Bella Brewer
Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. will stand trial on Oct. 15, 2024, in Lafayette County Circuit Court on charges of murdering University of Mississippi student Jimmie “Jay” Lee. The trial is slated to take place more than two years after Lee’s disappearance on July 8, 2022.
Many in the community have questioned why this case has taken so long to go to trial.
“The nature of the case sets the order of the trial term. October of 2024 was agreed (upon) between both trial parties to give each team time to be in the best position,” Prosecutor and Assistant District Attorney Steven Jubera said. “This case has been thoroughly investigated. The police and other agencies teamed together to do this.”
Lee’s body has not been found. This, too, presents challenges.
“It takes a lot of time to prove that Jay Lee is dead, and that is a battle without a body — to prove that he was alive the morning of the day he was said to be missing and to prove that Herrington is responsible,” Jubera said.
Herrington, a UM graduate, was arrested for Lee’s murder on July 22, 2022, and released on a $250,000 bond in December 2022. He must wear a GPS tracking device at all times and was ordered to surrender his passport to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office.
“There was a very lengthy court hearing as to the allowing of a set bond for Herrington, but due to court rules, I cannot speak of the evidence regarding,” Jubera said.
A special grand jury indicted Herrington on capital murder charges in March, and despite the fact Lee’s body has not been recovered, the prosecution indicates enough evidence has been found to move forward with the trial.
“This trial is moving along like a murder trial,” Jubera said. “There are two similar cases to this once that occurred in 2001 that are just being concluded.”
