MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda listened to witness testimony related to the alleged conflicts between University of Miami Hurricanes teammates Bryan Pata and Rashaun Jones.
On Tuesday morning, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Cristina Hurst Diamond told Miranda that not all of the witness testimony presented during the pre-trial hearing was to be introduced.
Hurst Diamond said some of it served as evidence of Jones’s pattern of behavior, and there was a statement that witnesses testified about that defined motive. She repeated the statement.
“Call your Zoes and clip up,” Jones told Pata in August 2004, according to witnesses for the prosecution.
Dave Howell and Eric Moncur, two of their former Canes teammates, testified in court that they heard Jones, then a freshman, make the threat after they separated him from Pata during a fight in Moncur’s dorm room.
On Monday, the prosecution established that the slang “Zoes” referred to Pata and his friends being of Haitian descent, and “clip up” referred to a gun or ammunition.
Pata, a Hurricanes defensive lineman who graduated from Miami Central High School and was majoring in criminology, was fatally shot on Nov. 7, 2006, in Kendall. The 2007 NFL draft prospect was 22.
Miguel Dominguez, the lead Miami-Dade detective in the murder case from 2007 to 2020, testified on Tuesday for the defense. While answering Attorney Sara Alvarez’s questions, he said he questioned Pata’s girlfriend after the shooting.
“I spoke with the family on a few occasions,” Dominguez said as he appeared remotely during the hearing.
Prosecutors filed a case against Jones, of Lake City, on Aug. 17, 2021. He was arrested on Aug. 19, 2021, in Marion County and booked on Aug. 26, 2021, in Miami-Dade after his extradition, records show.
Jones pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon. County inmate records show correctional deputies were holding Jones, 40, at the Metrowest Detention Center.
Court records show the next hearing on pre-trial motions is at 9:30 a.m. on Friday.
Videos of the pre-trial hearing testimony on Monday
Dave Howell testifies
Eric Moncur testifies
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