MIAMI — A key witness took the stand Monday in the murder trial of Rashaun Jones, the 40-year-old former University of Miami football player accused of killing teammate Bryan Pata nearly two decades ago.

A former UM professor detailed what he heard and saw the night Pata, 22, was shot and killed.

Jurors also heard from Jones’ ex-girlfriend, Sherry Abramson, who said she was trying to call him repeatedly on the night of the Nov. 7, 2006 murder because she was worried about him.

Abramson said she struggled to get hold of Jones, then 21, by phone. When asked how many times she called, she said, “I don’t know; obsessively, I’m sure.”

“I was calling him like a psycho,” she testified.

Former UM professor Paul Conner also took the stand.

He said he heard a loud sound the night of Pata’s murder and saw Jones running from the scene at The Colony at Dadeland Apartments at 9355 SW 77th Ave., in the Kendall area.

“My first thought was it may have been a cherry bomb,” he testified.

Conner said he came face-to-face with Jones at around 7 p.m. that night as he walked home from the Metrorail station.

He said he learned of Pata’s murder after arriving at work the next morning, putting the man he saw the night before into a new context. Conner described the man he saw to a sketch artist.

In 2007, police came to him with photo lineups and, with what he described as 90% certainty, selected Jones as the man he saw.

Conner, 81, was once believed to be dead by investigators, but was found alive in Kentucky last summer by an ESPN reporter. When police paid him a visit, they found the former academic in declining mental health.

Jurors were told they would only watch a 2022 recording of Conner’s testimony, but were not given a reason why.

Conner’s testimony is crucial to this case. He is the only eyewitness who puts Jones at the scene of the crime on that fateful night.

Testimony continued into Monday evening with the trial scheduled to continue on Tuesday.

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