Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr., the man accused of killing Ole Miss student Jimmie “Jay” Lee, will appear in court for his retrial in December, but in a different venue than the one in which he was initially tried.
On Tuesday, Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther ordered the retrial to occur in Madison County — a little over two hours south of Oxford, where Herrington’s case was first presented in front of a jury. The change in venue came at the request of the defendant’s legal team, which argued that Herrington would not be tried fairly in Oxford due to extensive media coverage surrounding the case.
The retrial was previously scheduled to begin Oct. 13 after Herrington’s first court proceedings in December 2024 ended in a mistrial, with jurors unable to reach a consensus on whether to charge him with capital murder, first-degree or second-degree murder, culpable negligence manslaughter, or find him not guilty.
An 11-1 vote favored conviction, but the lone dissenting vote, which hinged on a lack of a body linked to the alleged crime, required new proceedings.
Herrington is charged with capital murder in connection with the death of Lee, a prominent figure of the Oxford LGBTQ+ community. The primary reason for the mistrial was the lack of a body connected to the crime. Lee had been missing since the summer of 2022, and his body was still undiscovered during the initial trial against Herrington.
In February, during an extended deer hunting season, outdoorsmen in Carroll County found human remains that were later proven to be Lee’s. The defendant turned himself in to law enforcement after the discovery and has been denied bond since then.
