JACKSON, Miss. — 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, who disappeared from Oxford, where the university is located, in July 2022. Herrington was arrested two weeks later and eventually charged with capital murder.

A judge declared a mistrial last year when jurors failed to reach a verdict after more than nine and a half hours of deliberation. At the time of the trial, Lee's body had not been found, but a judge had declared him dead.

In February of this year, deer hunters stumbled upon Lee’s skeletal remains in a wooded area, according to M

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