Detective posted about UM football star’s murder case during trial, defense says
The lead detective who investigated the murder of UM football star Bryan Pata commented on social media posts about the case during the trial, at one point saying the man accused of the killing was “guilty as sin,” defense attorneys allege.
In a brief hearing on Monday morning, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda granted the defense’s emergency request to preserve evidence from Instagram account @balanceof_justice, which attorneys say is linked to Miami-Dade detective Juan Segovia.
Most notably, the defense says, the comments were posted during the trial — and at least once concerned the testimony of a witness — in violation of sequestration, which is supposed to shield witnesses from the proceedings.
Attorneys for Rashaun Jones, 40, filed the revelations last Thursday in a court document. Jones is accused in the killing of Bryan Pata, a 22-year-old Hurricanes star defensive lineman who was expected to be a top NFL draft pick.
Pata was shot and killed on Nov. 7, 2006, outside his home at the Colony Apartments in Kendall. He had just returned from football practice. Jones was arrested on a second-degree murder charge in 2021, 15 years after Pata’s death.
READ MORE: Teammate will be retried for UM football star Bryan Pata’s murder. Here’s when
In March, a six-person jury said it was deadlocked, leading to a mistrial. Jury selection for Jones’ retrial is set for May 18.
The Miami Herald reached out to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office but didn’t receive a response.
What was posted?
Jones’ attorneys hired investigators who uncovered that the account was linked to Segovia through his phone number and email address, according to the filing.
“[T]he State’s lead detective and most important investigative witness in this case, operated an anonymous Instagram account during the pendency of the defendant’s recent trial in direct violation of this Court’s sequestration order designed to ensure, in part, that witnesses are prevented from tailoring their testimony to match or contradict other witness testimony,” the filing says.
Under several posts, the account commented on local media coverage of Jones’ trial. The detective, according to the filing, “publicly proclaimed” Jones’ guilt and attacked the credibility of Jones’ ex-girlfriend Sherry Abramson, who testified during the trial.
“I’ve watched a lot of the trial, he’s guilty as sin,” @balanceof_justice said in a comment.
In the court document, the defense said it intended to preserve the account’s posts, stories, comments and direct messages. It also requested that Meta preserve the digital evidence.
“Deletion of this evidence would be instantaneous, irreversible, and undetectable absent a court order already in place,” the defense said in the filing.
Detective’s trial testimony
During the trial, Segovia testified that Jones’ name kept popping up as a suspect in the days following the murder. Segovia took the lead on the case in 2020 but worked on it back in 2006, the year Pata was killed.
Segovia, who was asked about alternate suspects, testified there was “nothing viable” indicating that someone aside from Jones was responsible for Pata’s killing.
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 lineups 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, the judge 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.
“He immediately came back to the second [photo] and said, ‘This is the guy who ran past me,’” Segovia testified.
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.
