Herrington sentenced: Lee family pushes ‘Jay Lee Information’ bill for missing children

OXFORD, Miss. (WMC) - The former Ole Miss student, who pleaded guilty Monday in the murder of another student, Jimmie “Jay” Lee, will serve 40 years in prison.

Timothy Herrington Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.

The murder charge comes with a 30-year sentence, while the tampering charge comes with a 10-year sentence. Those sentences will be served consecutively.

Herrington and the state came to an agreement on a plea deal that lowered the capital murder charge he was set to go on trial for to second-degree murder.

Lee’s father spoke at the sentencing hearing, saying he knew Herrington was responsible for his son’s murder from the beginning and that he has a broken heart and experienced things no father should.

Herrington was first arrested in 2022, weeks after Lee was reported missing. Herrington went on trial for Lee’s murder in December 2024, but a mistrial was declared. In February 2025, Lee’s remains were found in Carroll County, Mississippi and days later, a grand jury issued a new two-count indictment against Herrington for capital murder and evidence tampering connected to Lee’s confirmed death. On March 7, a judge dismissed the tampering charge involving the remains, ruling the statute of limitations had expired.

During the sentencing, the Judge told Herrington he still has a chance to live his life, but Mr. Lee does not. He continued to say that many people in the country thought there would not be justice, but Mississippi got it right this time.

Herrington will spend a total of 40 years in prison for both charges. Following the 40 years, Herrington will spend 5 years on supervised probation and then another 5 on unsupervised probation.

Following the sentencing, members of the Oxford Police Department, University of Mississippi’s Police Department, District Attorney Ben Creekmore and Assistant District Attorney Gwen Agho along with family members of the Lee family held a press conference.

“Justice was delayed, but justice was not defeated,” said Oxford Police Chief Jeff McCutchen.

McCutchen said it’s been 1,242 days since Jay Lee was murdered and this case was built with purpose, passion and patience and it’s now paid off.

McCutchen says his office has been committed from the beginning to bring Jay home and we’ve now accomplished that, secondly was to bring the case to justice. “Today we’ve completed that promise,” said McCutchen. McCutchen said the men and women who worked this case will never be the same.

District Attorney Ben Creekmore says this case was an uphill battle from the beginning. Creekmore said an DNA analyst from Quantico in Virginia was able to take a roll of duct tape that Herrington had bought from Walmart the morning of the murder and compared it to the duct tape that was found years later wrapped around Jay Lee’s remains.

The mother of Jay Lee says Oxford PD has been faithful since day one. Their family is forever grateful for everyone involved in helping solve the case.

The Lee family announced a new bill they are pushing in Mississippi called “Jay Lee Information” bill, to help get more answers for missing children under 21. He blames Apple for Lee’s body decaying in a field in Carroll County. Says Timothy would have been behind bars quicker if Apple did not deny the police Jay Lee’s social media username.

Lee’s father continued to say America has too much technology to not know where their missing loved ones are with the use of social media and tracking.

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