Jury Finds Michael Davis, Co-Defendant of Darius Miles, Guilty of Capital Murder

A Tuscaloosa County jury has found Michael "Buzz" Davis, the lifelong friend and co-defendant of former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, guilty of capital murder.

The decision draws to a close a long jury trial which has occupied most of every morning and afternoon this week in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Daniel Pruet, who is overseeing the prosecution of both Michael Davis and Darius Miles alike.

Davis was sentenced in the courtroom Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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The jury deliberated for about an hour on Friday before returning the verdict.

The Thread has been covering the jury trial since Wednesday, after jury selection ended and evidentiary proceedings began in earnest.

The state argued that Michael Davis shot and killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris during a "cold-blooded ambush" on January 15th, 2023, firing indiscriminately into the Jeep Wrangler where she was sitting with her boyfriend Cedric Johnson and her cousin, Asia Humphrey, who was in the back seat.

The killing came in the predawn hours the morning after the Alabama men's basketball team thrashed the LSU Tigers in a home bout at Coleman Coliseum, and Michael Davis spent that Saturday night with Darius Miles, Jaden Bradley, Brandon Miller and other members of the 2023 Tide team.

After pre-gaming at the Vie at University Downs, an apartment complex off 15th Street in Tuscaloosa, Davis and the three previously mentioned players drove to the University Strip, where they planned to party at a local club, Twelve 25. Miller and Bradley drove their Dodge sports cars - a Charger and a Challenger - as neither Michael Davis nor Darius Miles drive.

Everyone but Miller went inside Twelve 25, and he left to meet Kai Spears and a team manager at the nearby Moe's Original BBQ a little further up University Boulevard to avoid a long line at the club.

The other group - that's Birmingham's Jamea Harris and Cedric Johnson, plus Asia Humphrey, a Tuscaloosa resident - were also at Twelve 25 with a trio of men from Birmingham who were friends with Johnson.

There were no issues inside Club Twelve 25 between any members of the two groups, and everyone walked outside when the venue started closing around 1:30 a.m. - that's where the first signs of trouble emerged.

Harris and Humphrey reportedly went to get the Jeep Wrangler that Johnson drove to Tuscaloosa while he walked across the street to get some food at Quick Grill. When the Jeep came to pick him up on Grace Street, Johnson got in the back seat with the women riding up front.

Just after, Michael Davis was leaving the club and danced in the street for less than five seconds, but it was enough to prompt Johnson to roll down the back window of the Jeep and tell him to leave the women in the front seats alone.

Words were exchanged then - Davis testified that he told Johnson, "I don't want your girl," and eventually challenged him to a fist fight.

Cedric Johnson testified that Michael Davis said something like, "Do you know who I am? I'm Buzz and I whack people."

Whatever was said, both sides agree that the interaction at the Jeep window prompted Jamea Harris to slide Cedric Johnson's Taurus Raging Judge revolver to him in the back seat.

Davis and Miles have both said that they witnessed this handoff and began to fear for their safety.

Darius Miles and Jayden Bradley were able to lead Michael Davis away from the scene back to Bradley's Dodge, where Miles texted Brandon Miller and asked him in slang terms to return the area and bring the Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handgun Miles left in the backseat.

Miller, who was already en route to pick Miles up, arrived shortly after with the manager in his passenger seat.

Miles gave Davis the handgun, and he hid around the corner of a building before emerging behind the Jeep and exchanging gunshots with Cedric Johnson.

One of those shots stuck Harris in the face, traveling through her spine and carotid artery, killing her almost instantly.

Two shots also struck Miller's windshield, although neither he nor his passenger were injured. Miller has never been accused of or charged with any crime in connection to the shooting.

Michael Davis was hit in the shoulder by one of Johnson's bullets, and another grazed his side. One of Johnson's acquaintances, following the Jeep in a red Impala, also got out of the back seat and appeared on surveillance footage to fire a long shotgun a few seconds after the gunfight, though no one was struck.

After the shooting, Davis fled the scene and rode with Darius Miles and his girlfriend back to the University Downs. He testified he gave the murder weapon back to Miles after the killing, and police said they later recovered it wrapped in a towel, hidden in a drawer in a closet at the apartment.

Police testified that the parents of another Alabama basketball player worked with a UA attorney to report the gun and have it recovered in a search.

Damning Thursday testimony and video evidence also showed the jury that Michael Davis repeatedly denied any involvement in the shooting in three interviews with police after he fled the scene, claiming he was too drunk to remember what happened.

There are many other factors in this case - whether Johnson was a drug dealer, whether his three Birmingham friends were in on some plan to hurt or kill Davis and his friends, and whether self-defense was Michael's motive when he opened fire, but ultimately the jury found Davis guilty of capital murder.

He was sentenced in the courtroom to life in prison without the possibility of parole - it was the only outcome allowable by Alabama law on capital murder conviction, since the death penalty had been taken off the table.

Davis and his family cried as he told them he loved them before being led from the room in handcuffs.

Darius Miles will be tried separately at a later date - he is also charged with capital murder.

For updates on both cases, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.