Mississippi judge denies motion to seal capital murder case of man accused of killing former Ole Miss graduate who has been missing since 2022

A Mississippi judge denied a motion Thursday to seal the file in the capital murder case against Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr., who is accused of killing Jimmy “Jay” Lee, the Ole Miss graduate whose body has not been found since he went missing in 2022.

Last week, on July 15, a joint motion was filed by District Attorney Ben Creekmore and Horan asking for the case to be sealed due to pretrial publicity and that sealing the case file is the “only measure that would protect the defendant from substantial probably fair trial prejudice.”

Several news outlets filed objections to sealing the case file.

Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther said he denied the motion because he didn’t think it was necessary to seal a file that has been open to the public since Herrington was indicted in 2022.

“There was a time when this would have been a very practical motion,” Luther said. “Back in the day when all discovery was filed in the case file. So everything the defense attorney and prosecuting attorney knew, the general public knew and that could have been used to adversely affect the trial. However, that is not the case now.”

Attorneys are no longer required to file all discovery.

“So I don’t think it’s necessary (to seal the file) in this case,” Luther said.

Luther went on to explain to the prosecution and defense attorney that should they have a particular item they were going to file that they felt could be detrimental to Herrington receiving a fair trial they should send it to him and he rule on whether or not to seal that individual document.

“I don’t anticipate many of those items being filed because of how discovery is handled in this day and age,” Luther said.

Herrington was arrested on July 22, 2022, and charged with Lee’s murder. He was indicted on a capital murder charge and has been out on a $250,000 bond since December 2022.

Herrington’s trial is currently set for Dec. 2 and is expected to take about 10 days. Since he is charged with capital murder, he faces the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. They jury for the trial will be selected from an outside county in order to have a larger pool of people who may not know the case.

Lee, 20, was last seen at about 6 a.m. on July 8, 2022, when he left his apartment at Campus Walk Apartments.

Lee’s body has not yet been recovered.

During the bond hearing in August 2022, prosecutors said the two men had known each other for about four months and had recently entered into a sexual relationship.

Lee, who studied social work at Ole Miss, graduated with his bachelor’s degree in May 2022 and was planning on attending graduate school at Ole Miss.