PAULA LAVIGNE: Previously on Murder at the U.
MALE VOICE: I was nowhere around no murder. I don’t know anything about no murder.
FEMALE VOICE: How was it that an arrest wasn’t made in the last 12 years?
MALE VOICE: As we were still missing a piece of the puzzle.
FEMALE VOICE: And is that piece of the puzzle still missing?
MALE VOICE: Yes.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Our story about Bryan’s murder was published in November 2020. It was picked up by newspapers and TV stations across the country, and it became one of the most read stories on ESPN’s website that year. That was also the first time the public learned that police had suspected Rashaun Jones murdered Bryan Pata.
EDRICK PATA: Hey, Dan. Good mornin’. Just now turning on my phone.
PAULA LAVIGNE: About five months after we published our story, producer Dan Arruda received a voicemail from Bryan’s brother, Edrick.
EDRICK PATA: It’s heatin’ up really good. I think they’re about to make an arrest soon. I’m not quite sure when. They didn’t say anything. But they’ve been turnin’ on the heat a lot. So they’ve been, you know, calling us, and asking questions, and et cetera. So it’s been really good.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And then a few months later, the Miami-Dade police made their move.
MALE VOICE: Back now with an arrest in the 15-year-old cold case, the murder of a University of Miami football player. Bryan Pata was fatally shot outside his apartment back in November of 2006. And now police have arrested his former teammate, 35-year-old Rashaun Jones, and charged him with Pata’s death.
PAULA LAVIGNE: It had been nearly 15 years since that night at the Colony Apartments, and Rashaun Jones had just been arrested for Bryan Pata’s murder. The police had said they were missing a piece of the puzzle, a piece that could lead to Bryan’s killer. Apparently, they’d found it.
PAULA LAVIGNE: I’m Paula Lavigne. From 30 for 30 Podcasts, this is Murder at the U, episode six, The Missing Piece. On the afternoon of August 19th, 2021, Rashaun Jones left work at a Dollar Tree warehouse in Ocala, Florida. Officers from Marion County and U.S. Marshals were waiting for him with an arrest warrant from Miami-Dade.
PAULA LAVIGNE: In the photos from that day, Rashaun is writing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, a camel ball cap, and a Miami Hurricanes face mask. Officers drove him from Dollar tree to the Marion County Sheriff’s office. By 2:40 p.m., Rashaun was sitting inside a gray interrogation room. A detective from Miami-Dade came into the room.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: All right, Rashaun, so I told you from the moment we made contact that before we go further, (UNINTEL PHRASE) have to go through your rights and all that stuff– your Miranda rights, right? Have you ever been read your rights before?
RASHAUN JONES: Yeah.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Okay.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The Detective was Juan Segovia from Miami-Dade Homicide. Segovia had taken over the investigation after Detective Miguel Dominguez retired.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Okay. You have the right to remain silent. You don’t have to talk to me if you do not wish to do so. You do not have to answer any of my questions. Do you understand that right?
PAULA LAVIGNE: Rashaun didn’t call a lawyer, or remain silent. Instead, he stayed in that room for more than two hours, answering Segovia’s questions. Segovia began by asking about Bryan.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: (SIGH) Throughout this investigation, okay, we received a lotta information of your relationship with Bryan. What can you tell me about your relationship with Bryan?
RASHAUN JONES: I mean, we had a up and down relationship, okay? (UNINTEL)–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: What– what happened? Th– what does that mean, “up and down?”
RASHAUN JONES: We was teammates. I guess females got involved. So it was– I don’t know, I guess jealousy over females.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: That’s like– isn’t that kinda– kinda normal stuff between players?
RASHAUN JONES: Normal stuff between players. I was about to say, when Bry– when Bryan died, we wasn’t beefin’. I didn’t have no beef– I didn’t have no problems with Bryan.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Then Segovia pressed Rashaun about the alleged love triangle among Bryan, Rashaun, and Jada Brody.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: The first beef you had, you said that was over a female. What t– can you tell me about that? What was that about?
RASHAUN JONES: Well, it was– it was a female that– I guess he liked (UNINTEL). And– she was interested in both of us. You know– at that time she– yeah, so she was interested in both of us. It really wasn’t no beef, it was– “That’s my girlfriend now.” I said, “Okay. I don’t mess with her no more. That could be your girlfriend. (UNINTEL PHRASE).” So they got in a relationship, and was goin’ together. So d– that was really no beef. I mean, he made her his girlfriend.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: What’s her– that girl’s name?
RASHAUN JONES: Jada.
PAULA LAVIGNE: According to Rashaun, there was no bad blood between him and Bryan over Jada. But then, Segovia asked him about that fight with Bryan in Eric Moncur’s dorm room, the fight where he allegedly told Bryan to clip up. Basically, to get his gun ready.
RASHAUN JONES: So I was in Eric room– (UNINTEL PHRASE) in Eric room (UNINTEL), but Bryant wanted to come in. I went and opened the door. So I finally let Bryan in, and he jumped on me, head-butted me. Like I say, we probably argued in the hallway. I left. I went back downstairs, okay? I call my grandmother, some– somebody. That– but that was the end of that. It wasn’t no ongoin’– and it didn’t spill over, or carry over from that night.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: And then from that point on– describe to me your relationship with Bryan from that point on.
RASHAUN JONES: It was– really it’s a hi and bye. I mean, we was on the same team, it was great. We had the– we had to come in and do our– I mean, playin’ on the same team now. So it wasn’t no, “Oh, I– I can’t come in the locker room, or if I come in the locker room, I’m scared to come in the locker room, or I can’t be around Bryan, I’m sc–” no, it wasn’t nev– I didn’t never get that feelin’ of intimidation.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Okay. And nob–
RASHAUN JONES: Never.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Okay, so you– you– you never f– you– your opinion, you never had any beef with Bryan?
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: If anybody who would think that you had a beef with Bryan, why would they think that you had beef with Bryan back then?
RASHAUN JONES: Because of the Jada situation.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: I don’t wanna put words in your mouth. Would it be accurate to say that all this beef between you and Bryan was all made up by people?
RASHAUN JONES: Made up by– yeah, they took it and ran with it from the little stuff that was stirred up between me, and him, and the girl, and the little altercation we got into the dorms. They took that as in I wanted to hurt Bryan. I don’t– for what? He ain’t did nothin’ to me drastic– for me to hurt him.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Right. Did you ever– threaten to hurt Bryan in any way? Did you hurt–
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Did you ever threaten to shoot Bryan?
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Ever?
RASHAUN JONES: I didn’t own– I didn’t own a gun.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But this didn’t line up with the evidence the police had collected over the years. According to police, several teammates said Rashaun owned a gun.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Now that you ask me– that you mention that, I don’t wanna forget. The– do you– have you ever owned a firearm?
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Never? Did you own a firearm back when you were at University of Miami?
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: You never h– carried? Never?
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Did you ever make it sound like you carried a firearm?
RASHAUN JONES: I don’t know. (LAUGH) That was– that was a lot goin’ on back then. I don’t– I mean, I don’t– I don’t remember if I– if I said I– no, I didn’t never say I carried a (UNINTEL).
PAULA LAVIGNE: Detective Segovia would return to this question of whether Rashaun owned a gun several more times. But each time, Rashaun denied ever owning or threatening anyone with a gun. Then Segovia asked Rashaun about the day of Bryan’s murder. Remember, it had been 15 years.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Let’s– let’s talk about that–
RASHAUN JONES: That was on the day. All right, all right–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Start from the morning.
RASHAUN JONES: From the morning?
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Or whatever, as far as you can remember that day–
RASHAUN JONES: (UNINTEL PHRASE). Okay, so– I come in– d– for me, I come into practice that day. But I failed my second drug test.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Rashaun said that on the day of Bryan’s murder he’d failed a drug test. Head coach Larry Coker called Rashaun into his office and suspended him from the team.
RASHAUN JONES: So I don’t go to practice that day. When– when I leave out his office, I go home.
PAULA LAVIGNE: According to Rashaun, he spent the rest of the day at home. His apartment was less than a mile from Bryan’s.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Were you anywhere near the scene where Bryan was killed? Even if you’re afraid to tell us, you’re afraid that you– (UNINTEL) might look bad, that you never said it before, but you wanna tell me now– “Listen, I had nothing to do with this, but I happened to be in the area. Maybe that’s why, you know, I coulda been seen in the area. Maybe that’s why records show I was in the area.” Tell me about that.
RASHAUN JONES: I wasn’t in the area.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: At all?
RASHAUN JONES: At all.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Then Segovia asked Rashaun about another detail from that day. Remember, on the day of the murder Rashaun had changed his cell phone number. Segovia asked him why.
RASHAUN JONES: Well, at the time I felt like I was gonna get a lotta backlash from my drug test.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: From whom?
RASHAUN JONES: From– friends, family. I know I let my family down. Mother, grandmother, them.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Phone records show that Rashaun reached out to a few teammates and friends from that new number. One of them was his teammate, Bruce Johnson.
RASHAUN JONES: Bruce called me at the phone like, “Where you at?” I say, “I’m home. Why, what’s goin’ on?” He says– “Bryan dead.” I say, “What?” He said, “Yeah, boy. Somebody killed Bryan.” I said, “Man, shut the F up.” (UNINTEL PHRASE)–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Did anybody call you about a meeting that night?
RASHAUN JONES: No.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Okay.
RASHAUN JONES: Bruce only one that called me, and then he tried to tell me was– a team meeting–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: A team meeting, okay.
RASHAUN JONES: And I– I’m the only one didn’t go to the team meeting.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Why is that?
RASHAUN JONES: Because I was still– I’m still distraught from my second marijuana– me failin’ that drug test.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: I see. So s–
RASHAUN JONES: So I didn’t wanna be around the team or be a part–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: You– you were just in– in a bad mood?
RASHAUN JONES: Yeah, a bad mood, ’cause I know I gonna be able– say the game comin’ up, I ain’t gonna be able to play the game Saturday.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Was that, like, an issue during that time? Some people got a little ticked off, you think, that you didn’t–
RASHAUN JONES: (UNINTEL PHRASE) I didn’t show up to the team meetin’. And I know how that could look, because of the situation and I– I’m the only one not there. And y’all were sayin’ that me and him beefin’, and goin’ through that. Okay, I could see– I– I understand and see what y’all talkin’ about. But I’m tellin’ you, I had nothin’ to do with him dyin’.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Okay, all right.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Then Segovia asked Rashaun about whether he’d made that call to that baseball player named Mike Sanders, asking him for money to get out of town. The team’s assistant chaplain told us that he’d overheard this conversation, and phone records show a call from that night that matches up with it.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Do you remember callin’ Mike Sanders and askin’ him for money that night? No? So– so if Mike Sanders would say– or tell us that you called him the night that Bryan was killed, askin’ him for money, that would be a lie?
RASHAUN JONES: Yes.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And according to Rashaun, he didn’t go outta town that night. Instead, Rashaun said he went to stay with his girlfriend at the time, Sherry Abramson. So Segovia laid his cards on the table. Police had evidence from interviews and phone records that contradicted what Rashaun just said.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Now, one of the issues that we have on this case Rashaun– okay, I’m gonna be straight up with you– is the fact that we have several players reporting that you– they saw you with a gun, that you made threats with guns– the threats that you made to Bryan– or d– throughout your time at the University of Miami.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: You know, when– when you put all that stuff, together, okay– and– and you– you even admitted that the fact that– that you have beef with Bryan and you didn’t show up for the meeting, that looks bad on you. (UNINTEL PHRASE)–
RASHAUN JONES: I– I understand– I understand all the scenarios that’s pointin’ towards me. (UNINTEL PHRASE)–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: So you get that. Okay.
RASHAUN JONES: I get that, all right? (UNINTEL PHRASE)–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: I appreciate you for being honest about that.
PAULA LAVIGNE: This moment is pretty extraordinary. It’s unusual to have a suspect in a murder admit that the evidence doesn’t look good for him. But that’s what Rashaun had just done. It’s hard to know why, whether he was tryin’ to win over Segovia, whether he was exhausted, or whether he just didn’t realize he might be digging himself deeper in a hole. And this was when things started to escalate. Segovia seems to take advantage of the admission and go on the attack.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: If you were a detective, who would be the first person you would talk to?
RASHAUN JONES: Probably me.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: (LAUGH) Probably–
RASHAUN JONES: I– I– I (UNINTEL PHRASE) you know I’m just wildin’. I don’t shy from it–
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: And– and– and– and then– right, and then–
(Overtalk)
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: –and then we start adding little nuggets– I– I– I’ll give you another little nugget. The only person that– changed their number the day of.
RASHAUN JONES: Rashaun Jones.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: He changed his number that day?
RASHAUN JONES: Come on man. That nothin’.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: What if I told you there was an eyewitness that saw you leavin’ the scene right after? Do you remember that old man, that you crossed with on the sidewalk there?
RASHAUN JONES: I wasn’t– there. He can’t eyewitness me.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: You were identified as being– leaving the scene.
RASHAUN JONES: How when I wasn’t there? I’m telling you, I didn’t have–
(Overtalk)
RASHAUN JONES: –nothin’ to do with it, though. Nothin’. I ain’t touch a hair on his head. Nothin’.
DETECTIVE JUAN SEGOVIA: Why would these– why would all these people lie about you, Rashaun? Tell me–
RASHAUN JONES: I just said, from the– I guess from the– I used to be the– young and wild. So I– I guess they just didn’t pr– (UNINTEL) if they got on– on me– how it was. But that– that ain’t got nothin’ to do with pickin’ up no gun, tryin’ to kill nobody, harm nobody with. That’s– that’s not in me. I don’t do stuff like that.
PAULA LAVIGNE: By now, Rashaun was 35 years old. He was married, had five kids. His junior year at the U had been over a decade ago. And he insisted he had nothing to do with Bryan’s death. After their interview was over, Detective Segovia let Rashaun’s wife, Ishenda, come into the room.
ISHENDA JONES: You (UNINTEL)?
RASHAUN JONES: Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
ISHENDA JONES: I love you.
RASHAUN JONES: I love you too, baby.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Detectives had also questioned Ishenda while Rashaun was interrogated. It turns out, she’d read our story, and apparently used details from our reporting to defend Rashaun. Details like Bryan’s paranoia.
ISHENDA JONES: They’re tryin’ to make me think you a murderer. So I said, “This man was sleepin’ in his closet with guns, telling his brother, ‘They lookin’ for me.’ He didn’t say Rashaun; ‘they.’ So you tryin’ to tell me my husband killed the man that– was afraid of him?
ISHENDA JONES: “‘Cause Bryan didn’t seem like he was afraid of him, from what I read from ESPN.” I said, “But Rashaun had got in other altercations. Rashaun had had other bitches he was fucking.” I said, “He was fuckin’ her, and fuckin’ me, and fuckin’ Sherry, fuckin’ everybody.
ISHENDA JONES: “So you tellin’ me he’s gonna kill behind this one person, or he’s gonna kill because this one person swung on him, or beat him up at practice? He’s gonna kill him?” I said, “His brother used to beat him up. Did he kill his brother?” I said, “Listen, you have to literally show me him standin’ over the body for me to believe that he killed this man. That’s just how much I know he’s not lyin’ ’bout killin’ that man.” You– I said, “You got it? Show me.” (UNINTEL PHRASE).
PAULA LAVIGNE: Ishenda had identified the prime weakness of Miami-Dade’s case against her husband. The truth is, there were several theories that could’ve led to Bryan’s death, and evidence that incriminated Rashaun was mostly circumstantial. Ishenda kissed Rashaun goodbye, and then an officer came into the room.
POLICE OFFICER: All right, Mr. Jones. Stand up and (UNINTEL) the wall for me. Put your hands behind your back for me. You’re being placed under arrest.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The officer handcuffed Rashaun and took him to a cruiser. On that day, Rashaun was arrested for first degree murder, though this charge would later be lowered to second degree murder. He was driven from Marion County all the way back to Miami-Dade, where he’d spend the night in a detention center.
PAULA LAVIGNE: He’d be in jail awaiting trial for the next four and a half years. Of course, there’s no way he or any of us could’ve known that back then. The Pata family’s involvement with the University of Miami didn’t end with Bryan’s death. His brother, Edwin, went on to coach football for the Hurricanes. In fact, on the day of Rashaun’s arrest, Edwin had been at the university when he got a text.
EDWIN PATA: Right when I got the news I was literally gettin’ off the Stairmaster, and I had to get off because I got a text from Detective Segovia. And– I started walkin’ around the track just to clear my mind. We knew it was this guy all along. Everything pointed to this guy.
EDWIN PATA: And you just felt like your hands were tied. Yes, the– the guy is gonna rot away in a prison cell. That makes us feel better. But then you start thinkin’ about Bryan again. After I left the school, I went straight to Bryan’s apartment. I was there for about 30 minutes.
EDWIN PATA: I– I walked the steps he’d took when he died, you know? And I stood there right where he died, and I– I just thought of Bryan, thought of his last moments, and everything that he saw. And just to kinda pull myself back to that day and what his last moments were.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Based on everything we knew about the case against Rashaun, there was only one piece of evidence that allegedly placed him at the crime scene. And it came from that eyewitness, the one Segovia mentioned in his interrogation of Rashaun. He’d claimed he saw Rashaun flee the scene of Bryan’s murder. We’d finally hear from him at Rashaun’s bond hearing.
ATTORNEY: Good afternoon, sir. Please introduce yourself to the judge.
PAUL CONNER: My name is Paul Conner.
PAULA LAVIGNE: At the time of the murder, Paul Conner was a 62-year-old writing instructor at the University of Miami. He lived at the Colony Apartments, the same apartment complex as Bryan. Conner told prosecutors that on the night of Bryan’s murder he was walking home from the metro station. As he approached the Colony Apartments, he said he heard a loud bang.
ATTORNEY: Now, when you say, “a loud bang,” when you heard that bang, what was– what did you believe you were hearing?
PAUL CONNER: Well, my first thought was it may have been a cherry bomb.
ATTORNEY: Just for our (UNINTEL), how loud does a cherry bomb sound (UNINTEL PHRASE)–
PAUL CONNER: Well, it sounds similar to a gunshot.
PAULA LAVIGNE: A few seconds later, Conner said he saw someone leaving the apartments’ parking lot on foot.
ATTORNEY: How would you describe the person that you saw, Mr. Conner?
PAUL CONNER: I would describe him as a young African-American, six feet to 6’1″, tall, approaching the gate– walking– or running at a brisk pace toward the gate, walking west.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Conner said he made eye contact with this person. And then the person smiled at him and jogged away. Conner said that for the rest of the night he didn’t think twice about the encounter. He went home to his apartment. But at work the next day, he saw the news about a murder the night before at his apartment complex.
ATTORNEY: So at that point, what did you decide to do?
PAUL CONNER: I immediately called the Miami-Dade Homicide Department and said that I may have seen something of significance the previous night.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The detectives brought him to the station, and he sat for several hours with a forensic artist who drew a composite sketch of the person Conner saw that night. Several months later, detectives showed him a photo line-up, and Conner picked Rashaun’s card out from the line-up.
PAUL CONNER: One of the detectives asked me how sure I was that that was the defendant, and I answered 90%.
ATTORNEY: Why would you say 90%, Mr. Conner?
PAUL CONNER: Well, I’m– my belief is that there’s really no such thing as 100%.
ATTORNEY: So would it be fair to say that by saying 90% accurate, that you were convinced that this is the person who you saw–
PAUL CONNER: Yes. Yes.
ATTORNEY: Beyond a reasonable doubt in your mind?
PAUL CONNER: Yes.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Ten years after the murder, detectives returned to Conner and showed him the same photo line-up again. He pointed out Rashaun a second time. Conner’s testimony may have been the prosecution’s strongest evidence against Rashaun, but it wasn’t airtight.
PAULA LAVIGNE: First of all, the defense could challenge the reliability of eyewitness testimony, which depends on a person’s imperfect memory. Then there were Conner’s vision problems. During cross-examination at that hearing, Rashaun’s attorney asked Conner about his diabetes, which caused him to have double vision if his blood sugar was low. And he admitted he hadn’t had anything to eat for six hours before Bryan’s murder. Conner also couldn’t see well without his glasses.
ATTORNEY: Are you wearin’ your glasses, or are you not wearin’ your glasses?
PAUL CONNER: I probably– I– I don’t remember. I have to wear them when I drive, and I didn’t drive that day.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The bond hearing lasted a few days, and at the end of it the judge set Rashaun’s bail at $850,000. But his family couldn’t come up with the portion needed for bail, so he remained in the Metro West detention center in Miami. Time passed, and four years after his arrest Rashaun was still in jail, waiting for a trial. But as lawyers on both sides prepared for that trial, the prosecution came to the judge with a surprising update. They’d lost contact with that key eyewitness, Paul Conner.
PROSECUTOR: Officers from the Louisville Homicide Department had already been out there, and the leasing office said he no longer lived there.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The lead prosecutor on the case said that the state had done all they could to find Conner. They’d tracked him from Miami, to Toledo, to an address in Louisville, Kentucky.
PROSECUTOR: They’ve run every database available to law enforcement, sent local law enforcement out in both of the cities he lived in, sent the FBI out looking for him both Ohio and Kentucky.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And they still couldn’t find him, until finally they said they’d figured out what had really happened.
PROSECUTOR: And I’ll just give the judge a slight preview. Detective Segovia had run him in Clear, and it says he’s deceased.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Apparently, Paul Conner was dead. But something here just didn’t seem right. I find people for a living, and based on the work that police had done to find Conner, I just didn’t believe he was dead. The police had no obituary, or death certificate, or anything official.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And when we searched for one, nothing came up. We knew from testimony that Paul Conner wasn’t good with technology, so it made sense that he might ignore an email, a text, or miss a phone call. So I began reaching out to people who might pick up the phone, like his former colleagues.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And when I talked to them, they didn’t seem to think Conner was dead either. So a few weeks later, producer Dan Arruda and I made a trip to Louisville to see for ourselves. We arrived at the address that both we and Miami-Dade had for Conner. (KNOCKING) Hi. Are you– are you Paul Conner?
PAUL CONNER: Yeah.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And we met someone who was very much alive. At age 80, Conner seemed so much older than the man who had testified three years earlier, and he couldn’t remember much of anything about the Bryan Pata case.
PAUL CONNER: Well, who is “you all?” What is your purpose–
PAULA LAVIGNE: So we’re– we’re journalists. We’re– we’re– we work for ESPN, because we’ve been reporting on this, because this young man was a football player. And the guy who is– in jail right now is also a football player. He was his teammate. And–
PAUL CONNER: And he, what, killed the guy?
PAULA LAVIGNE: Well, that’s what he’s accused of doing.
DAN ARRUDA: And– and according to testimony that you gave in court, you saw a man walking away from the scene of the crime. Do you remember any of this?
PAUL CONNER: I mean, I don’t deny it, but I don’t– I’m– I’m– let’s see. I– it’s been about– it’s been some time ago now that I’ve retired.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Honestly, Conner seemed a lot different than the man we saw testify just three years earlier. He admitted he was getting up there in age, and that his memory comes and goes. And while it was clear that Conner had some significant memory problems, he certainly wasn’t dead. A few weeks later, we ran a story.
FEMALE VOICE: A wild turn in the murder case against former University of Miami football player, Rashaun Jones. This one centered around a blockbuster report Thursday by ESPN.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The state had said a key eyewitness was dead. We’d found him very much alive. And now, the prosecution had to do something about it.
FEMALE VOICE: So the state would like to address an article that was published by ESPN yesterday.
PAULA LAVIGNE: After our story published, the prosecution sent Detective Segovia to Louisville to meet Conner. They needed to see if he was fit for trial. In the end, the judge ruled that Conner was alive but not competent enough to testify. And so Rashaun’s trial would move forward as planned, but with previously recorded testimony from Paul Conner.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter that Conner didn’t even remember Bryan’s case or that the prosecution had believed Conner was dead. This kind of mistake wasn’t all that shocking to us. It felt familiar, the kinda slip-up the police had been making all along.
PAULA LAVIGNE: And now those mistakes were moving beyond police work, and into the trial. A trial that was going to determine the fate of Rashaun Jones. We’d been closely watching the prosecution to figure out what case they were building against Rashaun.
PAULA LAVIGNE: As far as we knew, there was still nothing that placed Rashaun at the crime scene except the eyewitness. The state’s evidence was still largely the same as it had been in 2007. That’s what we thought, at least, until we saw something. Three seemingly innocuous words, “amended discovery exhibit.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: The prosecution had something else. At our public records trial in 2020, we asked the police a crucial question: what did they need to make an arrest? They said they were waiting for a missing piece of the puzzle. We’d interpreted that as something new that would lock into place and support their theory that Rashaun had killed Bryan.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But we hadn’t found anything that coulda been that missing piece, even months after Rashaun was arrested. Still, we waited for updates, combed through copies of documents, and depositions, attended hearings. So when that document popped up among the court files, we were on high alert.
PAULA LAVIGNE: It said, “amended discovery exhibit,” which meant there was something new in the evidence. Someone new, actually. It would turn out there was a whole new character in the Rashaun Jones case. And here’s why he’d matter: He and Rashaun had been in the same jail after Rashaun’s arrest for Bryan’s murder. And he said Rashaun had told him some things. George Jones is a man who The Miami Herald once called, “a slick-talking con man.”
GEORGE JONES: I thought I was Robin Hood. I would steal money from the rich and give it to myself.
PAULA LAVIGNE: He told us his targets were often celebrities and pro athletes. He stole $15,000 from Nick Cannon, and conned $200,000 out of a sports agent by selling him season tickets he didn’t own.
GEORGE JONES: I have sold things that didn’t exist, sold houses that weren’t mine, condominiums, high rises. I can be somewhat creative at times. (LAUGH)
PAULA LAVIGNE: The law finally caught up with George in 2019. He had taken out almost $2 million in mortgages on luxury homes in Fort Lauderdale, homes that he didn’t own. So a judge sentenced him to nine years in prison for fraud. Which brought him to a dormitory on the second floor of the Metro West detention center. That’s where George says he ran into Rashaun Jones.
GEORGE JONES: They would call out– mail and food call, and– his last name was Jones. (LAUGH) And my last name is Jones.
PAULA LAVIGNE: George and Rashaun, by the way, are not related. I started emailing George when he was in jail in Miami. Sometimes we would talk on the phone. He was obsessed with football. He wanted to talk about everything from coach picks to possible Heisman winners. And apparently, that’s something George and Rashaun would do, too.
GEORGE JONES: We would argue about football. “You don’t know nothin’, you don’t know nothin’,” whatever. And it was– he’s a very– gregarious guy.
PAULA LAVIGNE: George had a reputation at the jail. He had gone to law school for a year, and so guys would ask him for legal advice. Guys like Rashaun.
GEORGE JONES: He’d ask me questions about bond hearing and stuff like that. You know, was– just started tellin’ me stuff about his case. And I was like, you know, “Bro, I don’t wanna hear this. (LAUGH) I got my own problems,” you know what I mean?
PAULA LAVIGNE: But according to George, Rashaun kept talking. He said Rashaun was frustrated with the way the media had portrayed him and Bryan. He said Bryan wasn’t perfect.
GEORGE JONES: “They tryin’ to make him seem like I’m (SIC) a saint, and I’m a monster.” But he was like, “He was a asshole.” (LAUGH) And I was like, “What?” He was like, “Man, dude was– like, everybody hated him. Dude was a bully.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: This wasn’t the only time we’d heard Bryan described as a bully. When we talked to Bryan’s teammates, several of them had told us something similar. Then George said Rashaun told him about Jada, and how he and Bryan had fought over here.
GEORGE JONES: The young lady that Bryan Pata was in love with or engaged with, that was his girl before. But he was like, “I fucked her first,” (LAUGH) you know what I mean? He like, “You know, I don’t know why he mad at me. She chose me.” And he was like, “Man, I– everybody was just hatin’ on me because I had all the girls.” And this, that. He was like, “I didn’t want her no more anyway.” He was like, “Man, all this was over a girl,” right?
PAULA LAVIGNE: But according to George, Rashaun’s feelings about Bryan were bigger than Jada. Rashaun had dreams of becoming a football star, dreams that people in his hometown expected him to achieve.
GEORGE JONES: He’s from impoverished area, and they thought he was gonna be that guy, you know? That’s why he went to the U, thinking he could go pro. And he comes to find out A) he wasn’t that good, or he didn’t fit into that system, and he was not in their plans. (LAUGH) You know, he wasn’t goin’ to the NFL. He had no plan B. The NFL was plan A, B, C, and D. (LAUGH) And that was it. Everybody back home was countin’ on him, and the world wasn’t pannin’ out the way he thought it should be.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But Bryan had been on track to achieve those dreams. He represented everything Rashaun wasn’t. And apparently, he didn’t let Rashaun forget it.
GEORGE JONES: You know, he just said dude just kept basically pluckin’ a nerve with him.
PAULA LAVIGNE: On the night of November 7th, 2006, George said Rashaun was distraught after he was suspended from the team. So he went to confront Bryan.
GEORGE JONES: He didn’t blame Pata for gettin’ kicked off the team, but that was just, like, his arch nemesis.
PAULA LAVIGNE: As George tells it, Rashaun and Bryan got into a heated argument outside Bryan’s apartment. And Bryan provoked him.
GEORGE JONES: In the argument, and it was just basically callin’ him a bum. (LAUGH) “You’re a bum,” you know what I mean? And that was really– with Shaun (PH) that’s his– that’s scratch– you know, especially that night (LAUGH) his world had come crashin’ down, accordin’ the him.
GEORGE JONES: It was over. He was done with the U. Coker hated him, teammates hated him, you know? Now he’s off the team. And– but Pata was like, “You’re a bum. I got your bitch. But more importantly, I’m goin’ to the league. I’ma be rich and– you’re goin’ back to Ocala.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: And then, George said, Rashaun didn’t exactly remember what happened next.
GEORGE JONES: “I went to talk the dude, we got in a argument. And man, the next thing I know, he’s on the ground.” I remember, he’s like, “You mean you shot him?” (LAUGH) He’s like, “I didn’t mean to.” He’s like, “I don’t remember.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: We’d spent nearly a decade trying to hear Rashaun’s side of the story. If what George said was true, this right here was Rashaun confessing to Bryan’s murder. But one detail about this story didn’t sit right with George at the time. According to George, Rashaun didn’t park his car outside Bryan’s apartment. He parked down the street and walked to the Colony.
GEORGE JONES: But it just didn’t make sense to me, the whole thing. I’m just sittin’ there, listenin’. I’m like, “Why didn’t you just drive to his– if you’re gonna get in an argument, you just knock on the guy’s door, ring the doorbell. But you parked down the street.” It– it kinda sounded premeditated to me.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Whether the shooting was premeditated or not, George says Rashaun thought quickly about covering his tracks. He knew he needed someone to vouch for his whereabouts that night.
GEORGE JONES: He said when he left from there, he was dating some girl in South Beach, and– he said he went to her house after that, to want her to be his alibi.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Rashaun’s girlfriend, Sherry Abramson, was living in South Beach at the time.
GEORGE JONES: And– that he’d disposed of the gun on the way to her house.
PAULA LAVIGNE: As Dan and I talked with George, one thing didn’t make sense to us. Rashaun had denied his involvement for so long. So why confess now?
DAN ARRUDA: George, why do you think he confided in you, and do you know if he let slip, or confided in anybody else while he was there?
GEORGE JONES: I think from bein’ incarcerated, whatever, sometimes you want somebody to talk to. (LAUGH) I mean, it’s a lonely existence.
PAULA LAVIGNE: According to George, Rashaun blamed us for his arrest. And it seemed like he blamed me in particular.
GEORGE JONES: I don’t know, “Some crazy bitch at ESPN.” I don’t know who he was talkin’ about– (LAUGH) but some– some crazy bitch at ESPN that– that got him arrested. This shit was dead, you know what I mean? But– ESPN resurfaced the thing and– and basically got him arrested. He was like, “There’s no new evidence.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: I wasn’t surprised to hear this. I could see how Rashaun might feel this way. Our interest in Bryan’s murder had forced detectives, at the very least, to look closer at the case. And our story had told the public that Rashaun was their prime suspect. But we’d spent years tryin’ to figure out why they’d finally arrested Rashaun. And in all the case files since the arrest, we hadn’t seen any new evidence. From George’s telling, Rashaun and his lawyer had been looking, too. And all they’d found was that eyewitness, Paul Conner.
GEORGE JONES: “All they got is some old dude that says it’s me,” you know what I mean? But he’s like, “I didn’t see no old dude.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: At this point, it’s easy to think that George would become the star witness for the prosecution. So many of the details of Rashaun’s alleged confession line up with what we already knew. Jada, the rivalry between the two men, Rashaun’s crushed dreams, even the details from the day of the murder.
PAULA LAVIGNE: This all seemed damning for Rashaun. Maybe more damning than an eyewitness with memory problems. And yet, the truth of any of it was about to far more complicated than we could’ve seen coming. Because George, of course, is also a strategic opportunist. He knows when he’s sitting on gold, and a jailhouse confession from a murder suspect awaiting trial, that was gold.
GEORGE JONES: I’m 52 at that point. I got another eight years in there. (LAUGH) You can judge me all you want, but I’m tryin’ to get outta jail. Bein’ a whatever you wanna– name you wanna call me– a capitalist, opportunist– whatever. But when I saw the opportunity, I was like, “I’ll give it a shot.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: If a prosecutor found George’s information on Rashaun valuable, that could shave time off of George’s prison sentence. Here was the problem. The lead prosecutor working Bryan Pata’s murder was a man named Michael Von Zamft. He had a reputation in Miami.
PAULA LAVIGNE: People called him Mad Dog. And he was about to find himself at the epicenter of a major scandal, a scandal that would undermine everything about George’s story. Many people could tell the story of Michael Von Zamft’s downfall, but it’s most interesting coming from his nemesis.
MICHELE BORCHEW: At the risk of sounding a little crazy, from the day I met Michael Von Zamft and he treated me the way he treated me, I had a vendetta.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Michele Borchew is a criminal defense attorney who has had it in for Von Zamft for years. The two first crossed paths on a case where she represented a woman who had violated probation by going on a cruise for her birthday.
MICHELE BORCHEW: And Michael Von Zamft’s offer for that violation of her probation was life in prison. What do you mean, life in prison for going on a cruise? And I made it my personal mission to figure out, “Who is this guy, and how could somebody be that evil?”
PAULA LAVIGNE: Now, it’s normal for prosecutors and defense attorneys to not like each other very much. Their whole job is to work against each other. But on case after case. Borchew was facing off against Von Zamft in court. And she started to suspect that he was manipulating witness testimony from jailhouse informants.
MICHELE BORCHEW: Specifically I had a case where there was a jailhouse witness that said my client confessed to them. He didn’t call the witness at the trial, because I found out they were never even together for him to confess to him. And I was gonna expose that in front of the jury. So he didn’t even tell us, but in the middle of the trial he just didn’t call him as a witness.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Borchew thought that Van Zamft might be offering these witnesses something in exchange for testimony, like reduced sentences. That’s not uncommon. But that kind of thing is supposed to be disclosed to the defense.
MICHELE BORCHEW: The jury has the right, and the defendant has the right, to have that testimony and that evidence presented so the jury can decide, “Is he really testifying out the kindness of his heart, or is he doing it because he’s getting X amount of years shaved off his sentence, and his family’s getting X amount of money?” And when the state hides that evidence, the jury’s not getting the full picture.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Borchew had this suspicion, but she couldn’t prove it. And by 2024, Von Zamft was retiring from the State Attorney’s office. Her time was running out. But Borchew had one more client that Von Zamft was prosecuting in his last case for the state, and at the end of that trial she overheard Von Zamft saying he was headed to another courtroom for yet another hearing.
MICHELE BORCHEW: And I thought, “Another hearing? I thought you’re retired.” So I grabbed my bag and I followed him. This guy’s retiring and it was, like, sand slipping through my fingers. I’m like, “He is just gonna ride off into the sunset and have this 30-plus year career, and everyone’s just gonna worship him. And I was– for lack of a better terms, I was pissed off. So I was like, “Well, what’s he going to do now? Like, maybe I have one more chance.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: So Borchew slipped into a seat at that other hearing. It turned out to be a pretty high profile case involving a notorious Miami gang leader who was being resentenced.
MICHELE BORCHEW: And I sat through that hearing. It was a couple days a week for, like, three weeks. And on the last day of that hearing, his attorney said, “Judge, I would like to play a jail call that I discovered.”
MICHAEL VON ZAMFT: Hello?
MALE VOICE: What’s up, Mike. How you doin’? Good afternoon.
MICHAEL VON ZAMFT: Good, (UNINTEL). How are you?
MICHELE BORCHEW: And the jail call was between an inmate convicted of murder calling Michael Von Zamft directly at his office.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The man calling was working with Von Zamft. He was going to testify for the prosecution.
MICHAEL VON ZAMFT: The plan is for you to testify and (UNINTEL PHRASE). And before we (UNINTEL) testify, we’re gonna go over a lot of stuff with ya.
MALE VOICE: No problem, no problem.
PAULA LAVIGNE: On the phone call, Von Zamft says that one of his other witnesses wasn’t sure she wanted to testify again.
MICHAEL VON ZAMFT: ‘Cause I had call her and she refuses, then I will find a way to make her unavailable. And then I can read her whole testimony.
MICHELE BORCHEW: You know, “If she’s not gonna get it together, if I can’t get her to testify straight, I’ll just make her unavailable.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: If a witness is unavailable, their previous testimony can be entered into the record.
MALE VOICE: Do you wanna do that?
MICHELE BORCHEW: A lay person that doesn’t know what legal unavailability is, who is also a convicted murderer, who was also alleged to be putting hits out for a gang, took that as like, “Is that what you want? Like, you want her to be unavailable?”
PAULA LAVIGNE: If this was a mob movie, to make someone unavailable would mean to kill them.
MALE VOICE: Do you wanna do that?
MICHAEL VON ZAMFT: No, I don’t wanna do it. I’d rather she testify and did a good job. But can I count on it? No.
MALE VOICE: I (UNINTEL PHRASE) cold– cold shit, though.
MICHELE BORCHEW: And he didn’t really fix this guy’s impression of what he was saying. He didn’t say, “Oh, no, no, no. I mean, like, legally unavailable.” And it was like, hearing that is just chilling.
PAULA LAVIGNE: The witness eventually told the court that she’d had a falling out with Von Zamft, and he told her that if she died he could read her testimony into the record. The judge in the case later wrote that she didn’t think Von Zamft actually wanted the man on the call with him to kill the witness.
PAULA LAVIGNE: However, she wrote, “Reasonable minds may reach a different conclusion based on the totality of circumstances in this case.” Still, what the judge did find was shocking. It turns out, Von Zamft and other prosecutors had manipulated testimony from jailhouse informants by giving them alcohol, cigarettes, and fast food.
PAULA LAVIGNE: They’d even arranged for conjugal visits in return for favorable testimony. The judge disqualified Von Zamft and another prosecutor from the case, and Von Zamft resigned from the Prosecutor’s office. That might look like punishment, except Von Zamft was already retiring. But there was something else in that phone call that caught Borchew’s ear.
MICHELE BORCHEW: At the end of that call, he’s telling this witness that he is going to put him and Bill in the courtyard together so they can iron out a witness’s testimony.
PAULA LAVIGNE: She recognized the name of this witness, Bill Brown. He’d been Von Zamft’s star witness in the case she’d just lost. But Borchew suspected there was no way Brown could be connected to this case with the Miami gang leader. So why was his name coming up?
MICHELE BORCHEW: And I sat in that courtroom, and as that jail call played, Michael Von Zamft turned, and scanned the courtroom, and found me. And we made eye contact. And I mouthed to him, “You motherfucker.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: Borchew knew she had caught Von Zamft in one of his schemes. So after that day in court, she started gathering as much information as she could on Bill Brown’s case.
MICHELE BORCHEW: And I just got to digging for anything and everything.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Brown had confessed to at least six murders, including the Liberty City massacre, one of Miami’s worst mass shootings. But Von Zamft had offered Brown a plea deal. He would serve only 24 years in prison. What Borchew learned was that in exchange for that deal, Brown became Von Zamft’s eyes and ears inside the county jail.
MICHELE BORCHEW: When you get sentenced, you go to state prison. Bill had been strategically held in the county jail for ten years past his sentencing because he’s Michael Von Zamft’s puppet.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Ultimately, Brown helped Von Zamft on an unknown number of cases, some where Brown provided testimony, and others where he supplied information. Borchew made all of this public in 2024.
MICHELE BORCHEW: I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Von Zamft committed some level of misconduct on every single case he prosecuted. The State Attorney’s office should be reviewing every conviction that Michael Von Zamft got where somebody is still in custody.
PAULA LAVIGNE: That year, the State Attorney’s office announced it was reviewing past cases involving Von Zamft. It later issued a report on 26 select cases. It hadn’t found anything. Still, as of February 2026, the Florida bar association had an open investigation into Von Zamft.
PAULA LAVIGNE: We reached out to him for comment, but he didn’t respond. Throughout this scandal, I kept coming back to Bryan. Von Zamft had been the lead prosecutor on Bryan’s case for 17 years. He’d testified in our case against Miami-Dade. He’d been the one who signed off on Rashaun’s arrest, and he’d secured the strongest testimony in the case from another jailhouse informant, George Jones, who said Rashaun had confessed to killing Bryan. Michele Borchew isn’t involved in Rashaun’s defense, but she’s familiar with the evidence. And she said testimony like George Jones van make or break a case.
MICHELE BORCHEW: Wait, you got a confession from the defendant? That would be the best evidence they had on that case. From the evidence that I know that the state has on that case, a confession would drive it home, because the other stuff sucks.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But instead, state prosecutors dropped George Jones from their witness list for Rashaun’s trial.
MICHELE BORCHEW: So why now? Why your best evidence, you’re just (MAKES NOISE), “We’re– we’re gonna leave that out?”
PAULA LAVIGNE: According to Borchew, that decision may well have had something to do with Von Zamft.
MICHELE BORCHEW: And they decided like, “You know what? Michael Von Zamft had his hands on the, and we don’t wanna screw up this whole case because somebody that is currently going through what he’s going through was the one that took this statement.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: We’ll never know if Rashaun’s alleged confession to George ever happened. George may have been a good Samaritan who genuinely wanted to see Bryan’s family get the justice they deserved. He coulda been an opportunist who heard something and thought he could benefit from it.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Or he mighta been running another con, having gotten wind that there was a prosecutor who would be open to manipulated testimony. We’d later learn that George Jones had also provided testimony as a jailhouse witness in another case for Von Zamft, all under the impression he’d get benefits for cooperating.
PAULA LAVIGNE: So maybe he was a little of all three. We’ll never know. But here’s what we do know. The state’s only new evidence against Rashaun had evaporated into thin air, and it was all their own doing. Because so much of this case was tainted. Tainted by a prosecutor under investigation, by the mistakes and oversights of the Miami-Dade Police, and by the passage of time.
BILLY CORBEN: This was a case– it not only was solvable, it was a case they probably could’ve made almost 20 years ago. But there is no more evidence now than they had 20 years ago.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Documentarian Billy Corben was making his film, The U, when Bryan died. So he’s been following the case from the beginning, and he’s skeptical of how it’s progressed.
BILLY CORBEN: What the defense appears to have is reasonable doubt. It’s so fishy that if you were a juror sitting on that jury, and you’re hearing this, how can you put somebody away for probably the rest of their life for murder? You cannot wield your prosecutorial discretion for what is politically expedient, or to save face with the press, or because ESPN did an arguably better investigation than the State Attorney’s office or Miami-Dade Homicide did. You cannot then say, “Well, we’re gonna revive this investigation with no new information, and no new evidence, and charge somebody.”
PAULA LAVIGNE: What started as a story about Bryan and his family’s loss has turned into something much bigger, about a justice system that had fumbled every opportunity to make things right.
BILLY CORBEN: This is a tragedy for our community. And it is a tragedy for Miami Hurricanes fans, it is a tragedy for the Pata family. It may very well be a tragedy for Rashaun Jones’s family.
PAULA LAVIGNE: Two teammates came to the University of Miami to live out a childhood dream, to win on the biggest stage and maybe become famous. Now their names will forever be connected, because 20 years after the death of Bryan Pata, Rashaun Jones would stand trial for his murder.
PAULA LAVIGNE: For Bryan’s mom, this would be her best chance for closure. For Rashaun Jones, the outcome would determine his future, whether he goes to prison or clears his name. And for everyone else– friends, teammates, and fans– this would be a chance to finally get some answers.
PAULA LAVIGNE: But given the missteps, could we count on this trial to tell us what we really want to know: who killed Bryan Pata? In our final episode, The State of Florida versus Rashaun Jones. We’ll be back after the verdict.
