Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. — who stood trial in December for the murder of Jimmie “Jay” Lee — was arraigned in the Lafayette County Courthouse on Tuesday for a new indictment that includes capital murder and tampering with evidence.
Herrington entered a plea of not guilty and will be held in jail until a Feb. 21 bond hearing set by Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther. At the bond hearing, the state is set to announce whether it intends to seek the death penalty against Herrington.
Luther also appointed Denise Fondren as a public defender for Herrington. Kevin Horan represented Herrington during the December court proceedings that ended in a mistrial after the jury could not come to a consensus.
The new charge and indictment, handed down by the Lafayette County Grand Jury on Feb. 7, comes after the discovery of Lee’s remains by hunters in a wooded area of Carroll County on Feb. 1. The remains later were confirmed to be Lee’s through DNA analysis done by the Mississippi State Crime Lab.
Hinds County Assistant District Attorney and Special Prosecutor Gwen Agho read the new indictment during the proceedings.
The charge of tampering with evidence states that Herrington “did without legal rights or authority, while under the belief that an official proceeding was pending or may be instituted, unlawfully and intentionally destroy, mutilate, conceal, remove, or alter the deceased body of Jimmy Dale ‘Jay’ Lee III with the intent to impair its use, verity, or availability in the pending criminal investigation or prospective official proceeding.”
Until the discovery of his remains, Lee — a prominent member of the Oxford LGBTQ+ community and 2022 University of Mississippi graduate — had been missing since Friday, July 8, 2022. In October, Lee was legally declared dead by Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Grady Tollison.
The morning of Lee’s disappearance, Herrington and Lee had been messaging each other, and Herrington requested Lee to meet him at his apartment at Lafayette Place Apartments. Prosecutors argued in an August 2022 bond hearing that Herrington and Lee had been in a casual relationship.
Herrington was first indicted on capital murder on March 28, 2023.
