NBA’s Brandon Miller Testifies in Ongoing Tuscaloosa Murder Trial

Brandon Miller, the former Alabama Basketball superstar now playing professionally for the Charlotte Hornets, testified for about an hour during an ongoing murder trial in Tuscaloosa on Thursday.

As the Thread previously reported, the gun Michael "Buzz" Davis used in a gunfight that fatally wounded a 23-year-old Birmingham mother had just been retrieved from the back of Brandon Miller's Dodge Charger.

Wednesday predominantly featured testimony from Cedric Johnson - the other shooter in the gunfight - read more here. 

On Thursday, during the fourth day of Davis's still-ongoing capital murder trial, the jury heard directly from Miller and saw dashcam footage and audio captured from his car.

The jury saw and heard a full exchange of text messages between former Alabama player Darius Miles and Brandon Miller, which prosecutors synced up with surveillance footage from the area. The testimony gave the fullest account yet of Miller's involvement on the night of the shooting - and how close he came to almost being a victim himself.

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To recap, Michael "Buzz" Davis and Darius Miles were charged with capital murder in January 2023 after a gunfight on the Tuscaloosa Strip. Davis reportedly fired the deadly shot, but he was using a semiautomatic handgun he'd just gotten from Miles.

Since their arrests, both men have been held without bond in the Tuscaloosa County Jail. Although Circuit Judge Daniel Pruet is hearing both cases, the prosecutions against them are proceeding separately.

Thursday marks the fourth day of the jury trial for Michael "Buzz" Davis, and the state's first witness was Brandon Miller.

Taking questions from Assistant District Attorney Paula Whitley, Miller testified that he was 20 years old at the time of the shooting and not old enough to drink the night he scored 31 points in the Tide's dominant win over the LSU Tigers on January 14th, 2023.

Still, it was a night of celebration for the highly ranked basketball team, and Miller said he spent much of it with his teammates, starting at a pregame party at an apartment complex called the Vie at University Downs of 15th Street behind Target.

From there, Miller drove Darius Miles and Michael Davis rode with another Alabama player, Jaden Bradley, to a club on the University Strip called Twelve 25.

Neither Miles nor Davis has a car in Tuscaloosa, so they rode in Miller's Charger and Bradley's Challenger.

Miller said when he got to the club, the line to get inside was too long, so he left the other three men there and drove a short distance up University Boulevard to hang out at Moe's Original BBQ.

As Saturday night became Sunday morning, Miller and Darius Miles started texting again to figure out the logistics of ending the night. Miles first asked for a ride to another apartment complex, the Lofts. Miller hadn't left Moe's yet, though, and still had to drop off another Alabama player, Kai Spears, and he told Miles it was going to be a while before he could get back to the Strip.

Miller let Miles know he was on the way at 1:38 a.m., just minutes before Darius Miles sent a text which said "I need my joint a n***** rl jus got fakin'."

Joint is slang for gun, and rl means real life. The prosecution and defense differ on what Darius Miles meant by "fakin'."

Speaking to Whitley, Miller testified that fakin' meant "putting on a front," which sounds pretty innocuous. But when answering questions from Robbins, Miller testified that he took it to mean that someone was threatening Darius Miles.

Miller arrived on Grace Street and stopped behind Jaden Bradley's Challenger, and his dash camera picked up audio of Michael Davis asking Darius Miles where to find the gun, and if there was "one in the head," meaning a bullet in the chamber.

The basketball team's manager, Cooper Lee, was in the car with Miller and the two could be heard on the dash cam footage wondering out loud what was going on with Miles and Davis, referred to by their nicknames, Freak and Buzz.

Moments later, though, shots ring out, and the dash camera shows Michael Buzz Davis running from the scene, firing Darius Miles' gun as he flees - two of those bullets struck the front windshield of Miller's Charger.

The Dodge was also struck from the side by the Black Jeep carrying the deceased Jamea Harris and the other shooter in the gunfight, Cedric Johnson.

It was not clear from the audio if it was Miller or Cooper speaking, but as they fled away down University Boulevard and eventually stopped closer to downtown, near the University Club, one of them said, "Damn! We almost just got killed."

Miller agreed in testimony Thursday - he said he was almost struck as Davis fired at the Jeep and ran.

Both sides noted that Brandon Miller has been a cooperative witness with police and prosecutors, and he has never been charged with any wrongdoing connected to the fatal shooting.

He testified that he had no idea Miles would give his gun to Michael Davis, who would then use it in a deadly gunfight. He also said there was no plan coordinated with Miles and Davis to use the two Dodge vehicles to block Grace Street so Davis could "ambush" the Jeep.

Miller was excused at 10:20 Thursday morning, and the jury heard from a Tuscaloosa Police Officer who met with Michael Davis after he was shot before breaking for lunch.

The trial broke for lunch and will resume at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.