Transcript of The After Show: Murder at the U

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Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang. From 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everybody, and welcome to 20/20: The After Show. I'm Deborah Roberts, and I'm so glad you're with us. Today we are taking, as we always do, a closer look at one of our 20/20 episodes, the most recent one. And if you saw it, ooh, you remember it. And if you didn't, we're gonna give you all the details right now. It's called Murder at the U, and And it's the heartbreaking story of a young man who really was the epitome of the American dream. Bryan Pata was the son of a single mom from Haiti. He had 8 siblings. I know what that's like to be from a large family. In fact, it's kind of interesting. This one grabbed my eye because I'm from a family of 9 kids. Bryan was the kind of kid that many had described as kind and humble, a young man, a strong young man with a really soft heart. He was also a shining star, a football player at the University of Miami, and he appeared to be on his way to a pro career, a top-tier prospect for the 2007 NFL Draft.

And just months before that could happen, his life was tragically cut short on November 7th, 2006. Brian was found shot to death next to his parked car. And of course, the big question is, who would want to take the life of this young, promising 22-year-old guy? Well, that was the question that lingered for quite a while in the weeks and days and months afterwards. No arrest in this case, and this went on for more than a decade. The case was essentially growing cold, and then finally a former teammate of his was arrested and charged in the murder. Finally, in February, the case went to court, and just last week, a bombshell in the courtroom. We're going to take you through all of these twists and turns, but First of all, this is a case that may have never even made it to court if it had not been for an intrepid investigative team at ESPN. So joining us now is one of those reporters, Paula Levine, who is host of the 30 for 30 podcast Murder at the U. And here with me in the studio is 20/20 producer Mike Schultz, who helped bring this story to 20/20.

So welcome to you both, Mike. Thank you. Good to have you. And Paula, good to have you here.

Thank you.

Mike, let me just ask you, first of all, you brought this story to 20/20. You had heard about it and you saw what I think must have been something that grabbed your attention, which was this photo of the football players right after Bryan Pata's death. All of them gathered around an image of his praying before a game. What was it about this story that caught your eye right away?

So there's an image at the first home game following Bryan Pata's death where The players on the team are gathered at midfield after the game, praying over a vigil of Bryan. And in the photo is kneeling is the man who was ultimately arrested and charged with his murder. And I found that one of his teammates, one of his teammates, Rashawn Jones. And I found that to be such a striking image. And as I started digging into the case a bit more and learning more about the investigation and about the ESPN legwork that was done after the fact,. I thought it would make a really, really compelling show to kind of dig into all these ins and outs of the case.

Interestingly, ESPN had already been digging into this story. Paula, the case landed in your lap in about 2018. Talk about how it landed in your lap and what you thought of it in the very beginning.

Sure. Well, actually, even the year before in 2017, something happened that has never happened to us before, which is the Miami-Dade Police Department reached out to ESPN to ask us if maybe we would do something on Brian Pata and maybe like a College GameDay special or something. And at that time, they communicated that, you know, maybe some national media attention would bring someone forward with some information. And as it wasn't really a fit for, for that sort of thing, but as producers looked at it and then other journalists, including, you know, I got brought into it, we were like, this is actually something we want to dig into. And one of the things that really turned us on to this was a press conference in 2017 where the Pata family came to sort of make this plea for people to come forward. And Brian Pata's mom, Jeanette, just started— just kind of went off script and was very angry at the police department, saying that they weren't working the case. And we really keyed into that frustration and wanted to take a look at, well, why haven't they made progress on this case? What have they been doing?

And that led us on a search for records and interviews. And it took us in a direction that we never, never anticipated.

You would be going down. And I think it's interesting that they didn't necessarily ask you to help them solve the case. They just wanted you to help shine a light on the case, thinking that would help. Well, before we get to all of those little details of what you noticed and how they wound up toward a suspect, Mike, you sat down with Bryan's siblings. At least a few of them. And they obviously were so shattered by the loss of him. But they talked about growing up in this particular area. They were Haitian, grew up in Little Haiti. And, you know, for them, I mean, sports was kind of a salvation. They shared with you that that was a big deal in their lives, kind of an opportunity if they were to go to college. Talk a little bit about, if you would, that community and what that was like where they grew up.

Sure. So the family actually moved around quite a bit. The mother, Jeanette, would move her family on a whim depending on how safe or unsafe she thought the neighborhoods were where they were living. So they were rather transient. So sports were a way for the kids to fit in in new neighborhoods that they were living, and also for a way for them to go to college because they otherwise would have never been able to afford it. Sports got them off the street. They would have otherwise been prone to the unsafe areas in which they were living and the unsavory characters surrounding them if they hadn't been able to do that.

We've heard that story so much in pro sports too, where the mom drove the kids to do this just to kind of keep them busy and keep them off the streets. And in this case, she's a single mom. You know, when we heard them talking about the dreams, the big dreams that he had, that they had for him and his family, he had hoped to buy his mom a house. Instead though, they wound up burying him in the suit that he had hoped to be drafted in. I mean, it had to be, you know, just a real emotional time for you talking to them. Heartbreaking.

This is probably the hardest part of the job that we do is talking to people whose loved ones have been killed.

Yeah. Paula, you had a chance to know about this family too. But also the idea that for Bryan, you know, the University of Miami, I mean, this was a storied football team. I mean, we all had heard about it over the years and they were known to be tough. In fact, that culture was pretty tough, right? I mean, somebody said they were kind of called the bad boys of football. So what was that culture like that he was stepping into?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, at the time, you know, in those early 2000s coming off multiple national championships, The Miami Hurricanes were at the top of the world. I mean, they, and they, and they had this swagger too. That's what they were known for. They were just known for their swagger, for their sort of trash talking. I mean, and they could prove it. I mean, they, you know, they, they had during that time, I mean, they sent so many players to the NFL and Brian was looking at that, at those teams and saying, you know, I, I wanna be a part of that. And he had offers other places, but It was, it was the perfect opportunity for him. I mean, he could go to this team that was, you know, on the top of the world and, and he could stay home and, and be close to his mom. And, you know, and he really fit into that, that attitude too. I mean, he was really into going to the nightclubs. He was, you know, liked to work on cars. I mean, he had all these outside interests and really fit into that culture of, of those players and sort of the wild times, all the, the money floating around them.

There were high times there in, in Miami and, and it was, It was the place to be. I mean, it was quite an experience for a football player, for a young man coming into college.

But then you talked about how his family actually, in the times, in the weeks leading up to his murder, they noticed a little distance. They noticed that he was a little bit different. What was going on for him?

Yeah, absolutely. He made some comments about being a little frightened, a little paranoid. He was telling people he was, you know, getting threats. One of the most notable things was, I mean, he had guns and he slept in his closet with his AK-47. I mean, he didn't think that was— that was some of the extreme behavior that they were noticing. He covered up— he had a personalized license plate, said Pata, and he put, you know, covered it up with like black tape or just things like that leading in the weeks leading up to his death, people really noticed he was, he was doing some things that really indicated that he had some suspicion or some fear that— and even nightmares, you know, he was telling his brother about that someone was after him.

The big question is why, and we're going to take a look into that. But first, we have to take a break, and when we come back, we're going to talk about the explosive twists and turns in this case. So don't go anywhere.

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Mit WISO Steuer. Jetzt kostenlos ausprobieren. Episode, Murder at the U, which centered around the just unbelievable killing of a 22-year-old college football star by the name of Bryan Pata. And Paula, I want to go back to that night that Bryan was murdered because it was really telling in a way, the way he was found. He was getting out of his car outside his apartment complex. This is November 7th, 2006. And he was found face down in a pool of blood. And right away, that was sort of telling the way he was discovered, wasn't it?

Well, I think when investigators took a look at it, they felt like the way that he was found was that it looked like he had been ambushed. And there were some other things they noticed there too, that there was a, you know, his wallet was still there. He had, you know, $900 in his wallet. You know, his vehicle was still there.

Like, so it wasn't a robbery.

Yeah. The thought that maybe this was a robbery was like, okay, that's not what happened. And it seemed they deduced pretty early on that, that whoever killed him wanted him specifically, Brian Pata, dead.

Yeah, they immediately thought that this was sort of execution style, that this was sort of a planned attack. So the investigation goes on, no arrest in this case. And then eventually, years, and it goes cold. And, you know, ESPN gets involved, as you had said earlier. They thought you might shine a light on this case. And There had been a press conference with his mother, Jeanette, as you alluded to, pleading with the public for some help here. And I guess the big question people would ask is, why was it taking so long?

I think that that's still a big question. I mean, they pursued some leads, but then it just sort of stopped. And that was the big question in the family, like, you know, what are you doing on this case? What's happening? You know, and there's— they just went for a year. I think the last entry in the police report until things You know, until we got involved, it was like from 2009, 2010. They just— they really stopped entering anything into evidence. I mean, it just sort of disappeared.

And then police finally, as Mike said, arrest Rashawn Jones, Brian's former teammate. But then they said that he had been a suspect, or they had suspicions about him all along. And if that's the case, then why weren't they making a case all along? Why wasn't he arrested sooner?

That is a question that we would love to have.

A million-dollar question.

Yeah, yeah, the million-dollar question. Because there really wasn't anything that changed from the evidence that they had back in, you know, 2007, 2008 to when they arrested him in 2021. And the detectives said, oh, it was, you know, coming back and taking a closer look at the evidence and putting things together in a better way, doing some interviews. But You know, they still concede there was no, there was no smoking gun found in that time. The only thing that was different, substantially different, was that ESPN got involved and drew a lot of attention to this case and put it back into the headlines. And, and that did force them to take a closer look at it. And then they decide that, you know, now this evidence looks better and they've got it. They have a different state attorney and they decide to make the arrest.

Was there any other— you said no smoking gun, but any other compelling evidence that made him a suspect?

There was some— there was substantial circumstantial evidence. So there was— there were allegations that, uh, Brian Pata and Rashawn Jones had a beef with each other over Brian Pata's girlfriend, with whom Rashawn Jones had previously been involved. There was a dorm room fight, um, in 2004 where Brian, you know, really kind of beat up quite a bit on Rashawn. And then on the day of the killing, Rashawn finds out that he's failed a drug test and he's facing a 2-game suspension. And then he is— after Bryan's killed, there's a mandatory team meeting back at the athletic facilities, and Rashawn is the only player known to not come to that meeting. So that's part of it. But the other big piece of evidence, and I think what the state might call their strongest piece of evidence, is there's a former university— well, at the time, University of Miami writing instructor who is coming to the apartment complex right around the time Brian is killed, and he sees someone, and he doesn't think anything of it until the next day when he hears about what happened, and he goes to police and he tells them that he had this encounter with this individual who was leaving.

And, you know, gives them a description, they generate a sketch. It isn't until about 7 months later when some of this other circumstantial evidence pointing to Rashawn, you know, sort of gets solidified for the police that they come to this gentleman, his name is Paul Connor, and they present him with a photo lineup. And there are 12 photos total, and he picks out the photo of Rashawn Jones and says, that's the guy I saw. Leaving the apartment complex on the night of Bryan's shooting.

Yeah, and that's a big moment, Mike. I see you nodding along here. Talk to us a little bit about what you learned about Rashawn and Bryan's relationship. By the time this arrest happened, you know, Rashawn now is married and has children, and he's got a typical family life. But prior to this, as Paula said, they had had a little beef in their relationship. There had been some real tensions there.

There had been some tension. However, I— in learning about the dynamic of the team, fights between teammates in the locker room seemed to be commonplace. They didn't seem to be an outlying event. And there's a lot of testosterone, there's a lot of fighting over girls, and this seemed to be par for the course for the most part. What I also found interesting was the beef that existed between Bryan and Rashawn was almost 2 years before the murder. So the fight that they had, if you had bad blood afterwards, you know, it's simmering for a long time if you're planning to kill somebody. Yeah, you can make an argument that that was old news versus reacting in the moment. People had described Rashawn as a hothead in other arguments with people and was very reactive to that, but this didn't feel reactive, it felt calculating. I think later on during trial, the prosecution tried to paint a picture of jealousy with Rashawn over Brian, that Brian was going places and Rashawn was kind of stuck in a rut, especially given his drug suspension. But as Rashawn's lawyers point out, they didn't even play the same position.

That Rashawn was a defensive back, whereas Brian was a defensive lineman. So they weren't even operating in the same orbit.

They weren't in direct competition.

Not at all. And frankly, a lot of the teammates weren't interacting regularly with players of different positions. So they weren't, you know, fighting for playing time. You know, there was really no reason to be jealous in that same way.

So then Jones is charged finally, all those years later, with this murder. Family and friends just don't believe it.

They don't think he's a killer. Rashawn's family and friends don't believe it. Brian's family and friends, or his family specifically, feels like he was the guy all along. They had been getting tips from people inside the police department and from other players saying that it was Rashawn. They, they, from a very early point, thought it was him. And for this, this was validating. And they've, you know, steadfastly believed it was Rashawn all the way. Rashawn's wife, uh, Ishenda, when he's arrested, she visits him when he's being interrogated and reaffirms her belief that he didn't do it, that the police have the wrong guy. For the Potters, though, this was confirmation for them that police had finally made an arrest, albeit 15 years too late.

Albeit 15 years. Well, I have to sneak in a quick break. Jones is held in jail for 4.5 years before he finally gets a trial in February of 2026, and that goes on for a couple of weeks. And then, as we said, a bombshell that nobody saw coming. We're going to take you inside the courtroom in just a bit, so stay with us. It's the Paradise Podcast. I am your host, Ryan Michelle Bathe, with my husband Sterling. What's up? Join us here on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ where we'll discuss each episode with the cast and crew of Paradise. I'll be getting all the secrets from Dan Fogelman, James Shailene Woodley, Julianne Nicholson, and Sterling Kelby-Brown. Woo! Paradise, the official podcast, is now streaming. And stream Paradise on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Welcome back to 20/20: The After Show. And we are getting the details from ESPN investigative reporter Paula Levine and 20/20 producer Mike Schulz, who's here with me, about our most recent episode, which centers on the murder of Brian Pata, an all-star football player at the University of Miami with the Hurricanes, who was shot outside his apartment complex back in 2006.

Well, it turns out his former teammate Rashawn Jones was later charged with second-degree murder. And then just last week, a big shocker. After 2 weeks of testimony, several days of deliberation, a 6-person jury remained deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial. This was something nobody, Paula, I mean, I would imagine Well, I don't know. I mean, you were in the courtroom. Did you see it coming?

I think we got, we got the first indication when they came back on Monday morning. They had, they had ended deliberations on Thursday. They didn't have court on Friday. They came back Monday and, and we all went in there thinking, okay, today's gonna be the day. They've got a full day of deliberations. It's gonna happen. And like shortly, like within an hour or not even an hour, there was a, a note that was coming out of the, the jury room and it was that they were they were deadlocked and no one was willing to move. And the judge decided to send them back and ask them, you know, okay, go through everything again, just see if you can give it a go, right? It was like, you know, again, like maybe an hour or so, they came back and they're like, we are hopelessly deadlocked and it's not going to happen. And so you could tell there was just sort of shock and befuddlement from everyone, even the judge, because this is not what anyone really expected. And honestly, nobody left that courtroom pleased that day. I mean, the family, you could tell they walked out, they were incredibly despondent.

You know, they're at the elevators and all the media are swarming them. And, you know, Jeanette Pata is just saying over and over, 20 years, 20 years. I mean, you could tell just anguish. Inside the courtroom still, the defense and Rashawn hung out. At one point, they were all holding hands and bowing their heads and just talking and just trying to figure out what happened next. I think the media there were also just— Everybody was pretty shocked. This was not an alternative that I think a lot of people considered.

That they had considered. And when you talk about Jeanette, Mike, in the piece, there was this really, really almost chilling video of Jeanette running towards the scene after she discovers and she's been told that her son has been murdered. And it just really is something that just grips you. And when you think about the family, and after all of these years, what does this new development, in your view, mean for the family?

Well, I think that Paul is producing partner, Dan Arruda, who's been one of our wonderful partners in this, put it succinctly. When you juxtapose Brian's mother running to the scene the day of the murder, and then you see her in that wheelchair being wheeled out, and how much this has taken a toll on her. And Paula pointed out as well, when we interviewed Paula, that she's almost been holding on for this. Like, she's infirm, she's had a lot of health issues, and she's almost willing herself to just stick around to get some closure for this. The family more than anything needs closure. They don't want closure, they need closure to be made whole again. And to know after the fact that that wouldn't happen, at least in the short term, and maybe not ever, was really heartbreaking to watch.

And maybe even if not closure, because most people would say there's never closure, but justice, right? Sure. A feeling of justice. Paula, what, what next then? What can we expect in the court for the family and also with Rashawn Jones? He's still in jail right now.

Correct. Yeah, he's still in jail. The prosecution indicated that it does intend to retry this case. They have set a new trial date for the middle of May. And, you know, under Florida law, they have to do it within 90 days. And so they're anticipating doing this all over again. And Rashawn, his defense attorney, asked for a lower bond so that, you know, it's something he might be able to afford. And, and it was at $100,000— it was at $850,000. The judge lowered it to $500,000. So he's going to, you know, stay in custody until, until trial, and then we'll see what happens, and we'll go through this all over again. The one big change, I think, is after all this media coverage, um, I think it might be hard to, to find that many jurors who haven't heard anything about this case when they, when they come in for—

for jury selection. And that's going to be what's so interesting to see what they do differently. Did you kind of understand the jury's dilemma?

One of the things that ESPN pointed out all along in our reporting in the podcast was that the investigation done by the Miami-Dade Police Department fell short in a lot of areas. And I think that— I'm not— I think— I mean, talking to some of the jurors, that came out in trial. I mean, a lot of the things that we pointed out And some of the things that the defense was trying to get in, you know, the jury picked up on. And I think for them, you know, even though they were a hung jury, the indication was that, you know, most of them were moving toward an acquittal. And the main part of that was they just felt like the state just didn't have enough evidence and they didn't present it very well.

Yeah. Mike, did you see it that way too? And also the defense didn't put any witnesses up.

Defense put no witnesses up for the next go-round. I've talked to Rashawn's lawyer, who is glad that they didn't tip their hand to the prosecution in terms of what their game plan was. The prosecution did. They still have that in their back pocket. But I wanted to point out that the jury was deadlocked, but that doesn't mean that they were split. In this case, there was one holdout who, who wanted to convict, and the others, from our reporting, wanted to acquit based either because they thought he wasn't guilty or because there wasn't enough evidence. But I think that it's it's pretty hard to overcome that in the next go-round in terms of presenting the same evidence and trying to sway these minds of people who feel like there isn't enough evidence. The one thing I want to point out is that Rashawn is indigent, he's been in jail for 4.5 years, his lawyer who's 30 years old, this woman named Sarah Alvarez, is doing this completely pro bono, it's her first murder case ever. I think it's an indictment of the criminal justice system that people who are poor, people of color, predominantly don't get a fair shake, or they're in jail for years and years and years just while he's just waiting trial.

Yeah, he's not been convicted of nothing. He's been in jail for longer than many people are in jail for, for serious crimes. So watching it from through that lens has been really difficult. Whether he's guilty or not, I think it's, it's really a challenge that this country faces on a regular basis that is, is really skewed towards people who have the wealth to afford to, to take these things on.

So he's in jail for 4 and a half years, but also too, he had a possibility of a plea deal, which he chose not to take.

On the day that they were trying to reschedule the trial, judge offers him yet again the opportunity for a plea, actually even says to him, you know, give us your best offer. And the message back is, I have no offer.

I'm not interested. Wow. This is a guy who truly asserts his innocence. Well, more of this will probably be discussed in the coming months because the trial goes on. So, to be continued. Both of you, Mike Schultz and Paula Levine, thank you so much for taking the time. And Paula, what great work. Congrats to you and your team for shining the light on this story, which otherwise may have just remained a cold case. Thank you. Well, thank you so much, both of you guys, for being here. And thank you to our listeners for joining us again for this podcast episode. And of course, you can always watch for our latest 2020 episodes on Friday nights on ABC. And you can stream episodes like this one anytime on Disney+ and Hulu. And to listen to Murder at the U, find 30 for 30 Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Take care, everybody. From 30 for 30 Podcasts.

Ma'am, did you say someone got shot? Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman for Miami, gunned down.

The key to this case, it's Brian. Why are you stripping? An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody.

This might be a hit.

You want the truth.

They just want a conviction.

You're being placed under arrest.

We had a killer amongst us.

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