Transcript of Murder at The U: An Execution

This is Jeffrey Roberts here with another episode of murder@theu from our colleagues at ESPN and 30430 Podcasts. Remember, you can get new episodes early if you follow 30430 Podcasts on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app. Now, here's the next episode of murder at the U.

Previously on murder at the U.

I just remember the feeling of this kid is so happy with his life. He knows that the best is yet to come.

Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down yesterday at the age of 22.

For the weeks and months after the shooting, police really tight-lipped tight-lipped, not telling you much?

Not telling me until this goddamn day, tight-lipped.

How ultimately do you guys think this case is going to get solved?

By somebody coming forward and having first-hand knowledge of whoever the perpetrator is.

November seventh, 2006, was a midterm election night in Miami. Willard, thank you very much.

We have much more coming up on South Florida tonight. We'll have a live report from Washington with the latest information on the key US House and Senate risks.

At the State Attorney's office, prosecutor Herbert Irving-Walker III was finishing up his day when his pager started to beep.

The call was like, Hey, you got this homicide scene you need to go to on more complicated cases and high-profile cases. The prosecution will work alongside law enforcement, which is what we did in this case.

So instead of heading home, Walker drove 14 miles south from the prosecutor's office, downtown to the crime scene. He pulled into the parking lot of a complex called the Colony Apartments. Already, a crowd of onlookers had gathered.

It was a pretty wild scene because they had television cameras already there. So when I pulled up, the area was roped off and police cars everywhere, lights flashing. And so I had to pull my little Corvette under the police tape.

Walker got out of his car. Officers and crime scene techs from the Miami Dade Police Department buzzed around him.

Looking for fingerprints, photographing the scene, preserving evidence, trying to rope off the area to make sure that the scene isn't contaminated. And then I was escorted by one of the uniform officers to the location of the crime scene where the body was laying on the sidewalk outside the apartments. And he was found face down so that it would appear that he may never have even seen the person coming.

Like most everybody in Miami, Walker was a fan of the Miami hurricanes. When the detective on the case told him who the victim was, Walker recognize the name immediately, Brian Pata. That led him to some conclusions about what might have happened.

Now, Brian was a defensive lineman, so he's a big, strong guy. So he would be able to handle himself physically with any guy and be any couple of guys. But we didn't have a sign of a struggle. He didn't have clothes torn. He didn't have the shrubbery near the sidewalk disturbed. So it seemed based upon the scene that we observed that the person approached him from behind and basically put him down.

Walker and the police worked the crime scene carefully. They stayed there all night.

Typically, going out to a crime scene on homicide duty, you're there, you look at the scene, you approve a search warrant, you might be there for an hour and a half, two hours, and you're gone. I was there for 12 or 13 hours until the sunrise, and we were trying to uncover every stone.

One reason law enforcement was being so careful in Brian's case, they knew they were being watched. Authorities aren't saying much about this murder investigation and if they're searching for any suspects.

If they have a suspect in mind or an idea of a motive, they are not saying.

When the media is there and the lights and the cameras, people tend to put on their best face and put forth the best effort. Like I said, I've done a number of high-profile cases. I've done cases on court, television and of that nature. But this with a young, up-and-coming football player, that's just explosive.

All through the night, the police canvas the colony apartments, knocking on every door. But they turned up no eyewitness. There was no security camera footage. There was no obvious trace of the killer other than the bullet that had pierced Brian's skull. How did this NFL bound player on one of college football's biggest teams end up dead that night in Miami? Starting in 2017, more than a decade after the murder, we began digging into Brian's life to try to find an answer to that question. What we found was a team that was on edge even before one of its players was killed. I'm Paula Levine. From 30 for 30 podcast, this is: murder at the U, episode 2, an Execution.

247, und ohne Beamtendeutsch. Das ist einfach die App, die uns versteht. Steuern erledigt? Safe. Mit WISO Steuer. Jetzt kostenlos ausprobieren. Unsere Empfehlung für deinen Podcast: Frisches Obst und knackiges Gemüse von Aldi. Immer gut, immer günstig, immer vielfältig. Kurz gesagt: Frische für alle. Zum Aldi-Preis. Diese Woche Zitron. 750 Gramm für nur 1,49 Euro. Oder helle, kernlose Tafeltrauben. 500 Gramm auch für nur 1,49 Euro. Entdecke jetzt viele weitere Angebote in deiner Aldi Nord-Filiale und weiter Whenever I began reporting on a crime, I start by looking at the immediate context.

There are often clues in the backstory. In this case, the major storyline at Miami before Brian's murder was about the team's low morale. It turns out Brian's death came in the middle of a precarious time for the U.

Coach Larry Coker says he will discourage his players against owning guns after a shooting incident involving two of his players last week.

One morning that summer, before the 2006 season even got started, a different University of Miami football player was shot outside his home.

Reserve Safety, Willie Cooper was shot and slightly wounded outside his off-campus apartment by a gunman hiding in the bushes. He was very fortunate because one of his teammates, another scholar athlete, Hurricane player, Brandon Mareyweather, happened to be packing, and he returned fire with his semi-automatic.

No one was killed, and Willie wasn't seriously injured. Police determined that it had been an attempted robbery and that Brandon Mareyweather was justified in returning fire. But the details of that morning were quickly overshadowed.

The Miami police said it was a lawful shooting, and Coach Coker will be talking about the incident when his players began practice for the fall football season.

Overshadowed by the fact that players seemed to be walking around with loaded guns. The reaction from the press was judgmental. One local columnist wrote, remember when saying a team was loaded meant talent? This looked bad for head coach Larry Coker, so he decided to institute a new rule, no guns. But there was one problem. It was a pretty difficult rule to enforce, as producer Dan Aruja discovered.

What can you tell me, if anything, the gun culture with the team?

Oh, everybody had them.

Dan, who did you talk to to find out about how that ban was received and why the Huracan players were carrying guns in the first place.

Believe it or not, the person who gave us the most honest assessment of that team's no-gun culture was Steve Caldwell, who was one of the team chaplains. Caldwell grew up in Chicago and came to Miami on a baseball scholarship in the '80s. Still very much carried himself as an athlete when I met him. He was a younger guy, and he also carried guns. We carried him from protection because you just never know when you're needed. What percentage of those guys? Do you think on an everyday occasion, we're walking around strapped?

Oh, man.

We have 88 players on the team, about a third.

So did the players back that up? I mean, are the ones you talked to, did any of them explain why they carried?

I think Tavares Gooden, who was a former linebacker and grew up in Fort Lauderdale, which is about 30 minutes north of Miami, he summed it up the best.

We're like Batman. The reason why we have weapons is because the bad guy to have weapons. You know what I'm saying? We had them because everybody else had them, and we lived in a scary time, lived in a scary place.

So what did you find out about Brian and guns?

So I'd heard from several sources that Brian owned guns. It was part of the culture. It seemed like everyone had them. I was told that he liked going to the shooting range every once in a while. It was just a way for him to let off some steam. Eventually, I talked to Manny Navarro, who was covering the team, and was doing this story on Brian so they could shoot this version of Cribs. On their way to Brian's apartment, Brian mentioned to Manny that he needed to hide his guns.

I got to hide my guns, man. You're a cunt? Yeah. I like guns, too. Yeah, man. You collect them? You got licenses for them, right? Yeah, I got a license. I got a gun license. Yeah, man, that's strict, then. You know what?

Brian was giving Manny a tour of the house, and during the tour, Manny mentioned seeing an AK-47 in one of Brian's closets. But it wasn't until we got the actual police report that detailed what police found the night of the murder, that Brian had a shotgun and an AK-47 in a closet, and he had a handgun on his night table. These are not just your weekend, go to the range, gun collection. These are serious, heavy-duty guns.

Okay, but there were some things that you got from other interviews that may have given you an indication that there were other reasons he might have been armed like that.

According to Brian's siblings, he had been confiding in them about not sleeping well, something chasing him in his nightmares, fighting things in his sleep. He told Edric once that his girlfriend, Jada, found him sleeping in the closet, and that's where he kept his guns.

What was Manny's reaction to seeing Brian's guns?

I think he was shocked to have found an AK-47 in Brian's closet. That's not a gun that you come across very often. It also showed Manny that head coach Larry Coker was no longer being listened to by his own team. There's supposed to be a no-gun tolerance on this team.

I remember seeing the AK-47 rifle that Brian had in the closet and saying to myself, himself.

This is it. This shows you here that they do not care what Larry says.

Brian's guns proved that Larry Coker could make all the rules he wanted, but Brian and the other players would not give up their guns. And under Florida law, they didn't have to. It was one of many losing battles that Coach Coker would face that year. Another was the team's performance on the field. He'd run up a great record in his first three years as head coach. Thirty-five wins, a national championship, only three losses. Miami went nine and three in the 2004 and 2005 seasons, and that's okay for most college football programs, but not Miami. There was chatter that Coker might not last much longer if he couldn't turn things around. Then, as the 2006 season got going, the Hurricanes lost two out of their first three games.

Everything was fucked up, man.

Randy Phillips, who played defensive back, remembered how the team's vibe changed early in the season.

When you're losing, that shit ain't going good. Everybody going to be stepping on each other's toes. Everybody has tight walking around, so everybody on edge. Out of the backfield, James Bryant into the end zone for a On October 14, 2006, the University of Miami was playing a home game against another suffering Miami team, the winless Florida International Panthers.

Then in the third quarter-John Petty's extra point is up and another Mele on the field. A huge fight broke out. Players wrest each other to the ground, punching, kicking, and stomping, while the crowd cheered wildly.

This one is getting out of hand. Flags all over the place, and this is ugly, very ugly.

For Hurricanes fans, this brawl with FIU was a show of force. Former University of Miami player Lamar Thomas was calling the game for a regional broadcaster. That's what I'm talking about.

You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don't come in the OV playing that stuff. You're across the ocean over there. You're across the city. You can't come over to our place talking noise like that. You get your butt deep.

Documentarian and Hurricane's superfan, Billy Corbin, was also watching that night. I thought it was great. Certainly, Lamar Thomas thought it was great.

I think from inside Miami, people were excited to see that swagger back because I think that people were bummed that the team didn't seem to be playing with the fire that it used to have.

Everywhere else, it was a real symbol of how far this team had fallen.

The problem for me is this notion of the word swagger, which you hear at the U more than other places. And what swagger connotes to some people is something akin to violence.

Oh, UM is back to its thug days.

It's a thug thinking. It's a street mentality. It's a gang mentality. That was like a gang fight.

It really did say all the things about the program that we didn't want to be said at the time.

They've been spending He's been spending 25 years at Miami trying to clean things up, and they've had some success, but right now they have hit rock bottom at Miami. Helmets swinging, Lamar Thomas up in the booth cheering on his guys, players kicking their feet at people. That was absolutely hideous. You know what?

It might It might not be fair, but for all of those who are saying that Larry Coker doesn't have control at Miami, this is fuel for their fire, even if it's not fair. Combined, the two teams had 31 players suspended for taking part in the brawl. Brian wasn't one of them, but he was part of the fight. In a video from the game, you can see Brian kicking another player's head. After Brian was killed, some players wondered whether his death might have been payback for that fight.

People kill you by anything. People get pissed enough from a fight that they'll come back and kill you.

Four years removed from being one of the best teams in college football, there was a sense that the U was in freefall. But according to former Miami Hérald reporter Manny Navarro, the team's defense was still a bright spot.

The only success that they had was defensively, and Brian was still a part of very, very good defense.

When you look at this Miami defense, and you know they're a number seven in defense in the NCAA game. They get to the ball in a hurry.

This was a really strong season for Brian. He as a senior, months away from finishing school, and on track for the draft, which is why it was so surprising when his brother, Edric, said Brian wasn't happy at the U.

I got two more games left, man. That's why I hate this school. I want to get out of this school. Those were those words he said, I just want to get out of that school. I don't like that school.

Before the season started, Brian had gotten some news that turned his senior year upside down. Throughout his first three years with the Hurricanes, Brian was a defensive end. It's the glamor position of the defensive line, the guys who rush the quarterback pile up the sacks. He'd been doing it since high school and was good at it. This was also the position he hoped to play in the NFL. But going into his senior season, the team's coaching staff told Brian they were changing his position to defensive tackle.

So I called Brian over because we were so close, and he came over to see me that morning.

Clint Hurt is a defensive line coach in the fell. At the time, he was in his first year as Miami's defensive line coach. Hurt was young. He'd graduated from UM just a few years earlier. He remembers calling Brian into his office to tell him the news.

And I said, This is something that you to do.

To the untrained eye, this might not seem like a big change. All Brian was doing was moving a foot or two closer to the inside of the defensive line. But this was devastating news to Brian. He'd need to retrain, learn a whole new position, just as he was getting ready to go to the NFL. Sitting in his office that morning, Coach Hurt tried to explain how this move was going to help the team.

The best thing for our team and for the defensive line unit was to have our best four the Azlma field was for him to play defensive tackle.

Brian's close friend, Dwyane Hendrix, said Brian worried that changing positions would tank his NFL dreams.

So he looked at it as a way that Miami was trying to He stopped his money from coming in and taking care of his family and what he wanted to do, his goals in essence. But he was a whole lot of cussing. He was ticked off. I would say that. He was highly upset. He was pissed. He was crying in my office. He was like, Coach, this ain't right. I shouldn't have to move.

Brian stormed out of Coach Hurt's office. A bit later, Hurt texted him to come back so they could have lunch together.

So he comes back in the office with a public sandwich, and he starts eating in front of me, just has stuff all over my desk, and he's not saying anything. I said, Really? I said, This is how this meeting is going to go? So he's like, Coach, I'm going to get us a shot for you. And I said, Don't do it for me. I said, Let's do it for yourself and let's do it for your team. And I said, I need you to have total buy-in. And I said, There's going to be days where you're going to have rough days where you're going to be pissed and not like it. I need you to stay fighting and get refocused. I'm going to help you with that. And he said, Coach, I'm going to do it. I said, All right. So We papped it up, we dapped it up. We hugged it out, told him I was proud of him.

Draft analyst Todd McShea remembers Brian's NFL prospects rising after the position change.

I remember thinking in my mind at the time and writing it that he had gone from a fifth, sixth, seventh round or somewhere in that late range to potentially a third round pick, what today would be called a day 2 pick, which is a massive difference. A hit from behind and catching his own fumble, Brian Patty knocks down Brian Bryant.

Manny Navarro, the Miami Harold writer, had watched Brian play since he was a star at Central High. He'd followed Brian's career on the Hurricanes, and he had sense of what might be coming next after his senior year.

Your best guess, what would have happened to Brian if he had finished that season out? He would have been a second or third-round pick. I thought he had the NFL body and the personality to play the position for a long time. I think he'd be on TV once he retired.

It's not hard to imagine Brian being on TV after his playing days ended. He was funny, charming, and he had that infectious smile male.

You'd hear about Brian Pata being involved in his community.

You'd hear about Brian Pata being more than a football player.

But all of that promise was about to be cut short. Good morning. Happy election day to you. 77 degrees at 6: 45, and some breaks of sunshine. On the morning of November seventh, Brian Pata got up early to go to workouts with the team. After workouts, he caught up with his teammate and friend, Eric Moncourt.

I heard Brian call me, Eday. I turned around and he said, What you're about to do? I was like, Man, I'm about to register for my classes. He was like, Well, me too. Let's go.

Eric hopped in Brian's SUV, and they headed over to the registrar's office.

We made the lady laugh in there. We was in there talking to her for a couple of minutes.

Then they got something to eat and killed time for a few hours before class.

I walked in class, and I walked right back out, and he did the same thing at his class. We was like, All right, man, let's just go to the locker room. Just hang out and wait for practice.

It was Coach Hertz' 28th birthday that day. True to form, Brian planned to prank him after their practice was over.

He was like, Hey, you know it's Coach Hertz' birthday? I was like, Oh, yeah. Okay. He was like, Yeah, let's get him. Let's get him. We had a really great practice that day.

Here's Coach Hurt.

And I remember I caught Brian looking at me when the team was called up to break the huddle. And obviously, practice was going to be over with, and I caught his eye, and I was like, Oh, he's up to something. So as soon as it broke, I took off and run. So I take off hauling ass to get out of there. I'll almost make it back to the building, and Brian catches me by the back of my shirt. So he wraps me up. And then the other guys, the other guys on the D-line, get on me, and they start messing with me, giving me like, rips out to whatever, saying, Happy birthday, Coach, whatever. And then Brian comes over with this huge Gatorade bucket full of ice, ice cold water, straight ice water. He dumps it on my head. And I mean, I felt like my heart stopped. That damn thing was so cold. And after he dumped it on me, he bear hugged me. And he said, Coach, man, I appreciate you and I love you. And I said, I love you too, bro. I said, I'm proud of you and everything you're doing.

Practice ended that day at 5: 15. In the locker room, Brian took some time to hit up one of his freshman teammates, Josh Holmes.

When I went to the shower, he was in there. And this normal shower, just shooting the shit a little bit, whatnot, just talking. But then after when we came out, he really started talking to me just about being a good person, being a good man, and making good choices in life, and not to be caught up in all this silly stuff that college is going to bring. It was like if my older brother was talking to me about something and trying to teach me a lesson or just rubbed some knowledge on me.

After showering, the team got together for their weekly meal. They ordered from Eat at Bessies, a local pizza and barbecue place. Teammate John Beeson remembers that dinner.

It was All of us sitting around the locker room, whatnot, just grubbing, talking about whatever, laughing. The last thing I remember when I saw him, we were all laughing about how we couldn't mess with Coach hurt. The biggest smile on his face, happy. There was nothing that you would say that Brian was disturbed or different. He was the usual Brian Paddo.

Brian left the Hecht Athletic Center after that meal around 6: 20 PM. He got back into his black Infinity SUV and started heading home. As he was leaving the facility, he saw a few freshman teammates waiting at a bus stop. Josh Holmes was one of them.

And he pulls up and he laughed. He's like, So let me guess, you guys want a ride? And I was like, Yeah, man, you offer it, we'll take it. So he's like, Oh, yeah, hop in. I got you. And we just hopped in the car. It was just what college athletes talk about. We're talking about music bumping in there, talking about practice, talking about the day of the life on campus. And I remember him dropping us off, and we're all giving each other a dap, getting out the car. And I just remember him saying, All right, you all boys, take it easy. We'll see you tomorrow.

The The freshman dorm was in the opposite direction from Brian's apartment. So after dropping them off, he turned around. His drive took him back past the university's athletic fields and through the ritzy residential streets of Coral Gables. Then he got on US One, a six-lane artery that would have been jammed with traffic at that hour. He called his brother Fednal on the way home.

And I said, Okay, I'm going to see you Saturday. He was home. He said, I made it. I'm going to talk to you later. I usually sign off was like, Yeah, Yeah, and kick off.

Sometime after Brian hung up with Fednal, he pulled into the dark, unlit parking lot of the colony. But he never made it up the stairs to his apartment. In the year Years after Brian's murder, detectives with the Miami Dade Police Department assembled a report on their investigation with summaries of the hundreds of interviews they conducted. It would take us several years of trying to get this report. But when we finally did, We read about what happened that night from two points of view. One perspective came from Brian's girlfriend, Jada Brody. Jada lived with Brian and his teammate, Duane Hendrix. According to what she told detectives, Jada was in the apartment cleaning out her dog's kennel. She told police that she heard Brian talking to someone outside and went to see what was going on. She saw Brian lying on the ground. At first, she thought he was playing a prank. Then she saw blood around his head. Jada said she ran back upstairs to call 911. County, 3, 5, 1, 2, 3.

.

The second perspective came from Brian's close friend and roommate, Dwayne Hendrix.

He had left the Hex Center at the same time Brian did. But Dwayne stopped for gas on the way, so he pulled into the parking lot just a few minutes after Brian. And I arrived, and I seen him on the floor.

And first thought, because I said earlier, he played so much, I thought he was just joking. I was like, All right, man. I remember saying, It ain't funny. Why are you laying it on the ground for? And I was like, How do I get up? Or something like that. And as I walked over, saying, Get up, I noticed that there was a puddle of blood behind his head, and I was just like, At that point, After that, that's where I literally pitch. I don't remember calling anyone. And obviously, I think either my wife now, my girlfriend at the time, told me that it was recorded and it was broadcast, that the conversation I had when I was calling the ambulance or something like that.

The 911 call?

Yeah, the 911 call.

Dwyane saw Jada come down the stairs talking on the phone with the dispatcher, but the call dropped. So Dwyane dialed 911 from his cell. You can hear Jada's voice in the background of his call. Navidad Police on fire. Where did the emergency? Hello. Yeah. Hello.

Hello. Hello. What address? 9315, 5 West 17th Avenue. What happened there? Somebody got shot. The guy's on the ground. I don't know where he's bleeding from, but he's on the ground, man.

Okay. And if you just start with me and go like, Did you see what happened?

No, I did not see what happened. Nobody see what happened, man.

You don't know where he shot?

Okay. You don't know where he shot? Okay. Hanging up with 911. I called his mom, and I'm on the phone. I think I'm saying, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. It was nothing I could do. I think the hardest thing I'll ever have to do in my life was to call his mom and tell her that her son was dead. That was the hardest thing I had to do my life.

Duane continued calling everyone who could think of who knew Brian, family, teammates, and coaches, including Coach Hurt, who was on his way home to celebrate his birthday.

My phone rang while I was in the car, and it was Dwyane Hendrix. And Dwyane was just hysterical, just bawling, crying. And he said, Coach, they killed him. I said, Who was it? What are you talking about, Dwayne? He said, Coach, they killed him. They shot Pat. Somebody shot Pat. I'm like, I just... I got froze. I remember I was on 826 Expressway, and my heart just stopped. I'm like, What are you talking about? I couldn't believe it. It was surreal. So I flipped around. I made a U-turn because I knew where Brian lived to go back to his place.

Brian's teammates started arriving soon after the police. Eric Moncourt had been on his way to a study group in the library when he got a call from a friend whose dad was a cop. As soon as he heard the news, Eric and another friend raced over to Brian's apartment.

We hop out of the car and we're walking towards where we see the police lights and stuff like that. And then they got the yellow tape. And then as we were walking up, I saw the tarp covering his body. I just lost it.

Brian's mom, Jeanette, called her daughter, Ronette, who was busy giving her twins a bath.

The phone just kept ringing, ringing, ringing. So I put the water, I got the girls, and I went and got the phone. I said, Hello. And it was my mom. And she's crying hysterically, saying, You're not here? Brian is dead. I just paused, dropped the phone, and started screaming, and my daughters started screaming because they didn't know what was going on. They were only two years old. And if I could tell you, I just went, No. I felt like the world had just... Like, everything stopped.

By the time Brian's sister Nelly arrived, the police had taped off the scene to keep the crowd out.

Oh, man. When I got there, and I don't know how those people got there before us, but it was a lot of people, a lot of people out there, a big commotion, and I was confused. I wanted to see my brother and look, and I just saw the yellow thing on me, but they didn't want me to go back there.

Ronette arrived with their mom, Janette.

I remember her jumping out of the car, running to the crime scene. She's screaming. And I just stood there. Just tears. I remember it so clearly. I'm like, My brother's really gone. My brother's gone.

The news crews were already there. One of them caught Jeanette on camera. Get me my bitch. Get me my baby. Get me my baby.

I got out of my car, and I was walking up the street, and I could hear the screams of his... It was his mother and his sister, Nelly. And it just... I can't ever get the voice. I can't get the sounds and the feeling out of my heart, the sounds of that evening. They still stay with me. And since that day, that day has never been the same since that happened. Oh, my son. My son, very good son. Never have a problem with nobody. You know? What? God, it's gone. It's gone. When prosecutor Herbert Walker arrived on the scene, the police were already operating under the glare of TV cameras.

He didn't want any slip-ups that might jeopardize the case. So even before the police searched Brian's house and car, Walker wanted to get a search warrant.

Just to air on the side of caution, I had to suggest to the lead detective that before we start searching the house and searching a car and uncovering all this stuff that might wind up being useful in a criminal prosecution.

Walker and the police wanted to search Brian's things carefully in case there was any evidence that might lead them to the killer. But the most important evidence on the scene that night was Brian's body. Walker remembers looking at the body with the medical examiner, Dr. Emalou. They could see that Brian had been shot in the side of the head.

So it appeared, based upon the nature of the womb, that this was a close-range fire shot that killed him rather than one far away, which then, again, gives you a clue. Did the guy sneak up on him? And that's the way it looked like.

If the killer planned to ambush Brian, that meant he or she probably knew about his practice schedule and when to expect him.

That was the final conclusion that we had drawn, that the guy knew enough about his schedule to know that U-Event football practices in the fall would get out at this time, and it appeared that he may have been waiting for Of course, what wasn't clear was why this happened.

Walker and the detective scoured the crime scene for any evidence of motive.

If it was a robbery, then they would have taken the watch. He had a bunch of money, they would have taken that. And none of those things were disturbed.

According to the medical examiner's report, police found nine $100 bills in Brian's wallet.

It seemed more along the lines of some a gangland-style assassination, if you will. That was another angle that we wanted to look at. Is there a gang involvement here? Is somebody in a gang trying to make a name for themselves by targeting a celebrity?

That was just one of the theories police began considering that night as they continued to look for clues, like a bullet casing.

And so you would expect to find per shot a case, but we didn't find any cases. And I remember us looking. I remember looking myself, standing there with the detection of flashlights, looking around near the car and near the sidewalk. It could be that one, the casing is so small and innocuous that it just didn't get found.

Or the shooter policed up the casing.

There you go. That's the next thing. If this is an assassination where you have a premeditated plan to kill and you're going to sneak up behind the person very carefully, it'll be very easy. Once you fire one round to hear where the case hits because it's ejected out, it was presumed that's probably a nine millimeter, and the guy probably grabbed the case, which means this might be some type of a hit, and there's more to this than meets the eye.

Who could have wanted a rising football star with a promising future dead? Detectives began asking questions that night, asking Brian's family and teammates if he had any enemies, if he'd been in any fights, if he was worried for his safety. It turns out the answer to all of those questions was yes. As we investigated Brian's murder 11 years later, one thing started to become clear. Any one of those enemies could have wanted Brian dead, and any one of them might have been on the other end of a heated phone call he'd had the day he died.

An hour before he died, he was on a phone arguing with somebody, and what he was saying was, Well, come Come and get it then. Come and get it then. You know where he could find me? So he was upset.

That's next time on murder@theu. Murder@theu is based on reporting by me, Paula Levine and Dan Aruda, with support from Scott Frankl, Elizabeth Merrill, and ESPN's investigative unit. Our senior producer is Matt Frassica. Our senior editorial producer is Priti Varathon. Our associate producers are Megan Coyle and Gus Navarro. Story editing by Adiza Egan. Additional editing by Ben Webber and Mike Drago. Our Archival producer is Matthew Fisher. Our Line producer is Cath Sankey. Production managers are Jason Schwartz and Sheena Williams. Fact Checking by David Sabino. Original Music and Sound Design by Ryan Ross-Smith. Chris Buckel is Vice President of ESPN Investigative, enterprise, and Digital Journalism. Marsha Cooke, Brian Lockhart, Heather Anderson, and Berk Magnus are executive producers for 30 for 30.