Man pleads guilty to killing an Ole Miss graduate who was prominent in the LGBTQ community

FILE - Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr., who is on trial on a capital murder charge in the 2022 death of University of Mississippi student Jimmie "Jay" Lee, looks out into the courtroom during the lunch break, in Oxford, Miss. on Dec. 3, 2024. (Bruce Newman/The Northeast Daily Journal via AP, Pool, File)

By SOPHIE BATES Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man charged with killing a University of Mississippi graduate who was prominent in the LGBTQ+ community pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree murder and tampering charges as he faced a second trial.

Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr. entered the plea in the death of Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee a gay man who disappeared in July 2022. A judge declared a mistrial last year after jurors failed to reach a verdict.

Lee went missing from Oxford, where the university is located. In February of this year, deer hunters stumbled upon Lee’s skeletal remains in a wooded area, according to Mississippi Today.

At the first trial, prosecutors claimed Herrington, who was not openly gay, killed Lee after the two had a sexual encounter that ended badly.

Both Herrington and Lee had graduated from Ole Miss.

Herrington is set to be sentenced on Tuesday.

His lawyers were not immediately available for comment.