By Noah Hickman
Photo by Sam Craft/The Associated Press
The tragic murder of Jamea Harris took place on Jan. 15, right in the middle of the 2022-23 NCAA basketball season.
By that time, Darius Miles was a fifth-year senior playing college basketball for the University of Alabama. With him was a man by the name of Michael Davis.
Right now, both men have been indicted on capital murder charges and are being held in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond.
According to reports, Davis was the one that pulled the trigger and shot Harris while Miles admitted in court that he gave him the gun.
Not only was a 23-year-old woman taken senselessly, but Harris was also mother to a five-year-old boy named Kaine.
It is also known that Jamea’s mother had to break the news to her grandson that her mother is dead.
I pray that Jamea’s family and loved ones find strength, comfort, and happiness on some level; that scar will be there for the rest of their lives.
It is well documented that before Miles and Davis had possession of the gun, former Alabama forward and potential top three 2023 NBA Draft pick Brandon Miller delivered the gun to Miles.
Miles had allegedly texted Miller to bring him his gun to where he was.
It has yet to be proven that Miller knew what Miles’s intent was and for that reason the Tuscaloosa chief deputy district attorney, Paula Whitley, said “there's nothing we could charge [Miller] with.”
Now, here is the reason why I bring up the New York Times in all of this.
When Miller was on his way to drop off Miles’s gun to him, there was a passenger in the car with him.
The New York Times originally reported that an Alabama walk-on by the name of Kai Spears was a passenger.
Spears’s father Christian, who is the Athletic Director at my alma mater, Marshall University, vehemently denied the NYT report.
“I am just incredibly disappointed in the irresponsible and demonstrably false reporting by the NY Times. We are exploring all legal options at this time. I will have no further comment, instead deferring to the University of Alabama's statement on the matter,” Spears said.
Kai also refuted the NYT story.
He put out a statement on his Instagram: “I have one thing to say - the report in the New York Times was 100% inaccurate and the writer had complete disregard for the truth. I am trying to process and cope with these false statements that somehow have been published and then seen by so many. So thankful to Alabama Athletics for refuting it on my behalf. More than anything... I remain completely heartbroken by the tragic death that occurred that night.”
It would eventually be confirmed that the NYT mistook Spears for one of Alabama’s student manager’s, Cooper Lee; in other words, Spears was not a passenger in Miller’s car.
You would think with Kai, his father, and the University of Alabama all immediately denying that the walk-on was a passenger in Miller’s car, the NYT would check its source(s), reporting, and issue a correction asap.
But no, the inaccurate story that was published on March 15 was not corrected until June 2.
And the only reason they issued a correction was because Kai Spears filed a defamation lawsuit on May 31.
According to reports, Spears is seeking $75,000, which excludes interest and court costs.
A NYT spokesperson put out a clown statement in response to this lawsuit: “We plan to defend against the suit vigorously”, that person told The Tuscaloosa News.
Yeah, you’re a defendant, I wouldn’t expect you to roll over like Beethoven.
I know the NYT defamed Kai because if he didn’t sue them, that story is probably there forever, and that information would paint him in a false light in his personal and professional light for an eternity; hell, leaving the story up there unchanged for 2 ½ months already did an insurmountable amount of damage.
I understand that mistakes happen in reporting, but what matters is how you respond to those mistakes, and the NYT only responded when they were sued.
Journalists are the backbone to keeping our democracy intact, and whoever contributed to this story has brought shame upon the profession.
The murder of Jamea Harris has left lifelong scars on countless individuals for a variety of reasons.
With everything that is bleak and empty, I have faith that everything will work out in the end.
Spears said that all his settlement money will be used to set up a scholarship for Harris’ child Kaine to attend college.
“I definitely just want to take care of the victim’s child because that child had nothing to do with this,” Kai Spears said. “My thought was let’s give him a chance to have a great future. It can’t change what happened, but it can help make sure his college is taken care of.”
Christian Spears added: “We want to correct the narrative; we want them to issue a retraction and hold the reporter accountable. We want a financial settlement because this impacts Kai’s life forever. It will always be out there. No amount of money can wash that away.
“But as Kai said, the money isn’t for him or us, it is so that we can as a family provide the littlest victim in all of this and maybe others in a similar situation, money to go to college.”
And for that reason, I hope Kaine gets every cent that the NYT deserves to lose.
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