A University of Mississippi student who disappeared in 2022 was a happy person who spoke daily with his mother and called her every year to sing her happy birthday, his mother testified Tuesday at the trial of man accused of murdering his son.

Stephanie Lee of Jackson, Mississippi, said her 20-year-old son, Jimmy “Jay” Lee, texted her around 2 a.m. on July 8, 2022, to wish her a happy birthday. She said she saw the text when she woke up later, and she responded with a smiley face emoji, expecting to hear from him. She said he never called.

Sheldon “Timothy” Herrington Jr. of Grenada, Mississippi, is charged with capital murder in the death of Jay Lee, who was last seen alive in Oxford hours after sending the birthday text to his mother.

Tuesday was the first day of Herrington’s trial in Oxford, and Stéphane Lee testified after the lawyers presented their opening arguments. She said she worried when hours passed and her son didn’t call her to sing.

Stephanie Lee said she checked the location of Jay’s phone, called police several times to ask them to do a welfare check on her son and asked her eldest to contact one of the Jay’s friends to have that friend check out Jay’s apartment. The friend couldn’t find Jay but said he could hear Jay’s beloved Pomeranian dog, Lexus, barking inside.

Jay Lee was well known within the local LGBTQ+ community at Oxford and the University of Mississippi. His body has not been found. In October, a judge declared him dead after Lee’s parents requested this statement.

Herrington maintained his innocence.

An assistant prosecutor, Gwen Agho, told jurors Tuesday that Lee was a confident person who dressed however he wanted, sometimes wearing high heels.

“He walked at his own pace,” Agho said. “He knew who he was.”

Lee and Herrington saw each other twice in the hours before Lee disappeared, Agho said. She said the men had sexual contact when they first met and Lee was upset when he left Herrington’s apartment.

Herrington invited Lee back — and before Lee arrived, Herrington searched online how long it took to strangle someone, Agho said.

Herrington “was not openly part of the LGBTQ community,” Agho said.

Herrington’s attorney, Kevin Horan, told jurors that prosecutors had “no” evidence that Lee was killed or that a crime took place in Herrington’s apartment or car or in the car of Lee.

“You won’t hear anything that supports the conclusion of murder or death, period,” Horan said.

Multiple law enforcement agencies used 71 search warrants, and “they did not recover a single piece of direct evidence to support this case,” Horan said.

The jurors have been chosen Monday in Forrest County, about 250 miles south of Oxford. THE the trial takes place at the Lafayette County Courthouse in Oxford.

Herrington and Lee were both graduates of the University of Mississippi. Lee was pursuing a master’s degree.

Lee was known for his creative expression through fashion and makeup and often performed in drag shows in Oxford, according to a support group called Justice for Jay Lee.

Police said cell phone history showed conversations between Herrington and Lee the morning Lee disappeared. Surveillance video recorded Herrington running from where Lee’s car was found, and he was later seen picking up a shovel and wheelbarrow from his parents’ house, authorities said.

Herrington, a University of Mississippi graduate, was arrested two weeks after Lee’s disappearance and then released five months later on $250,000 bail after agreeing to surrender his passport and wear an ankle monitor. In March 2023, a grand jury indicted him on capital murder charges.

Prosecutors said they did not intend to seek the death penalty, meaning he could face life in prison if convicted. Mississippi law defines capital murder as murder committed at the same time as another crime – in this case, kidnapping.