Julian Taylor Morris has been arrested and charged with murder in the 2024 death of his boyfriend, Deundray Cottrell, who was found strangled in a shed in Birmingham, Alabama. U.S. Marshals took the 33-year-old into custody Monday in Miami as he was preparing to leave on a cruise.Birmingham police announced the arrest Tuesday. Morris, of Jonesboro, Georgia, is being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami. At the same time, he waits to be sent back to Alabama to face the charge.
Cottrell was a 31-year-old doctoral student and dancer from Atlanta. He traveled to Birmingham with Morris for the Fourth of July in 2024 to visit his sister, who had just moved into a new home. The pair arrived around 6 p.m., and the family spent the evening celebrating outside.
According to his sister’s account to AL.com, Cottrell went inside around 9 p.m. to check on his dog during the fireworks, and Morris eventually drifted inside as well. Around 10:15 p.m., Morris came back out, grabbed her arm, and told her that her brother had just jumped out of a window.Cottrell was reported missing that night. Police began searching the neighborhood the next day and found pieces of clothing. A neighbor also turned over surveillance footage that appeared to show Cottrell walking in the area. The clothing and video led officers to the spot where his body was found on July 6, two days after he vanished. He had been strangled with an electrical cord, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Police named Morris a person of interest almost immediately and asked the public to help find him. They said he was the last person to see or hear from Cottrell before he disappeared. At the time, Morris declined to give police a statement, and his attorney said Morris also wanted answers and would wait for the full investigation.
More than two years passed without an arrest. Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett said the arrest of Julian Taylor Morris shows the department does not give up on unsolved cases. “We never stop working for justice,” Pickett said.
Cottrell’s family has pushed for an arrest since the night he went missing. His sister told AL.com that the family’s efforts had finally paid off. “I know it’s just started, but that part of the race is over,” she said.Morris’s attorney, Victor Revill, maintains that his client is innocent and says the evidence points in a different direction. Revill said Ring camera footage from that night showed Cottrell running through yards and jumping a fence by himself, while Morris was with Cottrell’s family at their home.
“Mr. Morris cannot be in two places at the same time. It’s a physical impossibility,” Revill said. He added that being charged with a crime does not make someone guilty of it. Revill has also described Morris as a college-educated Marine veteran with no prior misdemeanor or felony convictions.
Police have not publicly explained what new evidence led to the murder charge against Julian Taylor Morris. Once he is returned to Alabama, the case will move through the Jefferson County courts, where prosecutors will have to prove the charge.
