Jury selection in the retrial of former University of Mississippi student Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. is scheduled to begin Dec. 1 in Madison County. Once the jury is selected and jurors are transported to Oxford, the trial will take place in Lafayette County Circuit Court. Herrington is charged with capital murder in the death of former UM student Jimmie “Jay” Lee.
Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Luther Kelly granted a request for a change of venue for jury selection in June after Herrington’s attorneys cited extensive news coverage and social media activity as reasons an impartial jury could not be seated in Lafayette County.
A mistrial was declared in Herrington’s first trial on the charges in December 2024 due to a jury deadlock. The retrial, originally scheduled for Oct. 13, was postponed on Sept. 9 after Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther filed an order to reschedule to the December date.
The cause and manner of death for Lee, who disappeared in July 2022 and was declared dead in October 2024, could not be determined by the Mississippi state medical examiner’s office due to the extensive decomposition of Lee’s remains.
On Feb. 1, skeletal remains of Lee’s body were found in a wooded area in rural Carroll County, Miss. Carroll County Coroner Mark Stiles had responded to the scene after the discovery of human remains and said that because there were no soft tissue remains — only skeletal ones — the information an autopsy could reveal would be limited.
In February, Stiles sent photographs of the remains and photographs of them to the state crime lab in Jackson, Miss., where an analysis and autopsy were conducted.
The discovery of Lee’s remains prompted a new indictment of Herrington on charges of capital murder and tampering with evidence. The tampering with evidence charge was dropped on March 7 due to the expiration of the two-year statute of limitations.
On Oct. 28, Aafram Sellers, Herrington’s defense attorney, requested that Luther exclude photographs of the crime scene and/or Lee’s autopsy, arguing that the “gruesome” images could prejudice jurors against Herrington and are not necessary to establish Lee’s death.
Sellers also requested that Luther not include expert testimony from Melissa Ratcliff-Sorrell in the trial, a clinical social worker who has done research on behavior in LGBTQ+ communities. Lee was a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Jurors for the first Herrington trial in Lafayette County, which ended in a deadlock, were selected in Forrest County.
