MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Rashaun Jones, a former Miami Hurricanes player who is awaiting trial for the murder of Bryan Pata more than 18 years ago, appeared in court on Monday in Miami-Dade County.
Pata, a defensive lineman who graduated from Miami Central High School and was majoring in criminology, died after a shooting on Nov. 7, 2006, in Kendall. He was 22.
Jones, a former Canes defensive back who was last booked in jail on Aug. 26, 2021, was in court for a pre-trial hearing about what his defense wants Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda to consider to be inadmissible evidence.
The prosecution wants the jury to know that Pata, and Jones were in a fist fight, Jones had threatened Pata, and Jones had pointed a gun at another teammate.
The witnesses included Eric Moncur, a former UM defensive end; Dave Howell, a former UM defensive tackle; Pata’s older brothers Edrick Pata and Edwin Pierre-Pata, and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Detective Juan Segovia.
Moncur, a Miami Carol City High School graduate, and Howell, a Royal Palm Beach High School graduate, said they both saw Jones and Pata get in a fist fight in 2004.
“Bryan ended up punching him ... we ran over there to just break it up,” Howell said.
Moncur said the fight was in his dorm room after they found Jones was in his room without his permission. Moncur and Howell said that after they separated the two of them, Jones turned to Pata and threatened to shoot him.
After the fight, Howell said that on another occasion, he and Jones were in another student’s dorm when Jones left and came back with a small black revolver and pointed it toward him. Howell said it was the first gun he had ever seen.
“He didn’t say a word ... I was frightened,” Howell said, adding that Jones put the gun away in his pocket and said he was “playing.”
In 2005, Howell said Pata was with him when he confronted Jones over comments that he had made to his girlfriend. Howell said he and Jones got into a fist fight, and another student said Jones had threatened to shoot him again.
Edwin Pata, who played football for Florida State University and Florida International University, said that months before the murder, his brother told him that Jones had threatened to shoot him in the head.
Jones’s defense attorneys want the judge to exclude their testimony from his trial for second-degree murder with a deadly weapon. The judge had yet to make a ruling.
County inmate records show corrections is holding Jones at the Metrowest Detention Center. There was a hearing on pre-trial motions at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
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