OXFORD, Miss. — Testimony is continuing on Wednesday in the murder trial of Timothy Herrington Jr., the man charged with capital murder in the disappearance and death of University of Mississippi student Jimmie “Jay” Lee.
Opening statements and testimony began on Tuesday with Lee’s mother taking the stand.
Herrington Jr. is accused of murdering 20-year-old Jimmie “Jay” Lee who disappeared in July of 2022. Officers believed he was visiting someone at Molly Barr Trails in Oxford at the time of his disappearance. Lee’s friends and family reported him missing after he failed to return home.
Investigators say they tied Herrington to Lee after reviewing surveillance footage and found bodily fluids that might connect him to Lee. They say the two men were involved in a sexual relationship.
Herington could face the death penalty if found guilty of the crime. Lee’s body has never been found.
Wednesday, Kizziah Carter testified about giving Herrington a ride the morning of July 8, 2022.
“I seen a person jogging with a grey sweatshirt on. As I kept going to see the front of his face. I seen it was him and I blew the horn, speaking and he waved me down,” Carter said.
Carter says he vaguely knew the defendant who flagged him down for a ride to his apartment.
Carter noticed Herrington, who he’d never seen jogging in the area before, was sweating.
That same morning, Carter was stopped for speeding with Herrington in the front passenger’s seat.
Surveillance video also from that morning showed Herrington leaving the Molly Barr Trails Apartments, from where Jimmy Jay Lee’s car was later towed.
Wednesday jurors heard extensive testimony from the University of Mississippi Police Department.
“On July 8th, our dispatch office received a call about a missing student, a call from the mother of Jay Lee,” said Jane Mahan, Capt. University of Mississippi Police.
Security camera footage from the early morning hours of July 8 shows Lee leaving his apartment, returning shortly, and then leaving again before 6 a.m. This time Lee is clearly seen holding a cell phone.
According to Mahan, a subject told police he was Facetiming with Lee on Snapchat.
“He told us that Jay Lee had told him that approximately two hours before, he’d had a ‘hook up” and ended up blocking this person on social media,” Mahan said.
Herrington showed no emotion or reaction as police photos of Jay Lee’s apartment, taken July 10, were shown to jurors.
Defense and prosecution repeatedly objected to what they called “hearsay testimony” being admitted with Judge John Kelly Luther allowing some latitude on both sides.
The jury is from Forest County, Mississippi, and consists of 15 people — eight women and seven men. Eleven of them are white and four of them are Black. Three of the jurors are alternates.
The trial continues Thursday in Oxford.