Everyone knew in Miami that Rashaun Jones murdered Bryan Pata.
It took the cops 15 years to finally make an arrest. The cops from the beginning bungled the investigation, and it actually took ESPN doing their own investigating to help get the case restarted and finally an arrest.
Justice, it appears, will finally get served.
Police arrested a former Miami (Fla.) football player Thursday in connection to the November 2006 shooting death of teammate Bryan Pata, nearly 15 years after the crime and nine months after an ESPN investigation pointed out missteps in the long-stalled police inquiry.
The Miami-Dade Police Department said U.S. marshals arrested Rashaun Jones, 35, on a first-degree murder charge in the killing.
Not surprisingly, the killer was over a woman.
Too many black men have been senselessly murdered of women, drugs, and money.
Jones and Pata had a history of arguments and fights, and Jones had previously dated Pata’s girlfriend, Jada Brody, according to interviews and documents ESPN obtained. Brody cooperated with police around the time of the shooting, but she expressed irritation when police returned to ask questions months later, according to police records. The records do not show her saying anything about Jones’ possible involvement. Prior to publishing its 2020 story, ESPN reached out to Brody for more than two years by phone, text message, social media and through friends and relatives. She never agreed to an interview.
Jones had threatened Pata numerous times, and their beef was well documented, and you will see.
Police had interviewed dozens of people and generated more than 4,000 pages in the case file with references to nightclub fights, stolen rims, jealous girlfriends, federal agents and even an alleged jailhouse confession. But notes and material pertaining to Jones featured prominently.
In an interview with ESPN, one former teammate recalled a fight between Jones and Pata. According to that account, Jones issued a warning as the two were separated: “Boy, you might as well go ahead and clip up.”
On the night of the killing, documents and interviews indicate Jones was notably absent from a mandatory team meeting called by coaches. He’d been suspended that day after testing positive for marijuana, his third failed drug test.
Jones has maintained his innocence and said he had nothing to do with it.
We will see if the cops indeed now have a smoking gun that connects him to the crime.
Flip the page for a video of the investigation and what we know so far.
