MIAMI — Testimony continued Thursday in the Bryan Pata murder trial. Friends and former teammates took the stand, detailing a history of tension between the slain University of Miami football player and the suspect, his former teammate Rashaun Jones.

Jeanette Pata cried out shortly after her son Bryan’s personal items were shown as evidence and more 911 calls were played. The testimony was so distressing that she was escorted from the courtroom.

Bruce Johnson, formerly of the New York Giants, reluctantly testified. He said he called Jones on the night of Nov. 7, 2006, shortly after Pata’s murder, as news of the tragedy began to spread.

Johnson testified that he told Jones, “Pata’s been shot; they want everyone to come up to the Hecht Center.”

Coaches called an urgent team meeting at the UM campus athletic center, but Jones never showed. When prosecutor Cristina Diamond asked if Jones ever said he wasn’t coming, Johnson replied, “No, he never said anything.”

As the meeting went on, former Canes baseball player Michael Sanders testified that he was watching the news. He told jurors he got a call from Jones.

When asked why Jones called him, Sanders said, “Not fully sure; he just asked me for money.”

Sanders testified that Jones did not say why he needed the money, and Sanders did not agree to provide it.

Sanders admitted he was surprised to get the call. When Diamond asked if he thought the timing was odd, Sanders replied, “I just knew the football players were in a meeting.”

Something about the call made him rush to campus.

Sanders testified it was “just to let coaches know that I received that phone call.”

He told the prosecutor he spoke to then-head coach Larry Coker and informed him about the call.

Former Canes Dave Howell and Eric Moncur testified about a fight between Jones and Pata at a dorm two years before the murder.

What started as an argument turned into a physical fight and what they saw as a threat.

Howell testified that Jones said, “You might as well call your Zoes and clip up.”

When asked if Pata took that as a threat, Howell said, “Yes.”

He clarified to the prosecutor that “clip up” meant to “get your guns.”

Howell also said Jones once pulled a gun on him after a bout of horseplay.

“I had never had anyone pull a gun on me before,” Howell said.

Another former football player, Kareem Brown, testified that Jones once made a comment to him about owning a .38, the same type of gun that prosecutors say was used to kill Pata.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.

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