Julian Taylor Morris, 33, of Jonesboro, Georgia, was arrested in Miami on September 14 while preparing to board a cruise ship in connection with the 2024 killing of Atlanta dancer Deundray Cottrell, according to the Trussville Tribune. U.S. Marshals took Morris into custody after Birmingham police had sought him for more than two years.
Morris is being held without bond at Miami-Dade County's Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center while Alabama seeks his extradition, AL.com reported. Under Florida's interstate extradition process, a person may waive an extradition hearing; otherwise, the case proceeds through a hearing and judicial review before transfer, according to Pumphrey Law. The timing of Morris's transfer to Jefferson County was not stated in the supplied reporting.
What police say happened in 2024
Cottrell disappeared during a July 4, 2024, family gathering in Birmingham. His body was found two days later in a shed behind an abandoned house in the South East Lake area, according to 11Alive. Authorities classified the death as a homicide caused by strangulation, and reporting identified an electrical cord as having been wrapped around his neck, according to NewsNation.
Police later identified Morris as a person of interest, and he has now been charged with murder. The arrest establishes the current procedural development, not guilt: Morris remains presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove the charge in court. His defense previously denied wrongdoing, according to the Dover Focus.
The arrest comes amid a broader homicide decline
Birmingham's current homicide totals provide context but do not explain the Cottrell case. The city recorded 24 homicides through June 30, 2026, down 35.1% from the first half of 2025 and 70% from the same point in 2024, according to the Alabama Political Reporter. A separate report counted 17 homicides through June 1, compared with 34 by that date in 2025 and 62 in 2024, while police reported a 100% 2026 clearance rate at that point, according to ABC 33/40.
Those figures use different reporting dates, and a clearance is not necessarily an arrest in the same year: Birmingham police said a case can be cleared through an arrest or an exceptional clearance. For longer-term perspective, WBRC reported 86 homicides in 2025, down from 152 in 2024, with 87% of 2025 cases solved according to Mayor Randall Woodfin.
A separate neighborhood-safety effort
The location also has a separate public-safety history. Birmingham launched an East Lake Safe Streets pilot in July 2024, involving traffic-calming measures, limits on some entry and exit points, and efforts to address abandoned properties, according to the City of Birmingham. The city later advanced the initiative with a $372,000 contract for permanent safety and beautification improvements, ABC 33/40 reported. Those measures address neighborhood conditions; the supplied reporting does not connect them to the circumstances or motive in Cottrell's death.
Morris's extradition and subsequent court proceedings will determine how the murder charge moves forward in Jefferson County. Until then, the arrest closes a lengthy search for a suspect but leaves the case's ultimate resolution to the courts.
