Star Witnesses Testify In Second Day Of Michael Davis Capital Murder Trial

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Jurors heard a full day of testimony from multiple witnesses Wednesday in the second day of the capital murder trial for Maryland native Michael Lynn Davis, who is accused along with former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles in the 2023 shooting death of 23-year-old Birmingham native Jamea Harris.

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As Patch previously reported, the first day of the trial on Tuesday saw opening statements from both sides and testimony from Asia Humphrey — a cousin to Harris who was in her black Jeep along with her cousin's boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, when the fatal shooting occurred in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2023, on Grace Street just off of The Strip near the University of Alabama campus.

The day began with the prosecution calling to the stand Dr. David Rydzewski, a forensic pathologist with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. The jurors were shown the autopsy photos of Harris, whose family in attendance became emotional at the sight of the images.

Dr. Rydzewski says he has conducted over 3,000 autopsies, including the one on Harris, who he said was killed when a single bullet struck her in the chin and exited out of the back of her neck.

He responded that this would have killed her almost instantly.

Cedric Johnson was then called to the stand to give one of the most highly anticipated testimonies of the last two years of proceedings.

This also marked the first time he has gone under oath in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court following the shooting death of his girlfriend and mother of his seven-year-old child.

As Patch previously reported, Johnson was driving his girlfriend's Jeep when it pulled in with its headlights turned off behind vehicles owned by former Alabama basketball players Jaden Bradley — who also testified Wednesday — and eventual No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Brandon Miller.

Prosecutors on Tuesday insisted that Johnson and the other occupants of the Jeep were the victims of a "cold and calculated ambush," while defense attorney John Robbins argued that Johnson was the aggressor who was "hunting" Davis and fired the first shot.

Johnson testified he's a lifelong Birmingham resident who lives with his brother and seven-year-old son. He currently works driving a forklift for Buffalo Rock.

He also said he had a permit for the Judge revolver he allegedly used to return fire when Davis ran up to the driver's side of the Jeep.

On Jan. 14, 2023, the day before the shooting, Johnson said he and Harris attended the funeral of a friend in Birmingham and went to a bar and restaurant — Urban Smoke Bar & Grille in Fairfield — to eat following the service.

He then said they stopped by his cousin's but was asked about this visit by defense attorneys due to Facebook Reel videos that had been posted showing the young couple flashing a large amount of cash that Johnson later testified was in the neighborhood of $1,500.

"[We] were just young and making bad decisions for attention," he said.

Later in the day, Harris reportedly talked to her cousin in Tuscaloosa, Asia Humphrey, who Johnson testified wanted the couple to come for a visit that evening — a busy night in Tuscaloosa as the No. 4 Crimson Tide basketball team blew out LSU in Coleman Coliseum.

After going to Humphrey's apartment to pick her up, he said they made their way to The Strip with plans to go to Club 1225 on University Boulevard. It was outside of the club that they saw another group of people they knew from Birmingham, he said, and they all eventually went inside and stayed for about an hour and a half.

The group from Birmingham and the trio consisting of Davis, Miles and Bradley all said they never interacted with or even saw one another inside the club that night.

Johnson testified that their plans were to get something to eat and then head back to Birmingham, so he walked over to Quick Grill on University Boulevard. Meanwhile, Harris and Humphrey, who were cold on that frigid January morning, went and got the Jeep and parked at the intersection of Grace Street and University Boulevard with the vehicle's hazard lights flashing.

Johnson was captured on video carrying a plastic bag of food and getting into the back seat of the Jeep while Harris sat in the front passenger seat and Humphrey behind the wheel.

In one video shown to the jury, Miles can be seen also carrying a bag of food as he walked past the Jeep and was followed by Davis and Bradley.

Davis could be seen dancing near the Jeep and Johnson said he first noticed him when Humphrey said something about it.

Johnson testified that Davis "made eye-contact" with the two women in the front seat, grinned and began to approach the parked Jeep.

What happened next remains a blurry, yet crucial, series of events in the murder case.

As Patch previously reported, 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 to hear were Johnson saying to Davis "Nah, they're good bro."

Johnson agreed with this account while on the stand Wednesday and also said he rolled down the back driver's side window to say it to Davis, although he insisted he also said "that's my Baby Mama."

Johnson testified that Davis then became belligerent, telling him repeatedly that his nickname was "Buzz" and that he "whacked people." He went on to say that it was at this moment that Harris "slid" his revolver to him between the armrest and the front passenger seat.

What's more, Johnson claimed he was trying to diffuse the situation by the time Miles doubled back to the Jeep and Bradley began to physically pull Davis away by the arm.

Johnson also said Davis asked him "do you know who I am?"

What happened next, while unrelated to the group that had just encountered the Jeep, was underscored by defense attorneys on Tuesday as John Robbins said "this case is mostly about Cedric Johnson's pride, jealousy and insecurities."

Indeed, Johnson said he became angry and felt disrespected when two other men, seeing the brief altercation that had just occurred, also came up to the Jeep to begin talking to the female occupants in the front seat.

Unbeknownst to Johnson, the second group of men knew at least one of the women in the Jeep and came up asking for Harris' number. It's unclear how much of an inside-joke this was but it no-doubt made Johnson angry.

Johnson testified that this upset him and he got out of the Jeep "ready to fight."

Frustrated by the chaos around him, Johnson claims this all prompted him to cross University Boulevard to get his friends and head back to Birmingham.

After returning to the Jeep, Johnson is shown on security camera footage getting behind the wheel and turning out onto University Boulevard, before then taking another right onto Reed Street and onto a side street that connects to Grace Street.

The headlights of the Jeep were on when Johnson pulled out onto University Boulevard but a key argument for the defense to show that Johnson was the initial aggressor is the fact that right before the Jeep reaches Grace Street, the headlights are suddenly turned off.

As Patch reported earlier this week as jury selection concluded, one potential juror who was 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.

Johnson testified Wednesday that he was not familiar with all of the dashboard controls on the Jeep and accidentally turned the headlights off when trying to turn off the hazard lights that had been flashing while the Jeep was parked just off The Strip.

He said he didn't know the headlights were dark as he continued onto Grace Street due to how bright the street lights were down the narrow side street often referred to by locals as "the alley."

The Jeep can be seen turning left onto Grace Street, followed by a red Chevy Impala, before driving a short distance and executing a U-turn to head back toward University Boulevard.

Johnson then pulls in behind the parked cars belonging to Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley.

Johnson said it was at this point he saw a man later identified as Miles walk past the driver's side of the Jeep and put up the hood on his jacket.

Moments later, Johnson said a man wearing a "ski mask" and wielding a handgun ran up to the driver's side of the Jeep and began shooting. Johnson asserted that he returned fire but Davis "shot the whole clip."

When under cross-examination, Johnson flatly denied that he shot first and also claimed that Davis told him something to the effect of "I told you" before the shootout commenced.

Johnson said as he watched Davis limp off — it was later learned that he was struck twice during the exchange — he heard Humphrey scream in the back seat before noticing that Harris had been shot.

When he hit the gas, he said her limp body slumped over onto the gear shift, forcing him to physically prop her up before putting the pedal to the floor and inadvertently colliding with Miller's car as the two vehicles frantically tried to exit the narrow street at the same time.

Johnson became emotional at this point in the testimony when he recalled finding a University of Alabama Police officer nearby at the Walk of Champions.

Body cam footage later shown to the jury showed Johnson and Humphrey both hysterical outside of the parked Jeep as Johnson repeatedly said "My Baby Mama's dead. My Baby Mama's dead."

Johnson initially told the responding UAPD officers that he had also been shot, which turned out to not be true.

Defense attorney John Robbins began the cross-examination of the state's star witness by asking if he had any gang affiliations, particularly with the West End Money Gang in Birmingham.

As Patch previously reported during an immunity hearing for Miles in October 2023, Shu'Bonte Greene admitted to he and Johnson's involvement with the street gang, before saying they had become disillusioned with the criminal outfit and quit.

On the stand Wednesday, Robbins resurrected these claims but Johnson was adamant that he was not a gang member or affiliated in any way with the West End Money Gang.

Robbins then focused on the Facebook videos showing Johnson and Harris with the large amount of cash and inquired as to their employment at the time.

Johnson responded that while he was technically unemployed, he was working for cash under the table at a scrapyard and said that while he knew Harris was working, he didn't know where or what the job entailed.

A recurring theme presented by the prosecution has focused on Miles putting up the hood of his jacket as a kind of signal and Robbins brought this point up during cross-examination when he asked Johnson if he noticed Miles put up his hood as he walked by the parked Jeep in the moments before the verbal altercation with Davis.

"At the time I was eating and didn't really pay attention," Johnson said.

Still, Johnson maintained his position that Davis became aggressive after Johnson rolled the window down and he reiterated the same experience he'd already gone over when being questioned by the prosecution.

Defense attorneys for Davis have claimed that their client responded with something to the effect of "I don't want your girl," but Johnson denied this.

"If he'd had told me that the situation would have been diffused then and there," Johnson said.

Instead, Johnson said it was the other set of men who came up to the Jeep after Davis was led off by Bradley and Miles that made him angry enough to want to fight with his fists.

He insisted one of the men said "that boy in the back seat is scared," after witnessing the altercation with Davis and said "that's when I got mad."

At this point, Johnson gets out of the Jeep and agreed to the perception that he "ran them off."

Johnson then added: "Wouldn't I have been looking for all of them if that were the case?"

Robbins brought up the brief interaction with the stolen red Impala in the parking lot of an apartment complex off of Grace Street — something that wasn't brought up by the prosecution after it called Johnson to the stand.

As Patch previously reported in September 2023 during the immunity hearing for Miles, Jack Thompson was served a subpoena to testify but never showed up to court.

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 the 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.

As Patch previously reported, one of the three men in the vehicle died of natural causes following the shooting while Greene was killed in a motorcycle crash in Birmingham last spring.

Defense attorney Mary Turner has said that Thompson — the only living witness who was in the Impala — retrieved a shotgun that was later fired during the shootout on Grace Street. It's a theory that was questioned and disputed by prosecutors in the early stages of the murder cases against both suspects but is now accepted as a fact of the case.

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.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that the 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.

While on the stand, Johnson testified that he didn't know Thompson but knew the other two men and nothing of the shotgun supposedly retrieved from the trunk of the Impala in the moments before the shooting.

"I was just ready to go [back to Birmingham]," he said while explaining that their plan was to regroup so he could ride back to Jefferson County with his friends.

Robbins made the argument Wednesday that Johnson — behind the wheel on a frigid January morning — had the driver's side window rolled down in the moments before the shooting.

The Birmingham attorney also claimed that Johnson turned left onto Grace Street and executed a U-turn so he could shoot out of the driver's side window instead of across his girlfriend as she sat in the front passenger seat.

Johnson responded that the window was rolled down because he smokes cigarettes — a notion this reporter confirmed outside of the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse on Wednesday as Johnson could been seen smoking during a break in the proceedings.

Ahead of a break for lunch, Robbins once again worked to establish relevance for Circuit Court Judge Daniel Pruet to grant him permission to mention two aspects of the case the defense believes is crucial to informing the jury of Johnson's credibility — the recently settled wrongful death lawsuit and the backpack recovered from the Jeep that contained a felony amount of marijuana and a digital scale.

As Patch previously reported, Judge Pruet ruled to suppress both requests on the grounds of relevance. A brief sideboard hearing was held Wednesday after the jury was excused for lunch that saw Judge Pruet again deny the request from Robbins to ask Johnson about the marijuana recovered from the Jeep due to the fact that both sides had already agreed the marijuana played no role in the events leading up to the shooting.

After returning from the break Wednesday afternoon and following some brief discussions over a loaded extended magazine recovered from the Jeep, Robbins drew the quiet ire of Judge Pruet when he asked Johnson about the backpack recovered from the Jeep.

He didn't ask Johnson about the marijuana but instead first asked if the backpack belonged to him, to which the state's star witness responded that it was. Robbins went on to ask if the items in the backpack were his and received another affirmative response.

Judge Pruet was silent as Robbins then asked Johnson if the digital scale in the backpack was his, to which the witness again said it was.

Things moved on quietly but after a brief testimony from UAPD officer Marshall Wade, who was the first officer Johnson made contact with following the shooting, the jury was excused and Judge Pruet took Robbins to task over his tactics mentioning the digital scale — a device that in this context is almost certainly representative of drug transactions to the average person.

"What you did was contemptuous," Judge Pruet told the Birmingham attorney before mentioning how he thought it was a deliberate defiance of a court order.

He then warned Robbins that if he brought up the backpack or marijuana again, the murder trial would be put on pause and contempt hearings would commence.

Robbins insisted that he was sincere in trying to avoid asking about the marijuana but did not think the other items in the backpack were subject to the court order.

Former Alabama basketball player Jaden Bradley was the second high-profile witness called to the stand Wednesday and said Davis — a childhood friend of Miles — was a familiar face around the Crimson Tide basketball lockerroom and rode with him to The Strip in the hours before the shooting.

Bradley transferred to the University of Arizona in the off-season following the shooting.

Following Alabama's big win over LSU the night before the shooting, Bradley said he ate dinner with his family and had plans to go out with his teammates to celebrate.

Bradley testified that around 10 p.m. he drove alone to Vie at University Downs off of 15th Street for a brief stop at an apartment to meet up with other teammates before going to The Strip.

After stopping in at 1225 for about an hour, Bradley testified that he, Miles and Davis left when the club began to close and started their short trek through the cold back to where Bradley had parked at an apartment complex off of Grace Street.

As previously mentioned, it was Bradley who physically pulled Davis away from the verbal altercation with Johnson and testified that all he heard during the spat was Davis say "Who are you talking to?"

The group then cut through the back parking lot at the Houndstooth Sports Bar as they made their way to Bradley's car.

Bradley testified that once they got to the car, Davis refused to get in and was "worried about the Jeep."

He also said Davis told him he wanted to "go back and look for the Jeep."

Much has been made of Davis donning another coat and a Shiesty-style face-covering in the moments before the shooting. Bradley testified that while he hadn't seen the mask, Davis likely had gotten his coat out of the car when he can be seen walking out of sight on security footage in the minutes before Bradley and Miles pulled up to park on Grace Street.

During cross-examination by the defense, Bradley said that Miles got into his two-seater Dodge challenger as Davis continued to stand around and reiterated to Robbins that Davis was "worried about the Jeep."

Miles rode with Bradley to that spot on Grace Street, where Miles met up with his girlfriend Skylar Essex, who had just been involved in a physical altercation with several other women outside of the CVS off University Boulevard and Grace Street.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Paula Whitley later asked Bradley during redirect if he knew that Miles had texted Brandon Miller to bring him his gun while Bradley pulled Davis away from the shouting match with Johnson at the intersection on The Strip.

Bradley said he did not.

Skylar Essex was the final witness called by the state on Wednesday and said she attended the LSU game and was at Club 1225 with the group of Alabama basketball players and Davis, but decided to leave when one of her female friends "got into it" with another woman in the club.

Essex and Miles are still a couple and she testified Wednesday that she talks to him every day.

Still, Patch reported on Tuesday when Assistant District Attorney Cristen Mejia pointed out that Essex is shown on security camera video talking to Davis and turning to her left to point toward the direction of the Jeep as it executed the U-Turn.

"Unknowingly, Skylar has just put a target on that Jeep," Mejia said during the prosecution's opening statement.

Essex testified that Davis, clad in a jacket he hadn't been wearing and the Shiesty face-covering, approached here on Grace Street in the aftermath of the fight and asked her where the black Jeep was.

Essex also testified under cross-examination that the face-covering was a popular fashion trend amid mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic raging at the time.

An important dispute during her testimony came when the prosecution claimed that Davis told Miles to "get her out of here" in the moments before the first shots were fired — allegedly because Davis was planning to ambush the occupants of the Jeep.

Essex didn't remember it that way and said Davis told Miles to "take her home," which came immediately following the fight where Essex can be seen on camera getting visibly angry to the point that she takes off her thigh-high white boots on the fringes of the scuffle where her friend's wig was torn off.

She did admit, though, that she likely said both statements and more to investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Essex went on to testify that she didn't know about her boyfriend giving Davis his handgun after Brandon Miller arrived on Grace Street to pick up Miles.

Under cross-examination, Essex said Miles had wanted her to go home following the unrelated fight between the young women nearby but said she hid behind a red Rumsey Environmental dumpster when the shootout started.

"I couldn't tell who shot first," she said, before mentioning that she saw the first muzzle flash come from inside the Jeep — a notion Patch can corroborate after independently viewing a wealth of video footage ahead of trial.

When Chief Assistant District Attorney Paula Whitley questioned Essex again under redirect, Essex was asked to confirm if she had told investigators "you did not like that [Davis] was hanging around Darius."

"Yes, right."

Whitley closed by asking Essex if she "knew something was going on."

"Yes."

Day three of the capital murder trial of Michael Lynn Davis will resume Thursday morning 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.