Brandon Miller was a star player for the Alabama Crimson Tide mens basketball team in the 2022-2023 season. Miller was then drafted second overall in the 2023 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. On January 15th, there was a shooting that took the life of a twenty-three-year-old woman, Jamea Jonae Harris.[1] Miller was suspected of giving the gun to the shooter, Michael Davis.[2]
Despite Miller’s alleged involvement and being at the scene of the crime, he was never charged with anything.[3] However, Miller must now face claims that “he is liable for delivering a gun to others who used it in a shootout.”[4] The Alabama court says that the suit adequately alleges that Miller had a duty not to cause the woman harm.[5]
“U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler on Wednesday denied Miller’s motion to dismiss claims of negligence, wantonness and wrongful death related to the shooting that killed Jamea Jonae Harris. The judge rejected Miller’s argument that the claims should be tossed because he ‘had no legal duty to prevent Harris’s death at the hands’ of another.”[6]
Furthermore, the judge said that the “Plaintiff does not argue that Miller had a duty to prevent Harris’s death. Rather, she asserts he had a duty not to cause Harris’s death by bringing a firearm to a dispute, knowing that harm would likely result.”[7] Miller is named in the complaint because he allegedly delivered the gun to the men who were at location when Davis shot Harris.[8]
The gun was located in Miller’s car when another man, Darius Miles, present at the scene, texted Miller saying “he wanted his pistol because there was a person “fakin’”.[9] This word was defined in the lawsuit as a “person using words in an aggressive manner with no intention or ability to back them up.”[10] The person that was “fakin” was Harris’s boyfriend, who was having a verbal altercation with Miles and Davis.[11]
Miller drove to meet Davis and Miles a few minutes after receiving the text from Miles.[12] Miles retrieved the gun from the car and gave it to Davis, who then got into a shootout with Harris’s boyfriend.[13] This was when Harris was struck by a bullet.[14] Miller claims he can’t be liable because he didn’t get out of the car and he “did not own the gun, load the gun, hand the gun to the shooter [or] fire the gun.”[15] However, the judge said that the lawsuit sufficiently argues that “Miller understood that Miles and Davis were in a dispute with a third party and that bringing a gun into that situation could end badly for someone.”[16]
Miller argues in his motion that “[i]t was unforeseeable … that Davis, who was not the gun’s owner, would use it to engage in a deadly shootout with someone Miller had never seen.”[17] Again, the judge did not buy this argument. The judge reasoned that the “Plaintiff plausibly allege[d] that, by delivering Miles’s firearm to the scene of a dispute, Miller affirmatively acted in a way that involved him directly in the foreseeable consequences of Davis’s actions.”[18]
While this is not the offseason Miller wanted, he must now face the pending trial of these claims. This is a civil case, so if Miller is found guilty, he will be forced to pay damages.
[1] NBA Player Can’t Duck Negligence Claims In Shooting Suit – Law360
[2] Id.
[3] Brandon Miller’s link to fatal shooting: What we know about Alabama star freshman’s involvement in murder case – CBSSports.com
[4] NBA Player Can’t Duck Negligence Claims In Shooting Suit – Law360
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
[17] Id.
[18] Id.
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