Darius Miles Pleads Not Guilty to January Murder on the Strip

Former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles pleaded not guilty to capital murder in a motion filed Monday morning.

The plea was signed Sunday and waives Miles' arraignment, which is a formal, in-person reading of the charges against a suspect during which they enter a plea -- guilty, not guilty or not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

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Miles remains in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, where he is being held without bond for his alleged role in the killing of 23-year-old mother Jamea Harris, who was fatally shot on the Tuscaloosa Strip in January.

Police said in a bond hearing that Miles left his .40-caliber handgun in the back of Alabama superstar Brandon Miller's car on the night of the shooting and, after an altercation with Harris and her boyfriend Cedric Johnson, asked Miller to bring it to him on the Strip.

Investigators said Miles handed the gun off to his friend Michael "Buzz" Davis, who is accused of firing the shot that killed Harris soon after.

Attorneys for the defendants have said Johnson, who was carrying a large-caliber revolver, fired the first shot in the ultimately deadly altercation and that Davis was acting in self-defense.

The day after the shooting, both Miles and Davis were arrested and charged with capital murder, one of the only offenses for which a suspect can be held in jail without bond.

Judge Joanne Jannik denied bond for both men in February, and they remain jailed at the time of this report, although their attorneys will make another case for their release on bond next month.

Through his attorney, Tuscaloosa's Mary Turner, Miles waived his arraignment and pleaded not guilty. Although the cases against both men have progressed in nearly identical ways so far, Davis had not yet entered a plea or waived arraignment as of Monday afternoon.

Turner is also fighting prosecutors for the release of more video evidence reportedly collected by area investigators but not yet provided to the defense attorneys.

For updates on this case as they become available, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.