Judge Kelly Luther presides over the trial of Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., who is on trial for the murder of University of Mississippi student Jimmie "Jay" Lee, in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Bruce Newman/The Northeast Daily Journal via AP, Pool)

The man on trial in the killing of University of Mississippi student Jimmie “Jay” Lee gave conflicting information to police about how well he and Lee knew each other, according to testimony Friday by an officer who helped lead the investigation.

Lee disappeared July 8, 2022, in Oxford, Mississippi, and police interviewed Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr. two weeks later. Two officers talked to Herrington at his Oxford apartment and then took him to a police building and did another interview after advising him of his rights, said Shane Fortner, one of the officers involved.

In the first interview, Herrington said he knew Lee but "did not have any kind of sexual relationship with him,” said Fortner, who was the Oxford Police Department's lieutenant in charge of criminal investigations in July 2022 and is now the city's emergency management director.

During the second interview, Herrington said he and Lee had a “deeper relationship” and that they had a sexual encounter just hours before Lee disappeared, Fortner said. Fortner said that statement made him think Herrington had lied during the first interview.

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. Herrington, now 24, of Grenada, Mississippi, is charged with capital murder.

Lee’s body has never been found, but a judge has declared him dead. Herrington maintains his own innocence.

Before police interviewed Herrington, investigators had already found security camera video footage showing a man they believe was him jogging out of the parking lot where Lee's car was found, Fortner said. Police also had read sexually explicit Snapchat messages exchanged between accounts belonging to Lee and Herrington.

According to police body camera footage shown in court Friday in Oxford, Herrington talked to two officers without having an attorney present.

Fortner said the officers asked Herrington what he thought had happened to Lee, and Herrington said Lee could have gone to have casual sex with somebody and then been kidnapped.

“I think what happened is, Tim described what he did to Jay Lee,” Fortner said.

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.

Herrington’s attorney, Kevin Horan, told jurors that prosecutors have “zero” proof Lee was killed.

The same day Lee disappeared, his car was towed from the Molly Barr Trails apartment complex in Oxford, where neither he nor Herrington lived.

Herrington said in his first police interview that he had not been to that complex for months because it was common for vehicles there to be towed away, Fortner said. Investigators had already seen security camera footage that showed a man they believe was Herrington jogging out of the Molly Barr Trails parking lot a few minutes after Lee’s car arrived.

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.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024