Tavante Williamson Obituary, Death; – A man from Slidell has been convicted of second-degree murder after a jury in St. Tammany Parish dismissed his assertion of self-defense.
On March 20, jurors deliberated for approximately two hours before reaching a verdict against Jamiel Miller, who now faces a mandatory life sentence for the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Tavante Williamson on June 25, 2023. Williamson was the former partner of Miller’s girlfriend and the father of her three children.
According to law enforcement and prosecutors, Miller, aged 27, shot Williamson in the chest while parked outside an apartment complex on Gause Boulevard, with two of Williamson’s children present in the back seat. Investigators reported that Miller drove his girlfriend to Williamson’s residence around 10:30 p.m. after Williamson had called her to pick up the children.
An argument ensued between the former couple as the children entered the vehicle while the woman remained outside. During the dispute, Miller allegedly pointed a Glock 27 handgun out of his open driver’s window and fired multiple shots, resulting in Williamson’s death.
Miller’s defense attorney argued to the jury that his client felt threatened by Williamson due to prior confrontations and maintained that the shooting was an act of self-defense.
To support his self-defense argument, Miller took the stand and testified that Williamson was not aware he was armed. However, he later contradicted this by stating that Williamson had seen the gun and asked, “Are you going to hit me with that?”
Miller further claimed that he fired at Williamson merely to intimidate him, asserting that he did not intend to kill him. Nonetheless, he acknowledged having said after the shots were fired, “I told y’all I wasn’t playing.”
Prosecutor Tiffany Dover seized on Miller’s assertion that he only aimed to frighten Williamson, questioning whether he recognized that he had effectively confessed to second-degree murder. In Louisiana, a valid self-defense claim necessitates that an individual has a reasonable belief that they are in imminent danger of losing their life or suffering serious bodily harm.
