MOBILE, Ala. — A Bay Minette man who has been ordered to testify in the Reuben Thomas Gulley murder case will stay behind bars ahead of the Gulley murder trial, which a Mobile County judge said remains set for Nov. 2.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Michael Windom on Sept. 15 denied a written request from the witness, 25-year-old Jakyrus Ronald Williams, to be released from the Baldwin County Jail. Days later, Gulley’s defense attorney told the court he has another murder trial scheduled for the same day, raising questions about whether the Nov. 2 date will hold.
Gulley, of Saraland, is charged with murder in the 2022 shooting death of 18-year-old Randon Lee. Gulley is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Why the witness is in jail
According to court records, a warrant was issued for Williams’ arrest after he failed to appear for a court date in Gulley’s case in October 2025. That was the same day Gulley turned down a final plea offer from prosecutors.
In July, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office arrested Williams on unrelated misdemeanor drug possession charges. He pleaded guilty to one of those counts, and on Aug. 26, Baldwin County District Judge Michael Hoyt cleared him for release with credit for time served.
Williams was not released, however. He remains in custody on the warrant tied to the Gulley case.
The witness’ request
In a letter dated Sept. 14 and written from the Baldwin County Jail, Williams told Windom he missed the October 2025 court date because he was out of town for work and had no way to get back to Mobile.
He asked the judge to release him on electronic monitoring until Gulley’s trial.
Windom rejected the request the next day in a one-page order. In the same order, the judge noted that Gulley’s case remains on the trial docket for Nov. 2.
A scheduling conflict for the defense
On Sept. 17, two days after Windom’s order, Gulley’s attorney, Chase Dearman, filed a notice of calendar conflict with the court.
Dearman told Windom he is also set to appear Nov. 2 in a capital murder trial before Mobile County Circuit Judge Roderick Stout. He asked Windom to issue an order stating which of the two cases should go forward that day.
When a defense lawyer is booked for two trials on the same day, the court must decide which case goes first, and the other may need to be rescheduled. As of the latest filings, no order resolving the conflict had been reported.
The case against Gulley
Randon Lee was shot on the evening of June 24, 2022, at a gas station on St. Stephens Road in Prichard. According to earlier accounts of the case, Lee was struck in the back, drove away briefly and crashed, and later died.
Investigators have alleged the shooting was connected to a marijuana sale. Testimony at an earlier hearing indicated Lee had previously sold marijuana to Gulley and had arranged another transaction on the day he was killed. Those allegations have not been proven in court.
A warrant for Gulley’s arrest on a murder charge was issued in August 2022, and he turned himself in later that month. Lee’s mother, Ophelia Nichols, is widely known on TikTok as “Mama Tot,” and she used her large following to appeal for information after her son’s death, drawing national attention to the case.
A rejected plea deal
The latest filings come almost a year after Gulley declined a plea agreement that would have allowed him to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than murder.
Under that offer, prosecutors recommended that Gulley serve 17 years in custody on top of the roughly three years he had already spent in jail without bond, or about 20 years in all. Gulley rejected the offer in October 2025, keeping the case on track for a jury trial.
Murder is a Class A felony in Alabama, carrying a possible sentence of 10 to 99 years or life in prison. State law sets a minimum of 20 years when a firearm or deadly weapon is used in a Class A felony. Manslaughter is a Class B felony, punishable by 2 to 20 years.
The people involved
- Reuben Thomas Gulley: Saraland man charged with murder in Lee’s death; he has been held without bond.
- Randon Lee: The 18-year-old shooting victim, son of Ophelia Nichols.
- Jakyrus Ronald Williams: 25-year-old Bay Minette man ordered to testify in the case, held in the Baldwin County Jail.
- Judge Michael Windom: Mobile County circuit judge presiding over Gulley’s case.
- Chase Dearman: Gulley’s defense attorney.
- Judge Roderick Stout: Mobile County circuit judge presiding over the separate capital murder trial set for Nov. 2.
- Judge Michael Hoyt: Baldwin County district judge who cleared Williams for release on the unrelated drug case.
What happens next
For now, Gulley’s trial remains set for Nov. 2 in Mobile County Circuit Court. Whether it proceeds that day depends on how Windom responds to Dearman’s notice of calendar conflict and on the schedule of the separate capital murder trial.
Under Windom’s Sept. 15 order, Williams remains in the Baldwin County Jail on the warrant from the Gulley case.