Hornets forward Brandon Miller has been named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Jamea Harris. Harris was shot and killed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on January 15. The lawsuit was filed by Harris’s mother, Decarla Heard, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama’s Western Division.
The other two defendants in the lawsuit are former Alabama men’s basketball forward Darius Miles and Michael Davis. Miles and Davis were previously charged with capital murder and are currently awaiting trial. Miller, on the other hand, was not charged with a crime. However, a police investigator testified that Miller was present at the scene of the killing and had retrieved the murder weapon from his car. Miller, through his attorneys, denied any knowledge of what Miles intended to do with the weapon.
The Crimson Tide, the basketball team Miller was a part of, chose not to discipline him for his alleged involvement in the events surrounding Harris’s death. This decision has faced widespread criticism, particularly as the team is having its best season by winning percentage since 1987. Miller was selected as the second pick in the NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets on June 22.
In the lawsuit, Heard’s lawyers argue that Miles, Davis, and Miller should have known that bringing a dangerous weapon to a dispute and discharging it would likely result in harm to those around them.