A Lafayette County judge has declared Jimmie “Jay” Lee dead more than two years after he disappeared, according to multiple news reports.
According to court documents, Jimmie and Stephanie Lee filed for a legal declaration of death for their son in the Lafayette County Circuit Court in September. The Lees filed their request under Mississippi Code 13-1-23 — the presumption of death — according to reporting by The Daily Journal.
The Daily Mississippian reached out Monday to the Lafayette County Circuit Court to request court documents outlining the legal declaration, but the court was closed for Veterans Day.
Typically, a family would have to wait seven years before filing such a motion, but under the “Zeb Hughes Law,” which is explained in code 13-1-23, the family of someone who underwent a “catastrophic event that exposed the person to imminent peril or danger” can request a hearing to review the evidence of the event after two years.
According to The Daily Journal, District Attorney Ben Creekmore, Lafayette County Sheriff Joey East and Lafayette County Coroner Glenn Coleman were each summoned for a hearing in front of Judge Gray Tollison on Oct. 11.
The Daily Journal also reported that Tollison issued a one-page order four days later noting the court had previously ruled that the “proof is evident and the presumption great” that Lee was dead during Herrington’s preliminary hearing on the capital murder charge.
“It is uncontradicted that Mr. Lee’s absence since the event can not be satisfactorily explained after diligent search and inquiry by family, friends and multiple law enforcement agencies,” Tollison said.
Lee, a 20-year-old who graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2022, was last seen leaving his Campus Walk apartment located just off of Jackson Avenue on July 8, 2022. Lee was a prominent figure in the Oxford-Lafayette LGBTQ+ community.
Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., a 23-year-old from Grenada, Miss. and UM graduate, was arrested and charged for Lee’s murder on July 22, 2022 — approximately two weeks after Lee went missing. A grand jury indicted Herrington with capital murder in connection with Lee’s disappearance. Herrington is scheduled to go on trial starting Dec. 2.
The Daily Mississippian has reached out to Creekmore and Kevin Horan, Herrington’s attorney, for comment regarding the judge’s decision to grant a legal declaration of death. They had not responded at the time of publication.
