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; Miami-Dade Detective Juan Segovia; and two of the victim’s brothers Edwin Pata and Edwin Pierre Pata.
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 started arguing with him and then they started fighting and then I separated them,” Moncur 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.
Pierre Pata and Edwin Pata said their brother told them Jones had threatened to shoot him.
“I could burn you in the head,” Jones told Bryan Pata months before the murder, according to Edwin Pata’s testimony about what Pata told him.
Pierre Pata said his brother was a prospect for the 2007 NFL draft, so he had already purchased a suit in preparation for the day.
Through tears, Pierre Pata said his brother told him the month before the murder that Jones had threatened to shoot him in his NFL draft suit.
“We were not worried about that because that was just talk,” Pierre Pata told the defense about why he didn’t report it at first, adding that later he learned it was “deeper” than that.
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, and there was a hearing on pre-trial motions at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
County inmate records show corrections is holding Jones at the Metrowest Detention Center.
Videos of the testimony
Edwin Pata testifies
Dave Howell testifies
Eric Moncur testifies
Edwin Pierre Pata testifies
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