Nearly two decades after University of Miami football player Bryan Pata was shot in the back of the head in the parking lot of his off-campus apartment, his former teammate Rashaun Jones is finally facing a jury. The second-degree murder trial began Monday — roughly 20 years after the November 2006 killing and more than four years after Jones's arrest in August 2021.

Jones, now 38, was one of the initial suspects police questioned in 2006. He was not arrested until nearly 15 years later. According to the Daily Mail, he has pleaded not guilty, rejected a plea deal offering 15 years with credit for time served, and has sat in custody for four and a half years, unable to post bail set at $850,000.

He told Judge Cristina Miranda exactly where he stands:

"Deep down in my heart, I know I'm innocent... Dismissal would be the only thing I am willing to accept."

Pata's family sees it differently — and has since shortly after the killing.

A Promising Career Cut Short

Bryan Pata was a projected second-to-third-round NFL draft pick when he was gunned down. He was a Hurricanes football player with professional-level talent and a future that extended well beyond Coral Gables. That future ended in a parking lot in November 2006.

According to police records and interviews conducted by ESPN over many years, the conflict between Jones and Pata centered on a woman. Friends and teammates reportedly told investigators that the two had clashed — verbally and physically — before Pata's death. The case then went cold for the better part of two decades, cycling through heavy delays and multiple changes in attorneys on both sides.

For the Pata family, those years were not silent. They were agonizing. Bryan's brother Edwin has carried the weight of that night for almost twenty years. He offered a window into what it's like to sit in a courtroom across from the man he believes killed his brother:

"I try to avoid looking at him. But there's times I can't avoid just staring at the guy who put the most misery in our family's life ever."

That's not a statement crafted by a media consultant. That's grief distilled into a few sentences by a man who has waited two decades for a trial to begin.

The Witness Prosecutors Thought Was Dead

If the 20-year timeline wasn't enough to raise questions about how this case was handled, the saga of Paul Conner should. Conner, now 81 years old, is the only known eyewitness to Pata's killing. He is, by any measure, the most critical figure in the prosecution's case.

And as recently as mid-July 2025, prosecutors believed he was dead.

They relied on third-party database searches to track Conner's status — the specifics of which remain vague — and apparently concluded he had passed away. It took ESPN journalists, not investigators or prosecutors, to find Conner alive at his home in Louisville, Kentucky. When reporters knocked on his door in August, he answered. He told them he was unaware of any attempts by anyone from Miami to contact him.

The man struggles with technology. He couldn't use his phone properly. The prosecution's star witness was alive and reachable — they just never reached him.

By the time he was located, Conner's memory had deteriorated to the point where live testimony was no longer viable. Judge Miranda ruled that his prior testimony from 2022 could be used at trial instead. The jury will hear his words, but they won't be able to watch him deliver them or see how he holds up under cross-examination.

What This Says About the System

A young man with NFL talent is shot dead. Police question a suspect in 2006 and don't arrest him for fifteen years. The sole eyewitness ages into his eighties, and the prosecution loses track of whether he's alive. Journalists find him when the state cannot. By the time the trial starts, the witness's memory has faded past the point of live testimony.

None of this inspires confidence. This isn't a story about a justice system that worked slowly but surely. It's a story about a case that nearly collapsed under its own institutional neglect — and may yet face consequences for it.

The Stakes on Both Sides

Jones faces a potential life sentence if convicted of second-degree murder. He turned down 15 years. That's either the decision of an innocent man who refuses to plead guilty to something he didn't do, or a catastrophic gamble. The jury will decide which.

Testimony is expected to begin next week after jury selection wraps. The courtroom will hear from teammates, friends, and — through his 2022 testimony — an 81-year-old man who saw what happened in that parking lot two decades ago. Whether his prior words carry the same weight as a witness remains an open question.

For Edwin Pata and his family, the trial is the thing they've demanded for twenty years. For Jones, it's the chance to prove what he insists is the truth. For the justice system in Miami-Dade County, it's a long-overdue reckoning with a case that should never have taken this long to reach a courtroom.

Bryan Pata was 22 years old when he died. The man accused of killing him has now spent more years waiting for trial than Pata spent alive.