Former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears’ defamation and false light lawsuit against The New York Times over its reporting about a fatal shooting is proceeding to trial in a case that centers on whether getting the “gist” right is good enough.
Last week U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon denied the Times’ motion for summary judgment, reasoning that a person reading the March 15, 2023, story “A Shooting That Ensnared Alabama Players Could Have Been Deadlier,” could conclude Spears might have been “complicit” or “involved” in a shooting incident on Jan. 15, 2023, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The story noted that Spears being at the scene “had not been previously reported” and that neither of the two bullets that struck the car of star player—and future Charlotte Hornets forward—Brandon Miller hit either Miller or Spears. That new information about the shooting was developed, the Times noted, through the information from a “person familiar with the case” who was not named in the story.
In reality, Spears wasn’t involved in the shooting, and he wasn’t even present at it.
The incident featured former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles allegedly retrieving a gun from the car of Miller, who was not accused of wrongdoing, and giving it to another man, Michael Davis. Davis then shot at and killed Jamea Harris, a 23-year-old mother from Birmingham. The person believed to be Spears was Cooper Lee, the manager for the Crimson Tide basketball team.
