Graduate charged with murder of missing Mississippi college student appears in court

An alumnus is being arraigned on Wednesday for the murder of Jay Lee — a Mississippi college student who frequently dressed in women's clothing.

• Police have arrested Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. for the murder of Jay Lee -- who had gone missing.
• Lee was prominent in the university's LGBTQ community and frequently dressed in women's clothing.
• Lee's body has not been recovered, according to police.

Nearly three weeks after University of Mississippi student Jimmie "Jay" Lee went missing, a recent alumnus of the school was arraigned for his murder Wednesday — though police say they still have not located Lee's body.

Police arrested Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. on Friday and charged him with first-degree murder for Lee's killing, according to a statement from the Oxford Police Department. Lee was a prominent member of the university's LGBTQ community and frequently dressed in women's clothing, but he used he/him pronouns, according to his Facebook page. 

Prosecutors have argued that Herrington should be held without bond, saying in a filing that his release would "constitute a special danger to the community" and that he "poses a profound flight risk."

Herrington's bond hearing was initially scheduled for Wednesday, but a Lafeyette County Circuit Court Judge postponed it to August 9 at the request of Herrington's attorney, WCBI reported.

Herrington is represented in the case by Carlos Moore, a civil rights attorney and president of the National Bar Association, who is Herrington's uncle by marriage, according to WTVA. Moore is also currently representing D'monterrio Gibson, a Black FedEx driver who says he was shot at by two white men while making a delivery in February.

Moore did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Wednesday, but he told WREG that he is a "zealous advocate" for Herrington "because I know in my heart he did not commit murder."

"I know the type of young man he is," Moore said, according to WREG. "He does not have it in him to kill anyone."

Kevin Horan, a Mississippi state representative, is also defending Herrington. 

It's unclear what evidence police are using to link Herrington to the crime. The Oxford Police Department said in a statement before Herrington's arrest that it had executed "around a dozen" search warrants on "physical and digital entities." 

Moore told WREG he didn't think it was possible to know if Lee had been murdered because police still have not recovered a body.

"There's no body, there's no gunshots heard, I mean nobody has seen a struggle or heard of a struggle, so how do we know that someone is dead and how do they know that Timothy Herrington did it?" Moore said, according to WREG.