In the final hours before University of Mississippi student Jimmy “Jay” Lee disappeared, sexually explicit Snapchat messages were exchanged between his account and the account of the man now on trial in his killing, an investigator testified Thursday.
Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr., 24, of Grenada, Mississippi, is charged with capital murder in the death of Lee, who vanished July 8, 2022.
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Lee, 20, of Jackson, Mississippi, was a gay man well known in the LGBTQ+ community at Ole Miss and in Oxford, where the university is located and Herrington's trial is being held.
Lee's body has never been found, but a judge has declared him dead. Herrington maintains his own innocence.
Herrington “was not openly in the LGBTQ community,” but evidence will show he had a relationship with Lee and is responsible for the death, assistant district attorney Gwen Agho said during opening arguments Tuesday in Oxford.
Herrington’s attorney, Kevin Horan, told jurors that prosecutors have “zero” proof Lee was killed.
University Police Department Sgt. Benjamin Douglas testified Thursday that investigators used search warrants to obtain cellphone records, information from social media accounts belonging to Lee and Herrington and information about Herrington's internet searches on the day Lee disappeared until Herrington was arrested two weeks later.
One of Lee's friends, Khalid Fears, testified Tuesday that he had a video call with Lee just before 6 a.m. on July 8, 2022. Fears said Lee mentioned a sexual encounter with a man hours earlier, which ended badly. Lee was leaving his own on-campus apartment to go see the same man again, Fears said.
Douglas testified Herrington's Snapchat account sent a message to Lee's account at about 5:25 a.m. saying: “Come back.” People using the two accounts then argued, and Lee's account sent a message at 5:54 a.m. saying he was on the way over. Douglas said that at 6:03 a.m., Lee's account sent its final message: “Open.”
Google records obtained through a warrant showed that Herrington searched “how long does it take to strangle someone” at 5:56 a.m., Douglas said.
An officer from another police agency, the Oxford Police Department, testified that starting on 7:18 a.m. the morning of Lee's disappearance, a car matching the description of Lee’s black sedan was captured on multiple security cameras driving through Oxford.
A camera showed the car entering a parking lot at the Molly Barr Trails apartment complex at 7:25 a.m., Lt. Mark Hodges testified. The same camera showed a man jogging out of the parking lot moments later, turning onto Molly Barr Road.
A witness, Kizziah Carter, testified Wednesday that he was driving home from work about 7:30 that morning and saw Herrington jogging along Molly Barr Road. Carter said he knew Herrington and honked to greet him, and Herrington flagged him down to ask for a ride.
Carter said he drove Herrington to Herrington’s apartment in another complex. Lee's car was towed from Molly Barr Trails later that day.
Both Herrington and Lee had graduated from the University of Mississippi. Lee was pursuing a master’s degree. He was known for his creative expression through fashion and makeup and often performed in drag shows in Oxford, according to a support group called Justice for Jay Lee.
Prosecutors have announced they do not intend to pursue the death penalty, meaning Herrington could get a life sentence if convicted. Mississippi law defines capital murder as a killing committed along with another felony — in this case, kidnapping.