A homicide detective testified that autopsy findings and other evidence did not align with portions of Jalil Bivens’ account of Ava Walters’ death.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A suspect’s description of a consensual encounter, a different explanation allegedly given to a friend, scratches investigators viewed as defensive wounds and an autopsy finding of manual strangulation form the central evidentiary conflict in the murder case arising from Alabama State University student Ava Walters’ death.
Walters, 20, was found unresponsive Aug. 23 inside a Montgomery hotel room that Alabama State was using as temporary student housing. Her boyfriend, Jalil Bivens, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was arrested and charged with murder. The most detailed public description of the investigation came during a hearing on whether Bivens could be released on bond, when a homicide detective testified about statements, phone activity, medical findings and the events that preceded the 911 call.
The medical evidence is among the state’s most important publicly disclosed facts. The detective testified that an autopsy established Walters’ cause of death as manual strangulation. Investigators also photographed or documented scratches on Bivens’ torso and arms, injuries they believed could have been caused defensively. The officer said Walters’ injuries were inconsistent with at least some portions of the account Bivens provided. Those conclusions have not yet been tested at a criminal trial.
Bivens’ own explanation, as described in the hearing, began with an argument on the morning Walters died. He told investigators that he choked Walters during what he said was a consensual act after the dispute. According to the detective, Bivens said that once he released her, he discovered she was unconscious. The prosecution alleges he murdered Walters, while his description of the encounter remains part of a disputed evidentiary record rather than an established judicial finding.
Investigators said another account emerged from a FaceTime call. About 10:33 a.m., according to court testimony, Bivens contacted a friend and sought advice. Police said the friend recalled Bivens explaining that Walters had struck her head on a nightstand and stopped breathing. The friend told investigators that Bivens appeared calm enough that he initially wondered whether the situation was a joke. According to the detective, Bivens then pointed his phone toward Walters on the bed.
That call was preceded by digital activity investigators also cited in court. At about 10:24 a.m., Bivens allegedly used ChatGPT to search for information on how to wake a person who had been choked unconscious. Police later recovered the timing of the search during their investigation. The reported search, the description given to the friend and Bivens’ later police interview supplied investigators with several statements or actions they could compare against the autopsy findings.
Emergency services were contacted at 10:54 a.m., investigators said. Dispatchers instructed Bivens on CPR while officers and medical personnel traveled to the Hilton Garden Inn in the 1600 block of Interstate Park Drive. Responders found Walters unresponsive and pronounced her dead. What began as an emergency response quickly became a homicide investigation, and police took Bivens into custody.
The detective testified that Bivens was advised of his Miranda rights and then spoke with investigators. The officer characterized him as cooperative and said he answered questions. Cooperation with police does not resolve whether a crime occurred or whether a suspect is responsible; investigators instead considered his statements alongside the autopsy, witness information and other evidence before authorities filed the murder charge.
The investigation also examined how Bivens came to be in Montgomery. He and Walters were both from the Fort Lauderdale area, while Walters was attending Alabama State in Alabama. Bivens told officers he drove north on Saturday night to surprise her. Once he arrived, he contacted Walters, who met him while she was with her best friend, according to the detective’s testimony.
The group later attended a party, where Bivens and Walters’ friend argued about who Walters would spend time with, investigators said. Police interviewed the friend, and the detective testified that her account of the disagreement aligned with Bivens’ account on that limited point. Walters and Bivens then left the gathering together. Nothing in the reviewed reporting indicates that investigators have publicly identified that dispute as the motive for Walters’ death.
The pair returned to the Hilton Garden Inn, but Walters was not there simply as a conventional hotel guest. Alabama State had arranged rooms at the property as temporary housing for students while construction involving residence facilities was being completed. University officials consequently referred to the site as an off-campus university facility, even though it operated as a commercial hotel. Walters was living there in connection with her enrollment at the school.
The hearing also included testimony that Bivens told investigators he had an AR-style pistol in his vehicle and that he had obtained it outside a standard retail purchase. Authorities have not alleged that the firearm caused Walters’ death, and the publicly reported autopsy finding attributes her death to strangulation. The weapon detail therefore forms part of the broader police investigation but, based on the reports reviewed, has not been identified as the means of the homicide.
After prosecutors presented the detective’s testimony, District Judge Pamela Higgins had to decide a separate legal question: whether Bivens should remain detained without bond under Alabama’s Aniah’s Law. That law permits pretrial detention in qualifying violent cases when the state meets a heightened burden showing that release conditions cannot adequately protect others or ensure the defendant returns to court.
Higgins ruled that prosecutors had not met that burden. She set Bivens’ bond at $175,000 and ordered that he not leave Alabama unless the court gives permission. Her order said the state had not demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions could reasonably assure public safety and Bivens’ appearance. The decision did not reduce or dismiss the murder charge and did not determine whether the prosecution’s evidence was sufficient for a conviction.
Walters, meanwhile, was remembered by Alabama State as a student rather than merely the victim at the center of a criminal case. University President Quinton Ross Jr. said she was in her second year studying health information management. He offered condolences to her relatives, classmates and friends and described the university community as sharing in their loss. Walters had come to Montgomery from Fort Lauderdale to attend the historically Black university.
Authorities have not released a confirmed motive for Walters’ death. Public reporting also has not established how long she and Bivens had been dating or identified a documented history that would explain the fatal encounter. Those gaps remain significant because the known evidence describes what investigators believe happened and what Bivens told them, but it does not supply a verified reason for the alleged killing.
Public accounts initially varied on Bivens’ age, with some early reports describing him as 21 and later local coverage identifying him as 22. The consistent facts across the reviewed reports are that he is from Fort Lauderdale, was described as Walters’ boyfriend, was arrested after her Aug. 23 death and faces a murder charge. Where reports conflict on incidental details, later local court reporting provides the stronger basis for the current account.
No later verified report reviewed through Oct. 17 showed that the murder accusation had been resolved through trial, plea or dismissal. The latest located court development remained the $175,000 bond order with restrictions on travel outside Alabama. Bivens is therefore properly described as a defendant accused of murder, while the prosecution’s interpretation of the autopsy, scratches, statements and digital evidence remains to be decided through the judicial process.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 17, 2026.