Ex-teammate’s name kept coming up in UM football star’s murder probe: detective
The lead detective investigating the murder of University of Miami football star Bryan Pata, testifying in court Tuesday, said cell phone records placed Pata’s former teammate near the Kendall murder scene and a UM professor picked him out of photo lineup.
Rashaun Jones’ name kept popping up as a suspect in the days following the murder, testified Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Det. Juan Segovia, who took the lead on the case in 2020 but worked on it back in 2006, the year Pata was killed.
Pata, a 22-year-old Hurricanes star defensive lineman expected to be a top NFL draft pick, was shot in the back of his head and killed on Nov. 7, 2006, outside his home at the Colony Apartments in Kendall. He had just returned from football practice. He was a graduate of Miami Central High.
Jones was arrested on a second-degree murder charge in 2021, 15 years after Pata’s death. He has pleaded not guilty, and is on trial now in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Segovia also hinted at a motive: “bad blood” between Pata and Jones, now 40 and a former teammate of Pata’s in the early 2000s.
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During Segovia’s testimony, prosecutors played footage from Jones’ interrogation. In the video, which was edited down for the jury, Jones frequently mentioned that ESPN had contacted him about its investigation into Pata’s murder. Jones’ arrest came after ESPN had published an investigative piece about the case.
At one point, Jones said, “I had nothing to do with Bryan Pata’s murder.... I have nothing to hide.”
During cross-examination, defense attorney Christian Maroni asked Segovia about several other suspects who were ruled out but not thoroughly vetted. Segovia said he learned, after Jones’ arrest, that a potential suspect was ruled out because a previous detective mistakenly believed he was in jail at the time of the murder.
The detective also testified about fingerprints lifted from Pata’s car that were a match to a person who was ruled out as a suspect.
Segovia, however, said there was “nothing viable” indicating that someone aside from Jones was responsible for Pata’s killing.
Jones spotted at scene: witness
Segovia also detailed his interactions with the only eyewitness in the case — Paul Conner, a former UM professor who lived at the Colony Apartments. Conner’s testimony, which was recorded, was played for the jury on Monday.
Conner, 81, testified that he heard the “pop” of a gunshot and saw a man emerge from the direction of the sound. Conner picked Jones out of two police photo line-ups on two different occasions, once after the murder and again in 2022.
His testimony was recorded in 2022 due to his age, health issues and the COVID-19 pandemic. In October, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda found that Conner was mentally unfit to testify in person at trial and allowed the recorded testimony, even though defense attorneys will not be able to cross-examine him in front of the jury.
Investigators showed Conner his first photo line-up in 2006, after the murder, Segovia said. Conner was instructed to focus on the individuals’ facial features and disregard their facial hair or hairstyle.
“He immediately came back to the second [photo] and said, ‘This is the guy who ran past me,’” Segovia testified.
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Conner, Segovia said, told him he was 90% sure that Jones was the man he saw running. Conner, he added, doesn’t believe “anything in the world is 100%”
Segovia testified that he visited Conner in 2020, during which Conner recounted what he told police back in 2006. Conner “bet” he could still identify the man because he “remembered exactly what he looked like.”
That’s when Segovia showed him the lineup again to gauge how Conner’s memory was doing. Conner, he said, once again picked out Jones’ photograph.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 5:02 PM.
