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Bryan Pata was a star defensive player for the Miami Hurricanes in 2000's who was expected to be a high NFL Draft pick. His life was taken in 2006 when he was murdered outside of his apartment. Fifteen years later, authorities have arrested and charged his former teammate, Rashaun Jones, with the murder.
According to the Miami Herald, Rashaun Jones had only been thought to be a suspect as recent as a year ago when ESPN came out with a piece on the killing. It took fifteen years which seems like a crazy amount of time, but it appears authorities have finally closed the chapter on the “who” in Pata's murder.
Article Continues BelowIn one of South Florida’s most infamous unsolved murder cases, star University of Miami defensive lineman Bryan Pata was shot to death outside his apartment 15 years ago. On Thursday, police detectives finally made an arrest: a former UM teammate. Arrested was Rashaun Jones, 35, of Lake City, a former UM defensive back. He’d long been a suspect in the Pata case — he’d once gotten into a fistfight with Pata and also dated the slain player’s girlfriend — but had never before been charged. Miami-Dade police arrested Jones on Thursday in Marion County. – Via the Miami Herald.
The documents that the Miami Herald received from ESPN contained some interesting information about Rashaun Jones and his behavior immediately following the murder in 2006.
The documents obtained by ESPN also revealed that in the hours after the shooting, Jones — who had been suspended because of a third positive marijuana test — skipped a mandatory team meeting at the campus athletic center. The story also says Jones changed his phone number the day of the shooting and asked another student athlete “to borrow money to go out of town.”
Hopefully this helps bring some sort of closure to the family and friends of Bryan Pata.
