The defense team for Sheldon Timothy Herrington, Jr., who is accused of killing Ole Miss student Jimmie Jay Lee, asked a judge to render a direct verdict in the capital murder trial after the state rested its case Tuesday.
Lee, a 20-year-old University of Mississippi student remembered as a beloved member of the Oxford LGBTQ+ community, went missing on July 8, 2022. In October, a judge declared Lee legally dead, but the whereabouts of Lee’s body is still unknown.
Authorities arrested Herrington, 24, two weeks after Lee’s disappearance. Herrington was a 22-year-old Ole Miss graduate from Grenada when he was indicted on a capital murder charge in connection to the case. Herrington allegedly murdered Lee to conceal a romantic relationship between the two.
Herrington’s indictment states the maximum penalty possible is life in prison or the death penalty. However, Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore told the Clarion Ledger the state is not seeking the death penalty. Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Gwen Agho was appointed as a special prosecutor to assist in the case.
Herrington’s defense attorney is Kevin Horan, a Mississippi state representative.
After the state rested its case shortly before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, the defense brought forth a motion for directed verdict arguing “it’s clear that the state has not placed in the record any proof whatsoever before the jury to consider.”
Kevin Horan, defense attorney for Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., who is on trial for the murder of University of Mississippi student Jimmie “Jay” Lee, addresses the court in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Bruce Newman, Pool)
Read timeline of events in Jay Lee case: Accused murderer Sheldon Herrington seen with shovel, wheelbarrow
According to Mississippi rules of criminal procedure, a motion for directed verdict is a request made by the defense to the presiding trial judge to issue a ruling that there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to reach a different conclusion.
If the motion for directed verdict is granted, then the defendant wins the case, and the jury is dismissed. If the judge denies the motion, the jury returns to the courtroom and the trial continues.
The state and defense are presenting their arguments before Judge Kelly Luther. No ruling had been made as of noon.
This is a developing story.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: State rests its case Jay Lee trial