Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said Wednesday the school learned new details this week about star basketball player Brandon Miller’s contact with Darius Miles the night of the Jan. 15 killing of Jamea Harris.
Specifically, Byrne told ESPN’s College Gameday podcast that the school did not know about Miles’ text message request to Miller asking the freshman forward to bring Miles’ gun to the scene.
“That information was new to me,” Byrne said Wednesday. “I had not been told that before.”
The text message was revealed as part of law enforcement testimony at a 9 a.m. Tuesday hearing in Tuscaloosa’s county jail to decide bond for Miles and Michael Davis, who were both charged with capital murder. That hearing had been initially scheduled for Feb. 7 before being postponed.
Reporters were present for the Tuesday hearing from several local news outlets, but recording devices, phones, laptops and cameras were not allowed. During the second hour of the two-and-a-half hour hearing, a reporter from the Tuscaloosa Thread left the room to publish a story revealing initial details about Miller’s vehicle being at the scene.
Other details, including the text messages, had not yet been reported from the courtroom when coach Nate Oats arrived in the Coleman Coliseum press room shortly after noon Tuesday for his regular-scheduled 11:30 a.m. news conference previewing Wednesday’s game at South Carolina.
During the news conference, Oats was asked a question that noted the court discussion about Miller’s vehicle and inquired about Oats’ comfort level given Miller’s proximity to the shooting.
“We knew about that,” Oats responded. “Can’t control everything everybody does outside of practice. Nobody knew that was going to happen. College kids are out, Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble nor is he in any type of trouble in this case. Wrong spot at the wrong time.”
A few minutes after Oats’ news conference wrapped up, Miles’ hearing ended in the county jail and reporters in the court room were allowed to return to their phones and other electronic devices. That is when Miles’ text message to Miller and other details from the hearing began to be published by news outlets.
In light of the additional details, Oats’ comments -- specifically “wrong spot at the wrong time” -- began to receive negative attention from national reporters and commentators. About six hours later, Oats released a statement through the school calling his initial remarks “unfortunate” and saying his statements “came across poorly.”
But Oats reiterated in the statement, “We were informed by law enforcement of other student-athletes being in the vicinity, and law enforcement has repeatedly told us that no other student-athletes were suspects — they were witnesses only. Our understanding is that they have all been fully truthful and cooperative.”
Byrne reacted to Oats’ comments during his podcast appearance.
“Coach Oats had just come out of practice and did not have the information from the hearing when he was talking with the media directly after practice,” Byrne said. “He did not handle that in a way that he should have. We’ve addressed that with him. With that, Coach Oats only has so much information as well. Only law enforcement knows all the facts of the situation. The rest of us are still learning things.”
The second part of the question asked to Oats during his news conference Tuesday inquired about how Oats would respond to NBA scouts that asked about Miller, a projected top-5 pick this summer, and his involvement the night of the shooting.
“They do their homework,” Oats said of NBA scouts. “I think the article that it came out in also stated that Brandon has been interviewed and they’re comfortable with everything that happened there.”
That was an apparent reference to the initial Tuscaloosa Thread article from the hearing, which stated, “[Tuscaloosa police detective Branden] Culpepper said Miles and Davis both lied about how Davis had come to be shot and denied any involvement in the shooting but said Miller’s account of what preceded the shooting almost exactly matched what investigators gathered from video evidence and other witness testimony.”
Byrne stated during his podcast appearance Wednesday that Oats was not briefed on Miles’ court hearing.
“He knew the hearing was going on,” Byrne told ESPN. “He had not been briefed on what had been said at the hearing when he walked into [the news conference]. ... This was his normal media gathering and he had not been updated on his way into the press conference.
“[Oats] obviously didn’t help himself through that. He and I talked about it. We’ve addressed it. He’s remorseful for that. We’ve dealt with it. I’ve actually been pleased up until that point about Nate’s empathy through this and trying to manage a very challenging situation.”
Byrne also expounded on the “new facts” that he said were learned by the school Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Here’s what we know: Brandon was not there for the verbal altercation,” Byrne said. “Brandon was already on his way to pick up Darius when Darius texted him. Brandon never left his vehicle and was not involved in the collection of the weapon. The shooting occurred just seconds after Brandon arrived. Brandon has been a fully cooperating witness and is not a suspect.”
Added Byrne: “The new information that we learned yesterday is that there had been some text messages exchanged with Brandon and Darius. That information was new to me. I had not been told that before. So that was that information. We were able to receive some information since then about the exchange that had not been out there publicly.
“For instance, Darius had been asking Brandon to come pick him up for close to an hour. He was his ride that evening. Brandon was already on his way to pick up Darius when he received the text message from him that was reported in the media yesterday. I did not know that yesterday and I found that out today.”
Asked what Alabama knew in the immediate aftermath of the shooting Jan. 15, Byrne said, “From the get-go we knew Brandon and Jaden were both at the scene. We knew they were cooperating. And we were told early on they were not suspects. That was the information we had fairly quickly on that Sunday once the process began.”
Miller’s attorney, Jim Standridge, released a statement Wednesday that also stated Miller never handled Miles’ weapon, was already on his way to pick up Miles and did not know Miles’ intent in asking for it.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.