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Background

On January 14th, 2023, 21-year-old Darius Miles, 20-year-old Brandon Miller, 19-year-old Jaden Bradley, and Miles’s friend, 20-year-old Michael Lynn Davis, went to Twelve25, a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, bar on the strip.

The strip is a popular stretch of road near Alabama’s Bryant-Denny football Stadium that attracts people from all walks of life looking to get drinks and have fun.

Miles, Miller, and Bradley were teammates on the Alabama Crimson Tide basketball team, and they had won a game against the LSU Tigers by 40 points earlier in the day. However, Miles didn’t play and was ruled out for the season due to a bad ankle.

Miller felt the line was too long, so he went elsewhere, leaving Miles, Bradley, and Davis waiting in 30-degree weather.

At the same time, the basketball players were in line, a 23-year-old mother of one, Jamea Jonae Harris, her cousin Asia Humphrey, and Harris’s boyfriend, Cedric Johnson, were also waiting in line at the same bar.

Harris and her boyfriend had come to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to visit Humphrey and other friends in the area.

It was a busy Saturday night, and it is believed that the two groups did not interact inside or outside the bar.

Davis, her cousin, and her boyfriend left the bar first, but they stayed in the area while ordering food and waiting across the street.

Davis, Miles, and Bradley left the bar around 1:36 am and crossed the street.

A minor incident leds to violence

Suddenly, Davis decided to do a little dance. Harris’s mother later said Davis danced to get her daughter’s attention.

Eventually, Johnson got annoyed and told Davis to “move along.”

Davis replied, “Well, you don’t know who I am. You don’t know what I do to you.”

Johnson replied, “Brother, why don’t you be good?”

Davis stated, “I don’t want your girl.”

Miles intervened and pulled Davis away from the situation. At the same time, Miles claimed to see people in Harris’s car pass a gun from the front seat to the back seat. They would later say they were passing food.

Miles owned a gun but did not have it on him at the time. He left it in the back seat of his teammate Brandon Miller’s car and texted Miller at 1:38 am to bring him his firearm because some guys were “faking”.

Miller was already on his way to meet the men, and it’s unclear if he read the text.

Miller pulled up outside the bar at 1:43 am. A minute later, Harris’s car pulled up, its lights off, and parked behind Miller and Bradley’s cars.

Miles allegedly showed Davis where the gun was, and Davis grabbed the gun.

Miles allegedly pushed his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s friend into an alley so they would be safe from gunfire.

Davis walked to the driver’s seat of Harris’s jeep as Johnson sat behind the wheel.

At 1:45 am, nine minutes after their conflict first began, Davis started shooting, and Johnson fired back in self-defense.

During the shootout, two shots hit Miller’s windshield, but Miller and his unnamed passenger were not harmed and quickly fled the scene. Bradley also fled the scene when he heard the first gunshots.

Davis was hit in the shoulder, and Harris was shot in the face.

Johnson pulled away from the scene and flagged down a police car near the football stadium. Harris was pronounced dead. She was killed by one of Davis’s bullets as she sat in the passenger seat of her car.

Right after the shooting, Miles and his girlfriend hopped in her car, picked up Davis from an intersection, and went back to Miles’s apartment.

Miles contacted 911 about Davis’s gunshot. When authorities arrived, Miles claimed that Davis had just shown up with a gunshot.

Police put pressure on him, and he later said he and his girlfriend picked up Davis after the shooting, but they didn’t see the shooting.

A day after the crime, authorities arrested Miles and Davis and charged them both with capital murder.

Aftermath

Alabama quickly dismissed Miles from the basketball team.

As more details were released, people called for Alabama’s star player, Miller, to be dismissed from the basketball team.

Many also wanted him to be arrested and charged with a crime for taking the gun to the scene of the shooting, but authorities said there was nothing they could charge him with. Miller’s lawyer claimed he was already heading toward the strip, and his arrival after the conflict between Davis and Johnson was a coincidence.

People thought Miller was getting special treatment as he averaged over 19 points a game and had the talent to lead Alabama to a national championship.

To the joy of many, Miller fizzled out in his last college game in the Sweet 16 before moving on to the NBA and leaving the scandal behind him.

After the 2022 2023 season, Bradley transferred to the University of Arizona.

Legal proceedings

Davis went to trial in the spring of 2025. According to ESPN, both Miller and Bradley testified. Davis also took the stand and claimed self-defense.

The jury was unconvinced. They saw him as the aggressor and convicted him of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Miles is still awaiting his day in court.