Herrington Defense files motion to dismiss murder charge

State Representative Kevin Horan, defense attorney for Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., filed a motion Nov. 28 in Lafayette County Circuit Court to dismiss Herrington’s capital murder charge in the death of Jimmie “Jay.” Lee.

On July 22, 2022, Herrington was arrested the Oxford Police Department and initially charged with Lee’s murder – but the grand jury indictment on March 28 upgraded the charge to murder-murder. 2023.

According to the indictment, Herrington violated Mississippi Code Section 97-3-19(2)(e), or murder during the commission of a felony. The grand jury charged Herrington with murdering Lee while participating in the kidnapping.

Horan’s motion to dismiss contends that the indictment did not include the kidnapping statute and pointed to Mississippi Code of Criminal Procedure 14.1(c), which requires the indictment to list all of the statutory offenses the defendant allegedly committed.

In the state of Mississippi, anyone found guilty of murder faces the death penalty.

A decision on the petition has not been filed in the Mississippi Electronic Courts documentation system.

Jury selection for the trial is expected to begin Monday, Dec. 2, outside Lafayette County. The decision to select jurors from a different county – which has not yet been announced – was made by Luther in August after Horan requested a change of venue, citing the extensive pre-trial media attention the case had received.

After the jury is selected, the remainder of the trial is scheduled to take place at the Lafayette County Courthouse and is expected to begin on Tuesday, December 3rd.

Lee was a 20-year-old who graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2022. He was last seen around 6 a.m. on July 8, 2022, leaving his apartment on Campus Walk just off Jackson Avenue. Lee had driven away from his apartment and his car was later found at the Molly Barr Apartments. Although his body has not yet been recovered, Lee has since been declared dead. Lee was a prominent figure in Oxford-Lafayette’s LGBTQ+ community.

In addition to the motion to dismiss the indictment, the defense filed a “Daubert motion to exclude the testimony of state expert Angela Fletcher and a motion in limine to exclude or limit all offered testimony of Elaine McKinney” on November 14.

According to the application, Angela Fletcher is the K-9 special operations officer for the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department. The Daily Mississippian was unable to identify Elaine McKinney in connection with this case.

While a hearing on the motion was scheduled for Nov. 25, an order from District Court Judge Kelly Luther said the defense and prosecution, led by District Attorney Ben Creekmore, reached an agreement on Nov. 21 it states: “No witness statements or otherwise. Evidence of the alleged discovery of human remains must be presented by every witness at the State’s trial in the trial of this matter.”

The motion does not explain why the defense and prosecution reached this agreement.

Accordingly Mississippi todayOn July 22, cadaver dogs provided by the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department found the odor of a corpse in Herrington’s apartment four times.

During the Aug. 9 preliminary hearing, Horan repeatedly asked Oxford Police Department Detective Ryan Baker whether OPD had reviewed the training DeSoto County gives its cadaver dogs, to which Baker responded that it had not.