PAULA LAVIGNE: Previously on Murderer at The U—
MALE VOICE: Everybody’s a suspect when somebody dies.
MALE VOICE: It was Bryan and the girl, man.
MALE VOICE: I used to ask him, like, “Where you gettin’ all this fuckin’ money from?”
MALE VOICE: Then he’d be like, “Oh, I gotta call my guy.” He never said the name.
MALE VOICE: But I just remember him, like, if you want it, come see me then.
PAULA LAVIGNE: From the very beginning of our reporting, we knew the Pata family had a particular suspect in mind for who killed Bryan.
EDRICK PATA: Yeah, w– yeah, we know who did we. We– we know who’s responsible for it.
PAULA LAVIGNE: This came in our first conversation with Edrick Pata in 2017.
EDRICK PATA: Bryan– our brother was not killed from somebody from outside. He was killed from the University of Miami. So they– Miami– they don’t want it put out there, but it was a teammate.
PAULA LAVIGNE: In our investigation, multiple suspects emerged from different scenarios. There was a nightclub fight with suspected gang members, Bryan’s alleged connection to the Zoe Pound leader, Ali Adam, and potentially his girlfriend’s twin brother. But this theory, that a teammate killed Bryan, it had our attention from the beginning. At first, Bryan’s brothers, Edrick and Edwin, didn’t want to implicate this teammate by name. But over time, they eventually did share a name with producer Dan Aruda.
DAN ARRUDA: Did he mention having problems with anybody on the team?
EDWIN PATA: Yeah.
DAN ARRUDA: What was–
EDWIN PATA: His only guy was Rashaun Jones.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The Pata family was convinced that Bryan was killed by his teammate, Rashaun Jones. Edrick told us his suspicions started after a conversation with the former Hurricanes player.
EDRICK PATA: Man, you all need to look at the god damn school. Said– he said, “There’s some grimy.” He said– he used these words. “There’s some grimy niggers out there. I know somebody in the god damn school know who killed Bryan. Don’t catch no. Don’t play us no.”
DAN ARRUDA: So when he says this to you, you think what?
EDRICK PATA: Like, can’t be true. Miami. It’s Miami, man. It’s brotherly love. It’s– it’s m– it’s The U. It’s Miami. They wouldn’t– you know, who would do that?
DAN ARRUDA: When was the first time you remember someone saying to you, or you guys putting together that Rashaun was the one that pulled the trigger?
EDRICK PATA: We started sittin’ out with the teammates, and– and then we started puttin’– puttin’ the puzzle together. Who did Bryan have an altercation with? Bryan had a fight with this guy. And when we heard different things, people started talking a little bit about Rashaun. People kept sayin’– his name kept comin’ up.
DAN ARRUDA: This is from former teammates.
EDRICK PATA: Yeah. Former teammates. UM students. So people just started to talk.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But could a teammate really have killed Bryan in cold blood? As we dug deeper, we concluded that only one of two things could be true. Either Rashaun Jones killed Bryan Pata, or someone else killed Bryan, and Rashaun fell victim to a very unfortunate set of circumstances. I’m Paula Lavigne from 30 For 30 Podcasts, this is Murder at The U, episode four, “The Teammate.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: After the Patas identified Rashaun Jones by name in 2018, our reporting team tried to learn everything we could about him. Rashaun was in his junior year when Bryan Pata was murdered. The police questioned him, but he didn’t hear from them after 2007. Rashaun was still on the team in the spring, but then, after failing another drug test, he left. He transferred to a college in North Carolina. And he ended up playing arena football in Texas. But after Texas, Rashaun moved back home to Florida.
PAULA LAVIGNE: In 2018, he married his high school girlfriend, Ashinda. By that time, he had five children. And this is where our timelines converge. It had been nearly 12 years since Bryan’s murder. Rashaun, and the people in his orbit were going about their lives, most likely not thinking about Bryan Pata. Until we began calling them up and asking questions. Rashaun grew up in a small town in northern Florida called Lake City. Rashaun’s friend, George Timmons, describes the town this way.
GEORGE TIMMONS: It’s just a little small country town. It’s– there’s really not much of anything there. But, you know, everybody’s always– everybody comes together for their sports.
PAULA LAVIGNE: George grew up playing football with Rashaun from the age of eight or nine.
GEORGE TIMMONS: We played for the Jaguars. It was a Pop Warner team. Like, we was on teams together since we was little boys. Like, we been friends forever, it seem like.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Rashaun was raised by his mother and grandmother. George said he and Rashaun would hang out at his grandmother’s house.
GEORGE TIMMONS: We all used to go to sit with her, talk to her. His grandmother was– really she was like Rashaun’s world.
PAULA LAVIGNE: In high school, Rashaun became a nationally ranked cornerback. As he went into his senior year in Lake City, universities such at Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida recruited him. But like Bryan, Rashaun chose The U. George also decided to play football at Miami.
GEORGE TIMMONS: I thought me and him kinda went in it together, ’cause we was like, you know, shoot we boys. We been playing, let’s just go down here and do it together, so it won’t be like you alone. So we’ll have each other as friends when we get down there, to Miami.
SPORTS ANNOUNCER: Rashaun Jones recovers at the end zone for the touchdown.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Rashaun joined The Hurricanes in 2004, one year after Bryan. He played in about half the games in his first two seasons. Linebacker, Jon Beason, came to Miami the same year as Rashaun and remembered him as a strong player.
JON BEASON: That guy could have been as good as anybody, to play DB, or return kicks. He was just a very, very talented dude.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But to fans and observers of the team, Rashaun didn’t really stand out. Even Nevin Shapiro, the Miami mega-booster, and self-proclaimed super fan, had no memory of Rashaun.
PAULA LAVIGNE: So at the time, where was Rashaun Jones on your radar?
NEVIN SHAPIRO: Nowhere. Never met him my whole life. He wasn’t a frontline guy. And I think he was an outsider for most. I don’t– I’ve never met him. I could– if he was sittin’ here, I couldn’t identify him.
PAULA LAVIGNE: We asked all the former Hurricanes players we spoke to what Rashaun was like at that time.
HURRICANES FOOTBALL PLAYER: He was just kind of a– in and out of trouble, like little stuff on campus– or with the team, gettin’ in trouble or suspended for games, or what not. And that probably led to his demise as a University of Miami football player.
PAULA LAVIGNE: At The U, Rashaun was remembered as an amazing athlete who didn’t meet his full potential. He got in fights and received several suspensions. But like Bryan, he was also funny in a charming way. And he stood out as attractive, even on a campus full of young, hot people.
HURRICANES FOOTBALL PLAYER: Shaun was a good-looking kid. Man, he had a lot of girls.
MALE VOICE: You know, the teeth, the– the attitude, the– the hair, the– the dress.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Now, bear in mind, we spoke to a lot of team members, mostly friends of Bryan’s. We tried to talking to more of Rashaun’s friends, but several of them turned down our interview requests. So our sample may have been a bit biased. But lots of players said versions of the same thing.
MALE VOICE: Rashaun, like, kinda rubbed some people the wrong way.
MALE VOICE: He’s one of those cunning guys. He has a cunning look on his face all the time.
MALE VOICE: He was a sleazeball like that.
MALE VOICE: That’s all he really did when he was at UM was to, you know, try to fuck girls. Like, he wasn’t tryin’ to play football. You know what I mean?
PAULA LAVIGNE: Teammate Eric Houston told us that Rashaun’s interest in women often seemed more important to Rashaun than football. These hookups were a point of friction with more than one of Rashaun’s teammates. According to the police report, and our interviews, Rashaun would go behind player’s backs and hit on their girlfriends. Willie Williams and Dave Howell both told police that Rashaun did this with the women they were dating at the time. Rashaun also allegedly went behind Bryan’s back to talk with his girlfriend, Jada Brodie.
ERIC MONCUR: He tried to mess with Jada while they were together. That’s why they didn’t like each other.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Dan, you spoke to many of Bryan’s teammates. What did they tell you about his run-ins with Rashaun?
DAN ARRUDA: So a lot of time has passed since they were all teammates. Details are kinda hard to confirm. But it was clear that Bryan and Rashaun had several run-ins. One reason could have been because Bryan’s girlfriend, Jada, had at one point, before dating Bryan, been involved with Rashaun.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And when you say run-ins, like, do they just shout at each other? Were there fights? Like, what– what actually happened?
DAN ARRUDA: Again, these are hard to be exact about. The dates aren’t always consistent. One was a locker room scuffle after Rashaun said something about Jada to Bryan. We also heard about an argument they had in the cafeteria, also possibly about Jada, but that one wasn’t physical. And then there’s one significant fight which several people have told us about, including one of Bryan’s best friends, Eric Moncur.
PAULA LAVIGNE: What did Eric tell you about that fight?
DAN ARRUDA: So according to Eric, he and Bryan were returning to Eric’s dorm room after an off-season summer workout. They get to the dorm room and the door is locked.
ERIC MONCUR: What I see– like, you know how the TV’s on, you can see, like, on the ground, so I’m like, “What the hell goin’ on?”
DAN ARRUDA: So Bryan and Eric go to another student’s dorm room for a little while, and they eventually come back, but now they see Rashaun running down that hallway, and Eric’s door is just wide open. When they get to the room, there’s porn playing on the TV. Eventually, Rashaun comes back, but now it’s Eric, and Bryan, and another teammate, Dave Howell– all three of them in the room. And Eric confronts Rashaun about being in his room.
ERIC MONCUR: So I’m like, “Rashaun, what the fuck were you doin’ in my room, bro? Like, don’t do that no more, man. Like, you know what I’m sayin’?” And– Bryan just came out of nowhere. Like, he– he started gettin’ in Rashaun’s face. And then– you know, their argument escalated and then they started fightin’. So Bryan get on top of this dude and headbutts him five times. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I dove in there, grabbed Bryan, I threw Bryan out, threw Rashaun out the room.
ERIC MONCUR: Then Rashaun was like, “Well, you might as well go ahead and clip up.” I was like, “Are you all really feelin’ to like shoot each other right now over some– some stupid stuff?”
PAULA LAVIGNE: To Eric, Rashaun saying, “clip up,” meant bring a gun next time. It was a threat. According to their teammate, Chris Zelner, Bryan and Rashaun didn’t get along afterwards.
CHRIS ZELNER: They were kinda hangin’ out before that. You know what I’m sayin’? Like, he would come over there to talk. Like, ’cause Pata was friends with everybody. But I do remember after hearing that fight, they never– they weren’t like fuckin’ cool after that. They fuckin’ did not speak anymore.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Prosecutors talk about whether a suspect has motive, means, and opportunity for committing a crime. From all the stories we’d heard, we knew that Bryan and Rashaun were at odds, and that it likely had something to do with Jada. That could have been a motive. What about the means? Bryan was killed at close range with a handgun. Remember, before the 2006 season started, a shooting that involved two Hurricanes players led head coach Larry Coker to institute a no guns rule. A rule the players routinely broke.
PAULA LAVIGNE: At least two of Rashaun’s teammates say they saw him with a gun. Dave Howell told police that Rashaun threatened him with a gun. And his description of that gun could match the one used to kill Bryan. Remember how police couldn’t find a spent bullet casing at the crime scene? The gun Dave said Rashaun pointed at him was a revolver, meaning it wouldn’t have left casings behind. And teammate Kareem Brown told police that Rashaun said he always carried a revolver– a .38 caliber handgun.
PAULA LAVIGNE: According to a detective’s report, the medical examiner said a .38 was possibly the caliber of the bullet that killed Bryan. So that could have been the means. And what about opportunity? To establish that, we’d have to track Rashaun’s movements as closely as possible on the day of the murder. On the morning of November 7th, 2006, Rashaun found out that he was suspended from the team for failing a drug test. He had marijuana in his system.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And so, Rashaun wasn’t at practice that day, which wouldn’t have been unusual for a player who’d been suspended. None of the Miami players we spoke to knew where Rashaun was during that whole day and afternoon. Again, that might not have been so strange, if not for what happened that night.
CHRIS ZELNER: We get a phone call, “Hey, you all need to come to the team meeting room.” I didn’t know what it was but they were like, “No, it’s important. Get here now. Get here now.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: Remember, immediately after Bryan’s murder, head coach Larry Coker called the whole team back to the Hecht Athletic Center for a mandatory team meeting. According to deposition testimony from a coach, a meeting like that would have included everyone on the team, even players who had been suspended. From what we were told, all the players showed up for that meeting except Rashaun.
CHRIS ZELNER: Everybody was looking for him. “Where’s Rashaun?”
PAULA LAVIGNE: And the players noticed, including Chris Zelner.
CHRIS ZELNER: It was like, dude, the man kinda just went missin’. Like, where the fuck did he go? Like– and then you kinda start lookin’ back, and like, yeah, man, I have– really haven’t seen him.
DAN ARRUDA: He’s gone.
CHRIS ZELNER: Yeah. He’s gone. Like I haven’t seen him. So then it re– you really start saying to yourself, like, yo, did he– could– could it really be?
PAULA LAVIGNE: According to police, Rashaun initially told detectives that he had shown up for the team meeting. Although, later on, he said that he’d stayed at home. Either way, on the night of the murder, police say that Rashaun made a phone call to another student athlete– a baseball player. This call was overheard by an assistant chaplain on the football team named Che Scott. Producer Dan Aruda got in touch with Che to follow up on that lead.
CHE SCOTT: Hello? Danny?
DAN ARRUDA: Hey, Che. How are you man?
CHE SCOTT: I’m doing great. How are you?
DAN ARRUDA: Good. Is this a good time to talk?
PAULA LAVIGNE: What did you tell him about our story?
DAN ARRUDA: I basically told him we were reporting on what had happened to Bryan Pata. Scott didn’t know we had been hearing rumors about Rashaun, and I definitely hadn’t mentioned to him before that we knew about the overheard phone call.
PAULA LAVIGNE: As you were talking to him, did that phone call come up?
DAN ARRUDA: Yeah. After quite a bit of coaxing and reassuring, he eventually told me that the student athlete who had received the call was a University of Miami baseball player named Mike Sanders.
CHE SCOTT: We got a phone call from another player who seemed a little bit shaky and nervous about something. But I’m sure there were a lot of people that were a little bit scared that day. And today, honestly, you’d have to go through a list of names of people for me to even tell you what the person’s name was. That’s what– that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I couldn’t even tell you the player’s name who called Mike that day.
DAN ARRUDA: That play– that player was Rashaun Jones. Is that right?
CHE SCOTT: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know what, I’m actually gettin’ a little bit uncomfortable with this whole thing. So it was Rashaun. But I’m not gonna get in– involved in any– any– anything else with this, honestly.
PAULA LAVIGNE: So what happened after that?
DAN ARRUDA: Well, he wanted to end that conversation right then and there. But fortunately, I got him to agree to meet me later for an unrecorded conversation face to face.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And when you sat down with Scott, what did he tell you?
DAN ARRUDA: Che Scott told me that at the time, he was roommates with another football player on the team. The night of Bryan’s murder, Mike Sanders comes by the apartment to check on the football player, because news of Bryan’s death has been announced everywhere. So Mike comes by just to make sure that the player is okay. While Mike is in the apartment, Mike gets a call from Rashaun Jones. Che overhears this conversation. And it sounds like Rashaun is asking Mike for money.
DAN ARRUDA: I think Scott believed that Rashaun was trying to gather money up so he can get out of town. A lot of guys that night were worried for their own safety. Bryan had been killed. No one knew who it was. Some of them thought maybe people are targeting University of Miami players. Now, on the flip side of that, while a lot of players were worried about their safety, Rashaun is the only one that doesn’t return to the Hecht Center that night.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Che Scott was a chaplain. And so was Steve Caldwell. He was the other chaplain you talked to. Did Caldwell know about this phone call too?
DAN ARRUDA: He didn’t know about that specific call, but he had his own thoughts about Rashaun.
STEVE CALDWELL: What has stuck with me, and has always been with me, that Rashaun had something to do with it. He was the only that didn’t show up to the team meeting that night. Why didn’t you show up? Everyone got the call. Everyone knew.
PAULA LAVIGNE: At first, we wondered if maybe Rashaun didn’t get the call. That’s because according to the police, Rashaun changed his cell number after Bryan’s death. So it’s possible that coaches couldn’t get ahold of him because they didn’t have his new number. But Rashaun’s phone records seem to tell a different story. They show that Rashaun got a new phone number around 3:00 p.m., hours before Bryan was killed. And at least one person on the football team had this new number. The log shows several calls with his teammate Bruce Johnson that night.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And Rashaun would later admit to police that Bruce had told him about the meeting. His phone records also confirm that he called Mike Sanders’s number around 10:00 p.m. and five minutes after that call ended, Rashaun placed two calls to an 800 number for Bank of America. That could be relevant, because in the days before smart phones, one of the ways you could check your balance was to call the bank’s automated number.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Pastor Caldwell told us that he got a strange call that night, too, but not from Rashaun. It came from Rashaun’s girlfriend at the time, Sherry Abramson. Sherry’s brother Ross also played on the team, and Sherry was one of Caldwell’s Bible study students.
STEVE CALDWELL: Sherry called me in– like in a panic about Bryan bein’ dead, and someone shot him, and she immediately asked me, “Is Rashaun there?”
DAN ARRUDA: She wanted to know if Rashaun was at the Hecht Center that night.
STEVE CALDWELL: Right. And I said, “No, he’s not here.” And I think he was the only player that didn’t show up. And– and she was just freakin’ out about him. And that’s what I told police. She was just actin’ real weird about where he was and, you know, worried about him. Yeah.
DAN ARRUDA: When Sherry called you that night, do you believe that she was worried over Rashaun’s safety?
STEVE CALDWELL: At the time, I thought she was worried about Rashaun’s safety, like somebody was tryin’ to get at University of Miami players. It’s– it– it– it– you know, I didn’t pay attention to it at– at that moment, but after dialin’ it back, and then once the investigators start talking to me, it was like, well– well, damn. You know? Did she know something? Did she know that he was planning something like this? Or why was she so worried about his well being? And I ask myself that question. Objectively speaking– I think she was worried about something because she knew something. What I truly believe is that I think Sherry could shed more light. I think she could.
PAULA LAVIGNE: So you knew that we wanted to talk to Sherry. How long did it take for you to get in touch with her?
DAN ARRUDA: Sherry was my white whale for a while. Our team always believed that we were ever gonna learn what happened to Rashaun and his actions that night, Sherry was gonna be the key. It took more than a year of texts and calls to get her to go on the record with us.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Hello?
DAN ARRUDA: Hi, Sherry, it’s Dan. How are you?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Hey. Good. How are you?
DAN ARRUDA: Good. Is now a good time?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Oh, just give me a second.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And when you finally did get her, what did she tell you about that night?
DAN ARRUDA: On the night of Bryan’s murder, Sherry was actually working at Pottery Barn.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I don’t have good service there. So once I got out, my phone was going nuts. And I– it was one of the other players that got me on the phone, and the first thing he said was, “Where is Rashaun?” And I said, “I don’t know. I just got out of work. What’s up?” He said, “I– I need to find him.” I’m like, “Okay. Why?” And then he said, “Somebody shot Pata.” I said, “What’s that have to do with Rashaun?” He said, “Well, he left practice ’cause he got in trouble, and he’s the only one that we can’t account for.” And I said, “I gotta go.” And I called him a million times. And I did not get ahold of him.
DAN ARRUDA: What was your concern for Rashaun in that moment?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Was he safe. Was he okay.
DAN ARRUDA: And that was because a teammate had just been shot, and he was the only one that they couldn’t track down.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah. I mean, had he been shot too? I didn’t know.
DAN ARRUDA: Why wasn’t he there that day? Do you remember that?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah. He tested positive again. For marijuana.
DAN ARRUDA: You said you’d tried him a bunch of times. Did it just– what happened when you called? It would just go to voicemail or?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah, his phone’s off. I called his grandmother. I called, I mean, his sister. I called everybody asking, “Have you heard from him? Is he okay? Have you heard from him?” Nobody knew. So he finally called me a couple hours later.
DAN ARRUDA: When you finally got ahold of him, how did that conversation go?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I said, “Where the hell are you? What happened?” He told me what happened, that he showed up for practice, he had another positive test, they told him that he’s done. So he said he left. He shut his phone off. He was very upset and taking the time by himself to kind of process– you know, he knew he fucked up.
DAN ARRUDA: So he spent that afternoon on his own is what he told you.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah, that he was just driving around, or that he went to go to the bank, or you know, it was something along those lines.
DAN ARRUDA: Was that something he did normally, just kind of go off by himself when things weren’t going well, or was that abnormal for him on that day to do something like that?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: No. He loved going for drives alone. He would just go. He would go anywhere. He would go up 95 just for a drive. He would go down Ocean Drive. He would just go, always. He liked to smoke– like a cigarette kind of a thing and just drive, put his stupid music on really loud. So it’s not surprising to me. It wasn’t out of character.
DAN ARRUDA: So we’ve spoken to someone who says Rashaun called another student athlete that night and was looking for money to get out of town. Does that ring a bell? Does that sound–
SHERRY ABRAMSON: No.
DAN ARRUDA: It doesn’t.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: No. It doesn’t seem accurate at all because what I do believe, and maybe I’m a fool or something like that, if needed money or somebody to help him get out of town, it would have been me.
DAN ARRUDA: Did you tell him that evening what had happened to Bryan?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I didn’t have to. He already knew.
DAN ARRUDA: Do you know how he found out?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah. Everyone was calling him.
DAN ARRUDA: What was his reaction to finding out that Bryan had been shot?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: He was shocked. He– he knew it was fucked up. He couldn’t believe it.
DAN ARRUDA: What was their relationship like? Bryan and Rashaun?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: There wasn’t a big relationship between the two. I mean, it’s not like they had like an outstanding feud. I mean, they did get into it in the locker room one time. But I mean, that’s all that it was.
DAN ARRUDA: Did Rashaun at one point date Jada?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I don’t know. Date? No. Could they have been talking, texting, something along those lines? Sure.
DAN ARRUDA: Do you th–
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I mean, there wasn’t a girl in Miami that he didn’t talk to at one point.
DAN ARRUDA: Rashaun.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah.
DAN ARRUDA: Do you think that could have been the friction between them, that Rashaun at one point was hooking with Jada?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Messin’ around with Jada? Sure. I wouldn’t doubt it. I wouldn’t be surprised. It wouldn’t shock me.
DAN ARRUDA: Did he tell you why he didn’t end up going back to the Hecht Center that night?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: No. I don’t recall.
DAN ARRUDA: When was the next time you saw him?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I don’t recall. Probably that night.
DAN ARRUDA: Did he come over to your place, do you think?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Always. Yeah.
DAN ARRUDA: Was Rashaun worried for his safety that night?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: (EXHALES) You know, I don’t know. I think he was trying to stay under the radar. A lot of people were assuming that he had something to do with it. So I think he just wanted to stay kinda quiet.
DAN ARRUDA: So you think even that first night people were pointing fingers at Rashaun.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I think in the first minute people were pointing fingers at Rashaun.
DAN ARRUDA: See, that’s the thing that surprised us, like, if you say that they didn’t have a terrible relationship, I don’t understand why people would point fingers at Rashaun right away.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I don’t know. I mean, I can tell you over the course of our relationship, he was never somebody that, like, flashed guns around. He never had– to my knowledge, ever had a gun on him. Did he have a gun? Possibly. Had I ever seen it in the year– the couple years we were together? No.
DAN ARRUDA: Was his reaction to Bryan’s murder more sorrow for Bryan or scared that this could be more than just Bryan?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I think it was a mixture of the both. He definitely seemed genuinely upset that Pata was dead. I mean, there were no tears shed in front of me. But I mean, there was no celebration either. He didn’t like Pata. There’s no secret there. They did not like each other. Did it ever– was there ever anything that would have justified him murdering him? No. Nothing that I ever knew of.
DAN ARRUDA: So a motive of– he was so upset that he had been kicked off the team, and he had to take his anger out on somebody, and Bryan–
SHERRY ABRAMSON: No.
DAN ARRUDA: –was the closest person that he could think of. What would you say?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I’ll never believe that.
DAN ARRUDA: Why not?
SHERRY ABRAMSON: I’ll never, ever believe that. Because Pata had– Pata had nothing to do with him testing positive again. Nothing. And if you’re asking me point blank, do I think that he did it, the answer is no. I don’t. Do I–
DAN ARRUDA: What–
SHERRY ABRAMSON: –think he could ever pull the trigger on anybody just to take someone’s life? I don’t. No. There’s some people that I would tell you, sure. Yeah. It just isn’t him. He was his grandma’s boy. You know, like, he wasn’t raised by tough guys. He was raised by, you know, his grandmother and then his mom. So it’s not like he was raised with, you know, like, thugs and you know, in a violent household. He wasn’t. I mean, I might be one of the only ones that you talk to that says this. But I mean, the– I don’t think that Rashaun had anything to do with it. I think that the timing was unbelievably coincidental in a terrible way. Just don’t think he has it in him to be a killer. Really don’t.
DAN ARRUDA: Well, I think you hit it on the head, Sherry. I think the reason so many people are able to believe so easily is because that window that Bryan was murdered, that–
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Was when he was missing.
DAN ARRUDA: Exactly. Right.
SHERRY ABRAMSON: Yeah, on a horrible day for him. I see that. I understand that.
PAULA LAVIGNE: So Sherry’s version of events is that this is just a really terrible coincidence for Rashaun.
DAN ARRUDA: That’s right. She believes if Rashaun had been with her or with anyone else that could give him an alibi, none of this would have happened.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Sherry Abramson could be right about Rashaun’s innocence, but some of what she told us doesn’t line up with information we have from Rashaun’s phone records. They show that Sherry and Rashaun were in touch a number of times that night, starting before Bryan’s death at 7:00 p.m. And there’s no evidence of a missed call from Sherry after news of the murder had started to spread. Instead, he called her twice around 7:45.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Sherry apparently didn’t pick up. Then, Sherry called Rashaun back at 8:30. That call lasted 12 minutes. We asked Sherry about these discrepancies, but she didn’t remember it playing out that way. Still, the fact of the matter is, that Sherry said she didn’t think Rashaun could have done it. And she wasn’t the only one.
MALE VOICE: I feel like the whole situation, it– it really got blown out of proportion.
PAULA LAVIGNE: This is Rashaun’s childhood best friend and roommate, George Timmons again. He refers to Rashaun by his nickname, Rick.
GEORGE TIMMONS: I don’t think Rick did it. I really don’t. I really– Pata was c– sometimes he had an issue– he had spurts of bein’ a bully sometimes. And I feel like he messed with the wrong person outside in the streets and somebody– it was somebody– but like I said, I personally did not– I don’t see Rashaun doing that. He was– Rashaun would never. I– that’s my personal opinion. And, like, Pata had a lot of enemies.
PAULA LAVIGNE: We talked to another friend of Rashaun’s about that night. A fellow UM student named Trish Morgan. Trish was also very close with Bryan. They’d known each other since they were 14 years old. She says they were actually distantly related.
TRISH MORGAN: We never, like, ran down our lineage, but we– we have a cousin in common, so we always said that we were related on my mom’s side.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Trish was so close to Bryan and Jada that after the murder, Jada came to live with her for a while. Dan spoke to Trish in 2019. When he asked whether she’d heard the rumors about Rashaun’s involvement in the murder, she said she couldn’t imagine it.
TRISH MORGAN: I would never in a million years, a million years– like Rashaun was one of my closest friends– at Miami. I don’t see Rashaun committing murder.
DAN ARRUDA: Trish, what was he like? Describe Rashaun back then.
TRISH MORGAN: So, I mean, I can describe him now. I– I saw him and his wife a couple months ago. They came to Atlanta. He’s funny. He is hilarious. He was always a good friend to me. And I thought he was a good friend– to Bryan. I don’t– and maybe you know something that I don’t know since (UNINTEL PHRASE).
PAULA LAVIGNE: After Bryan’s death, life went on for the Hurricanes. The team didn’t skip any of its scheduled games. Head coach Larry Coker explained that decision in a press conference.
LARRY COKER: Players expressed the opinion they wanted to do what they felt like Bryan Pata would wanna do. They felt like Bryan wanted to practice. They felt like Bryan would wanna play. And so they– that’s– that’s the decision that we respected. And I think it’s the right decision.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Life went on for Rashaun, too. His drug suspension lasted two weeks. He returned to the roster by Miami’s next home game, which was on Thanksgiving. That was the game where the team gathered around a banner of Bryan to pay tribute to him.
SPORTS ANNOUNCER: Thank you. Look at this moment here. Bryan Pata’s image, the slain Hurricane teammate, a banner that fans made, and the team gathering around it at midfield. What a moment. Miami fights from behind–
PAULA LAVIGNE: Initially, the photo of this moment looked to us like a team united. Grieving one of their own. Players are kneeling in what looks like prayer. Some are holding hands. Almost all of them have their eyes closed. But now, one player sticks out. Rashaun Jones. There are almost 100 players on this team, but somehow, he’s made it to the front row. He’s on one knee, looking down at Bryan’s face on the banner, arm in arm with his teammates. Knowing the rumors that were swirling around the team at that time, that photo started to look very different to us.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Dan, did other players on the team say that they thought Rashaun might have been involved?
DAN ARRUDA: We ended up speaking with more than 20 players over those first few years reporting. Some said, “Yes, it wouldn’t surprise them.” Eric Moncur actually said the rumors started the night of the murder.
DAN ARRUDA: So none of you guys after Bryan’s death ever thought to yourselves, or talked amongst each other and said, “I wonder if Rashaun did it?”
MALE VOICE: Yeah.
DAN ARRUDA: You guys did?
ERIC MONCUR: Yeah. ‘Cause we was like– he was the only one that wasn’t here.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Did all the players you talked to have that reaction?
DAN ARRUDA: No. Not at all. Some said they couldn’t imagine one teammate killing another. It was just too hard for them to believe. I talked to Josh Holmes about a month after interviewing Eric Moncur. Josh was one of the freshmen that Bryan gave a lift to the dorms earlier that night.
JOSH HOLMES: This is the first time I’ve ever heard that. To be honest with you.
DAN ARRUDA: Yup.
JOSH HOLMES: Yeah. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard somebody say somebody on our team is possibly to blame for it.
DAN ARRUDA: I talked to Randy Phillips, who was a sophomore defensive back on that ’06 team, and he reacted the same way.
RANDY PHILLIPS: Rashaun– I don’t even think Rashaun was (UNINTEL) at that time. Was he?
DAN ARRUDA: Yeah.
RANDY PHILLIPS: I mean, I never heard that.
DAN ARRUDA: You never heard that?
RANDY PHILLIPS: That’s the first time I ever heard that.
PAULA LAVIGNE: What about the coaches? Had they heard these rumors about Rashaun?
DAN ARRUDA: To my knowledge, no coaches have ever admitted to hearing rumors about Rashaun. I asked Coach Hurd about it, and he says he was surprised to hear any kind of rumor like that.
DAN ARRUDA: The family has a theory about what happened. They believe that Rashaun Jones had something to do with it. What is your reaction to that?
COACH HURD: Boy. One, surprise and shock because I was not under the impression that their relationship was that bad. That they had that strong of a dislike for one another. You know, I heard stories about, you know, that those two had issues, and they didn’t get along. But I never heard it be like a relationship that was so bad that it could ever go to that. So I would just be shocked. So I don’t have an opinion on if I think that’s the case or not. I have no idea.
DAN ARRUDA: But when I spoke to Ed Hudak, that Coral Gables police officer who worked security for the Canes. He said he discussed that very possibly with head coach, Larry Coker.
ED HUDAK: His name came across my desk talking with Coach Coker, and things like that, and some things that he was dealing with. I’m not privy to all the stuff, what his performance issues were, but there was a very strong sentiment that– you know he had something to do with it. When that was brought up to me by the players, I made sure that the detectives had that, and what came of those leads, I don’t know.
DAN ARRUDA: Do you remember how the coaching staff reacted to that possibility?
ED HUDAK: I think some of ’em bought into it. Some of them, you know, said, “No, it wouldn’t happen.” Or you would get the, “Well, if it was any of our guys–” that kind of thing.
PAULA LAVIGNE: How do you interpret what Ed Hudak just said when he goes, “If it was any of our guys”?
DAN ARRUDA: I took it as if anyone on the team could be suspected of something like this, it would be Rashaun.
PAULA LAVIGNE: How did the team feel about having Rashaun around with all of these rumors swirling?
DAN ARRUDA: Pastor Steve Caldwell told me it was weird.
STEVE CALDWELL: This was something that was a hard thing to discuss because I believe everyone thought– I’m not gonna say– say everyone. That’s absolute. But a lot of people thought we had a killer amongst us.
DAN ARRUDA: That’s what blows me away. Is that he was allowed– he was allowed to return, and be with the team, with this cloud of suspicion over him.
STEVE CALDWELL: But what do you do as a coach when you– you– you have no substantiated proof? So you– you go to what they say. Innocent until proven guilty. And so, that’s how you operate as a coachin’ staff.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Early on in his reporting, Dan spoke with head coach, Larry Coker. He wanted to ask Coker directly about the Rashaun theory.
DAN ARRUDA: I’m working with the family on this, and I’ve interviewed his mom, and his brothers, and sisters, and– and they have a– theory that there was someone involved in his shooting that was involved with the team. Would that surprise you if that was true?
LARRY COKER: Yes.
DAN ARRUDA: It would.
LARRY COKER: Yes.
DAN ARRUDA: Why– why would it surprise you?
LARRY COKER: ‘Cause I just– I just don’t believe that.
DAN ARRUDA: You don’t believe it’s possible that anyone that had some kind of affiliation with the team was capable of something like that?
LARRY COKER: I mean, it’s possible. But I don’t– but I don’t believe it. I don’t think it happened that way.
DAN ARRUDA: What do you believe happened?
LARRY COKER: Well, I don’t– I don’t know. I don’t know. All I know is that he was tragically murdered.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Whether Coker believed it happened or not, the rumors were out there. They were swirling among Bryan’s closest friends and family and had found their way to the police. Dave Howell had his own history with Rashaun and had witnessed the fight between Rashaun and Bryan in the dorm room. He remembered the police asking him about whether that could have been a motive.
DAVE HOWELL: I told ’em, I said, “No.” I didn’t think that it would go that far. But like I told them, I said, “But you never know, because you don’t really know the inside of an individual.” But it’s like I told ’em then, I said, “I don’t– I– I don’t see him taking it there.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: But others did. And their suspicions were still running high when Dan interviewed them.
KAREEM BROWN: I don’t know if he can come to a UM function.
DAN ARRUDA: Really?
PAULA LAVIGNE: Kareem Brown was a defensive lineman in the same year as Bryan. Dan spoke to him in 2018.
DAN ARRUDA: Do you think Rashaun knows that people think he may have had something to do with–
KAREEM BROWN: Of course.
DAN ARRUDA: You do?
KAREEM BROWN: Oh, he’s not stupid. And I don’t think he would come and just like, “Hey, I’m in Miami, guys.” Like, I don’t think he would do that. Because who knows what would happen from that.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Here’s what we’ve learned about Rashaun. He had a series of conflicts with Bryan. He would have known the Hurricanes’ practice schedule and what time Bryan would arrive home. And teammates said he owned a gun. No one could vouch for where he was at the time that Bryan was killed. And he’d called a friend reportedly asking for money to get out of town. When we finally reviewed Rashaun’s phone records, we noticed the call logs were only from the number activated that afternoon, and nothing from before.
PAULA LAVIGNE: When we asked the state attorney’s office about that omission, they declined to provide any information. On the call logs we did have, we saw that he’d made or received 56 calls after Bryan died. Four of those calls were with Trish Morgan, who was friends with both Rashaun and Bryan. Five are with his family back in Lake City. Eight were with his teammate Bruce Johnson. And 16 were with Sherry.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But there’s one notable gap in Rashaun’s call log. For one hour between 6:40 and 7:40 p.m. there were no calls in or out. The one hour all night the Rashaun’s phone wasn’t active was the time of Bryan’s murder. According to the police report, there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting. No murder weapon was ever found. There wasn’t any security camera footage. And there was no record of any physical evidence linking Rashaun to the crime.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The entire case against Rashaun Jones appeared circumstantial. But then there’s this. A piece of evidence we learned about only in our final interview with detectives.
DETECTIVE: There was an individual who saw a Black male running away from the scene– who’s a resident in that– apartment complex. And– he’s cooperating with the investigation, and he’s still– at this point, we can’t disclose his identity because he’s still an active witness in this case.
PAULA LAVIGNE: When we heard this, I felt like a cartoon character with an exclamation point going off over my head. It’s still unclear what prompted police to finally disclose this information after five interviews and two years of conversations. But we were grateful for it. We’d eventually learn more about this witness and what he told the police. He didn’t witness the shooting itself, but he saw someone leaving the Colony Apartments on foot.
PAULA LAVIGNE: He would later identify Rashaun as the person he saw. Throughout our reporting, we’d hope to get Rashaun’s side of the story. Remember, it had been 12 years since Rashaun had talked to the police about Bryan’s case. We knew we might get only one chance to talk to Rashaun. So we wanted to wait until we had done enough reporting and knew exactly what questions to ask. In the spring of 2019, Dan finally got Rashaun on the phone. Rashaun didn’t want the phone call to be recorded, so after they hung up, Dan filled in the rest of us on a conference call.
AUTOMATED VOICE: Welcome to the Walt Disney Company Conference Center. Enter your conference code. (BEEPING) Thank you. You will now be placed in conference.
MALE VOICE: Hi. Who is on?
DAN ARRUDA: Dan’s here.
MALE VOICE: Danny, what do you got?
DAN ARRUDA: It’s not good, unfortunately. I spoke to Rashaun twice in the last half an hour. The first time we got cut off. He’s pretty adamant that he will not be taking part in our story. Rashaun’s feelings are this has been over for 12 years. The police didn’t follow up with their– after their initial interview. This is over and done with. This is a part of his life that he doesn’t wanna go back to. He sees absolutely no reason– and nothing good that can come from sitting down and talking to us. He said himself, “If God almighty came down and asked me to sit down, I would not do it.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: Did he say why?
DAN ARRUDA: He just doesn’t see any reason to do it. He– he says he had nothing to do with it and nothing he can say is going to change anyone’s mind, and he doesn’t care what anybody thinks of him anyway.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Did he say anything about possibly being a suspect?
DAN ARRUDA: All he said was that “I talked to the police 12 years ago. That I talked to them. Sherry talked to them. I never– I never heard from them again. So obv– obviously I’m not a suspect or else I would have been arrested.”
MALE VOICE: I mean, I gotta admit, innocent or not, like, either way, I mean, it’s not wrong– it’s not a– it’s–
DAN ARRUDA: Everybody–
MALE VOICE: Not a great like–
DAN ARRUDA: Everybody hold on–
MALE VOICE: –strategy for him to talk to us–
DAN ARRUDA: Everybody–
MALE VOICE: It makes sense that–
DAN ARRUDA: Everybody–
MALE VOICE: –he wouldn’t want to.
DAN ARRUDA: Stop, stop, stop. Rashaun is calling me. I’ll call you back in a minute.
MALE VOICE: Okay.
PAULA LAVIGNE: About 20 minutes later, Dan came back onto the conference call.
DAN ARRUDA: Wow. You guys all still there?
MALE VOICE: Yup. What do we know?
DAN ARRUDA: So it wasn’t Rashaun. It was his wife. And we just had one doozy of a conversation. Obviously, Rashaun is a bit freaked out about all this at this point and he called his wife. And she decided to call me to try and figure out what’s going on. So I explained to her as best I could what we were doing, why we were doing it. I tried to make it clear, as I did to Rashaun, that we’re not out to get anybody. That we have no agenda. That we’re trying to do our diligence as journalists in allowing him to give us his side of the story.
DAN ARRUDA: And she, just like he, said, “There is no his side. He didn’t do anything. The police spoke to him once. He was never arrested. There’s no side of the story.” She said, you know, “It’s gotta be his decision. Whatever he decides, I will back him on.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: Rashaun decided not to sit down for an interview with us, nor would his wife. After all, it had been over a decade. He knew the police had looked closely at him years ago, but nothing came of it. Why would he talk to a group of reporters about this case when it had all happened so long ago. But once we began asking questions, the sense that all of this was firmly in the past began to unravel. And if Rashaun thought that the Miami-Dade police no longer considered him a suspect, that confidence would turn out to be very misguided.
FEMALE VOICE: Does MDPD know who killed Bryan Pata?
MALE VOICE: Yes.
MALE VOICE: We have a strong– belief as to who is responsible for his death.
PAULA LAVIGNE: That’s next time on Murder at The U.
