson reportedly had a quick exchange of heated words and it was at this time that Miles claimed he saw a handgun passed from Harris in the front passenger seat to Johnson sitting in the back seat as he was trying to get his childhood friend to walk away.

Immediately after the spat on University Boulevard near Quick Grill on The Strip, Bradley, Davis and Miles made their way on foot past The Houndstooth Sports Bar and onto Grace Street, supposedly heading back to where Bradley's car was parked.

This same group could then be seen on a surveillance camera helping to break up an unrelated fight near CVS involving a large group of women, including Miles' girlfriend. Defense attorneys for Miles have argued that the location of Bradley's parked car and the large scuffle were the reasons that the two men charged were at the first of two crimes scenes — the other being at the Walk of Champions when Johnson first made contact with an University of Alabama Police officer in the minutes following the shooting.

Other surveillance video viewed independently by Patch shows Johnson and Humphrey trade places before the parked Jeep leaves The Strip, with Johnson getting behind the wheel of the Jeep just a few minutes before the shooting.

Humphrey is also expected to testify at trial, was in attendance for jury selection Monday and already took the stand during a preliminary hearing in the Tuscaloosa County Jail immediately after Davis and Miles were charged.

Humphrey testified that Johnson rolled down the window to tell Davis "No brother, why don't you be good?" after Davis had allegedly said something to the occupants of the Jeep.

As Patch previously reported, the only words Humphrey claimed she heard from Davis were "I don't want your girl."

It's at this point that Miles, still carrying his to-go box of chicken wings from 1225, can be seen on video doubling back to retrieve his friends and urging them to come along.

Bradley also told investigators, as Patch previously reported, that Miles had been a "calming presence" for Davis during the minor altercation.

A small segment of questions asked to the pool of potential jurors on Monday focused on the former Alabama basketball players and how they were viewed by the jurors, most notably former Tide standout and eventual No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft, Brandon Miller.

Questions asked to the jurors were intentionally vague but seemed to indicate that Miller and Bradley were likely to both take the stand at trial.

Miller, by all accounts, cooperated with investigators immediately after the shooting and has never been charged or named as a suspect.

Miller's connection to the came made national news when it was revealed that the gun used by Davis in the fatal shooting had been in Miller's car and brought to where the shooting eventually occurred — allegedly after Miles saw the handgun given to Johnson in the back of the Jeep, which his defense attorneys have claimed prompted him to text Miller.

As questions continued for the better part of three hours, it was found that: there were no Auburn fans in the jury pool; Only one person who openly said they were not a University of Alabama sports fan; and only one person was not familiar with The Strip near the UA campus.

Despite a lengthy opening statement where Robbins introduced his team and told an abridged version of his life story, the Birmingham defense attorney was much more brief in his questions Monday afternoon after Whitley finished up for the District Attorney's Office.

Robbins explained that his client grew up in Maryland in the Washington, D.C. area and was a childhood friend of Darius Miles. Davis had even moved to Tuscaloosa to be close to his friend and was working with UA event staff at Coleman Coliseum prior to the shooting with the hopes of eventually attending The Capstone.

Robbins then asked the potential jurors if they were familiar with what he referred to colloquially as a "Sheisty."

Robbins, a white, bespectacled defense attorney, also brought out some laughter from around the courtroom after a couple of jurors confirmed their familiarity with the recent trend of the ski-mask/gaiter-type face covering first made popular by the rapper Pooh Shiesty.

Davis was allegedly wearing a "Shiesty" at the time of the fatal Grace Street shooting, which the prosecution has cited in court multiple times as being a damning piece of evidence against Davis.

Indeed, prosecutors assert that Davis was trying to conceal his identity as he could be seen running up to the driver's side of Jeep after the vehicle was captured on video executing a U-turn nearby and starting back down Grace Street in their direction — eventually pulling in behind Miller's car with the headlights turned off.

As Patch reported last week, a few new details also surfaced in a pre-trial hearing for Davis as Judge Pruet considered several different pre-trial motions. Among the new developments from that hearing was that investigators recovered a backpack from the Jeep with a large amount of marijuana and other items indicating it was intended for sale.

The motion by the state to suppress the marijuana and related items found in the Jeep as trial evidence was ultimately granted by Judge Pruet after it was agreed upon by both sides that the shooting was not related to the marijuana or a "drug deal gone bad."

It's worth noting here that this matter can be revisited at trial if the items recovered from the Jeep are deemed relevant.

"[Cedric Johnson] is a critical witness for the state and his credibility is an issue, " Robbins said last Thursday during the pre-trial hearing, before mentioning that there was "no question" that Johnson was a drug dealer who was in Tuscaloosa for the sole purpose of selling marijuana.

This represented the first time Johnson has been accused by the defense of selling drugs after his previous gang ties in the Birmingham area came to the surface during a pre-trial immunity hearing last year.

Robbins has worked to validate this in the eyes of the court by mentioning social media photos posted by Johnson and Harris the day of the shooting. Some of the photos show them with large wads of cash, while another shows Johnson with what appears to be a handle of revolver sticking out from the waistband of his track pants.

It's believed that Johnson used a revolver in the shooting, which injured Davis, due to the fact that no spent shell casings from the gun were recovered from the Jeep, due to the fact that a revolver doesn't eject its cartridges after they're fired.

ALSO READ: Key Witness In Jamea Harris Murder Case Killed In Birmingham

"[Police] could have charged [Johnson]," Robbins said. "He knows he could be charged and he refused to give police access to his cell phone. ... "The state is relying on Mr. Johnson's version of the facts," he said. "He was there hunting my client and my client's actions were justified."

Jury selection for the trial will resume Tuesday morning in the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse.

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com