Retrial In The Murder Of Bryan Pata Has Been Delayed Due To Police Misconduct Allegations
On May 7th, 2026 a judge in Miami announced that the retrial of Rashaun Jones the former teammate accused of killing Miami Hurricanes football player Bryan Pata on November 7th, 2006 has been delayed. The reason for Jones’ trial delay is due to allegations of police misconduct made against the lead detective in the case, Miami Cold Case Detective Juan Segovia who is not only one of the witnesses in the trial, but was also the one who was the lead case investigator when Jones’ was arrested back in 2021.
The misconduct allegations against Segovia come after he was linked to an anonymous instagram account that was making posts and comments against Jones leading up to the first trial. Comments on the account include Segovia saying “I've watched a lot of the trial, he's guilty as sin” and another comment saying “Guilty”. The defense linked Segovia to the account due to the account having his actual phone number, IP address, and email attached to the account. The account run by Segovia triggered the trial to be delayed just 10 days before the start so the defense attorney for Jones’ can reinterview him about the accounts. Segovia’s accounts also triggered an internal affairs investigation to begin within Miami PD who are investigating the case.
Jones originally went to trial in late February 2026, however on March 2nd of 2026, the first trial ended on a mistrial with a hung jury. This led to Florida triggering a 90 day period where the trial must occur within this time period. Evidence in the first trial was mostly all circumstantial including that Pata and Jones having a history of fights between each other, and Jones owning a .38 caliber revolver in addition to witness testimony. The police investigation has been seen as being botched due to investigators waiting 15 years to charge Jones with the murder despite having identified him as a suspect 7 months after the murder along with never recovering a weapon. Even recently the case had further missteps with paperwork meant for discovery related to the case including a lead sheet which listed every suspect in the case being unable to be presented in addition to any testimony from the ESPN lawsuit in relation to the case files. The judge in the first trial said the defense had failed to gather enough credible evidence in the case which contributed to the mistrial.
The investigation into Pata’s murder was kept tight with Miami police until 2020 when ESPN sued them for case files related to the case. While police for years had denied having a suspect, during the 2020 hearings they said that they had a “strong belief” who killed Pata and that they had come close to arresting them a decade earlier. ESPN later published a story that November which included case files that said Jones was being considered the prime suspect in the case. The following year Jones was arrested and during a 2024 hearing Segovia mentioned no new evidence led to Jones’ arrest but the reason it took 15 years was because back in 2007 the State Attorney didn’t think their was enough evidence to charge Jones’ with a crime.
Police investigators had also followed up on other suspects besides Jones’ with them including investigating several gang members. The case also included 3 confessions in the case, a man who was a suspect but died in 2010 during an earthquake in Haiti, the second one being from a jail inmate who said his cellmate confessed to him, and the 3rd being from Jones himself who confessed to killing Pata to a fellow inmate in 2021 following his arrest. Due to the misconduct allegations the judge has agreed to delay the trial to September 14th with motions still set to go ahead on May 18th. Jones is set to remain in police custody until trial.
Sources:
https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article315669478.html
https://abcnews.com/amp/US/bryan-pata-murder-case-ends-mistrial-20-years/story?id=129993184
Posted May 8, 2026, 3:49 PM UTC