Photo courtesy of Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Former Miami Hurricanes’ defensive back Rashaun Jones was arrested for the 2006 murder of his former teammate, Bryan Pata, on Aug. 19, according to the Miami Herald. Pata was shot to death in front of his apartment building in Miami on Nov. 7, 2006. He was 22-years-old.
Jones allegedly shot Pata execution-style in the head. The crime had been unsolved for several years, but Jones was suspected of the crime. Jones and Pata had both dated Pata’s ex-girlfriend, Jada Brody, and the two men had recently had
a physical altercation. Brody was inside Pata’s apartment when the shooting occurred. No security cameras covered the area.Edwin Pata, Bryan Pata’s brother, said that his brother told him Jones had threatened to shoot him in the head two months before the murder. He said he tried to get his brother to tell the head coach, Larry Coker, but he never did.
ESPN published an in-depth piece last year that noted Jones was a suspect and reignited the investigation. Jones was the only player who had not shown up for a mandatory team meeting after the news of Pata’s death broke.
Jones told police that he was home alone on the night of Pata’s death, but a witness picked him out of a police lineup. Jones’ cell phone records also showed usage by several different towers that night. He kneeled with the rest of his teammates on the football field as they paid tribute to Pata after his death. Why the arrest has taken so long was unclear.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a press release that the Pata family will finally have justice.
“The Pata family has waited a long time to see the individual they had believed involved in Bryan’s death arrested and charged,” she said. “While the time needed to build sufficient evidence to ethically charge in a homicide can sometimes feel endless, families should know that the passion and determination of police and prosecutors to resolve unsolved cases does not diminish. The commitment of the Miami-Dade Police Department and of my prosecutors and staff to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice never diminishes.”
Jones, 35, was charged with first-degree murder and has denied the charge.