Investigators say Alabama's Miles provided gun in fatal shooting
Investigators said a University of Alabama basketball player charged with capital murder provided the gun used in the fatal shooting, but another man fired the weapon.
Investigators wrote in a court document that Darius Miles admitted to providing the handgun immediately before the shooting. Another man is accused of firing the gun and killing a young woman near the university’s campus, according to court documents filed in Tuscaloosa.
Miles, 21, a junior reserve forward from Washington, D.C., and Michael Lynn Davis, 20, of Charles County, Maryland, are charged with capital murder in the shooting death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris. The shooting occurred early Sunday on the Strip, a student-oriented business district of bars and restaurants near the Tuscaloosa campus, police said. Harris was sitting in the passenger seat of a car when she was struck by a bullet, investigators wrote in the court document.
The University of Alabama said in a statement that Miles is no longer on the basketball team. The fourth-ranked Crimson Tide are scheduled to play Vanderbilt on Tuesday night in Nashville.
Defense lawyers for Miles released a statement on Monday saying Miles maintains his innocence and that he and his family "are heartbroken" over Harris’ death.
"While Darius has been accused of being involved with this tragedy, he maintains his innocence and looks forward to his day in court," they said. "Our firm’s own investigation is ongoing, and no further statement will be made at this time," attorneys William White, Clayton Tartt and Suzanne Norman from the Birmingham-based Boles Holmes White law firm wrote in the statement.
Basketball coach Nate Oats said Monday his players are going through "kind of a grieving process."
"They didn’t have too many questions," Oats said of the players. "It’s really just more of kind of a grieving process. I mean, they understand the severity of the situation with Jamea. They also understand the severity of the situation with Darius. There’s both sides of it, dealing with it."
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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