Attorneys: Darius Miles illegally questioned in hours after Strip shooting

September 18, 2023

WVUA 23 Digital,

Defense attorneys working for Darius Miles in his capitol murder case say the former University of Alabama basketball player was illegally questioned in the hours after the Jan. 15 shooting just off the Strip near campus.

The attorneys Sunday filed a motion to suppress what Miles told a pair of investigators during more than four hours of questioning because, the attorneys say, he was never read his Miranda rights. The motion proposes that any statements investigators obtained before Miles was read his Miranda rights are inadmissible.

According to the motion, after Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit investigator Jeffrey Miller did read Miles his Miranda rights, he asked for an “autograph” and asked if Miles was going to put his basketball jersey number next to his signature.

What’s at issue, the motion suggests, is that Miles was not told that anything he said before being read his rights was inadmissible in court and that after he was read his rights, the investigator had Miles repeat some of what he’d said beforehand.

When you’re arrested or otherwise charged with a crime, police are by law required to read you your rights as defined in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution before a custodial interrogation. Those rights are:

The right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law
The right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

Miles and another man, Michael Davis, are charged with capitol murder in the Jan. 15 shooting death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris. Davis, who was 20 at the time of the shooting, filed for but was denied youthful offender status in the case.

Davis is accused of shooting and killing Harris, and Miles is accused of providing the gun used in the shooting. Both have been in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond since the shooting.

Miles and Davis are claiming the shooting was in self-defense after a man with Harris, Cedric Johnson, fired first. A ruling on the self-defense claim is scheduled for this month.

Alabama is not seeking the death penalty for Miles.