A federal jury has awarded former college basketball player Kai Spears $9.25 million after finding that The New York Times defamed him by wrongly reporting that he was present at the scene of a fatal shooting.
An eight-member jury delivered the verdict on Thursday following a nine-day trial in federal court in Alabama.
Spears, a former University of Alabama basketball player, sued the newspaper in 2023 over an article that incorrectly identified him as a passenger in a vehicle present when 23-year-old Jamea Harris was fatally shot in Tuscaloosa in January that year.
Court records later established that Spears was neither in the vehicle nor at the scene. The passenger was actually Cooper Lee, a student manager with the basketball team who was not accused or charged in connection with the killing.
The Times had based the identification on an anonymous source familiar with the investigation. After Alabama’s athletic director and Spears’ father challenged the report, the newspaper reviewed its reporting. It later conducted further inquiries and published an editor’s note correcting the mistake.
Spears argued that the inaccurate report caused significant emotional and reputational damage by linking his name to a murder.
His attorney, Matt Glover, welcomed the verdict and said he hoped it would encourage higher standards in journalism.
The New York Times said it was disappointed with the decision and was considering its legal options. The newspaper described the original report as an “honest mistake” and maintained that the verdict and damages were not supported by the law or evidence.
According to the newspaper, the ruling marks its first loss in a US defamation case involving one of its articles in more than 50 years.
Spears subsequently left Alabama and continued his college basketball career with Marshall and West Liberty in West Virginia.