Alabama AD Greg Byrne makes first public comments on Brandon Miller, updates status

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne has made his first public comments on the new developments in the Darius Miles situation involving Brandon Miller. He joined the ESPN College GameDay podcast and confirmed Miller is with the Crimson Tide for Wednesday’s game at South Carolina and the expectation is he’ll play.

“[Miller] is in South Carolina with our team,” Byrne said. “He went through walk-through today and we expect him to play this evening.”

Police testimony on Tuesday revealed Miller received a text from Miles asking him to bring the gun to the scene of the shooting which killed Jamea Jonae Harris. The gun belonged to Miles, as previous court records said, and Miller’s attorney released a statement Wednesday sharing his side of the story.

Byrne acknowledged the new information the statement showed and shared what he knew about the extent of Miller’s involvement in that Jan. 15 incident. He also acknowledged Alabama coach Nate Oats’ comments in light of the testimony and said the athletic department handled that accordingly. Oats later released another statement clarifying his remarks.

“We found out some new facts yesterday, we found out some new facts today,” Byrne said. “Here’s what we know. Brandon Miller was not there for the verbal altercation. 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 fully cooperating with this and is not a suspect.

“Yesterday, we began to hear some new things from the hearing, and 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. 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 this situation. The rest of us are still learning things. Given the gravity of the situation and out of respect for the judicial process, I’d urge everyone to defer to the facts provided by law enforcement rather than relying on social media or other snippets of information that lack context or form conclusions.”

Attorney for Brandon Miller releases statement regarding new developments

Jim Standridge is representing Miller and the side of the Alabama forward. He said Miller never touched the gun, which was eventually used to kill Jamea Harris.

“Mr. Miles texted Brandon and asked him to bring his firearm,” a portion of the statement read. “Brandon subsequently arrived at the scene to pick up Mr. Miles. Brandon never got out of his vehicle or interacted with anyone in Ms. Harris’ party. He was never involved in a verbal altercation with Cedric Johnson or Mr. Davis.

“Brandon never touched the gun, was not involved with an exchange to Mr. Davis in any way, and never knew that illegal activity involving the gun would occur.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.