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I just paused and started screaming. When Brian Potta's mother got to the scene and she was told that her son had been killed, I mean, it was devastating. It looked like one of those scenes you'd see in a movie of a mother just wailing and it was heartbreaking. Give me my baby. Give me my baby. Give me my baby. A scream of pain that was just coming from her soul, her gut. And I was like, oh, my God, this is real. She hugged me. Edric. Sydney is gone. Sydney is gone. I was like, oh, my. I started to cry so bad. My son's very good son. Never have a problem with nobody, you know, oh, God, it's gone. You're watching the rawest of emotions. You're watching someone deal with a tragedy in real time. This is a very private emotion, emotional moment, but it's being broadcast on live tv. And little did we know in that moment how much more devastating it would become. Life has always been a challenge and obstacles of test of who I am and what I will become. My name is Brian Pata, and this is my story. We have this band right now. It's game time. Brian Pata was larger than life. What's up? Yeah, his aura, it just stuck out. He always gets everybody to kind of gravitate towards him. Feel me, check my biceps out. We got those cameras like the year before. Come here, dog. See what's up to the camera, dog. As soon as he got it, everybody was walking around with him. Everybody always taking videos in that toe, pushing that toe. It's a true encapsulation of who this person was at that age, living in Miami, being a star football player. Take off that shirt. Bragging. As he was always filming, he had to be in front of the cameras. He had to be recording him, dancing. If you look at him, you know, he may be a little intimidating, but he was a great person. He had a great heart, great spirit. His smile could just light up room when he came in. He made everybody laugh. He was just. He had a soft heart and really loved. People could see this huge guy that looks, you know, this football player. But for me, I looked past that. I knew the soft side of him. That's the brother I remember. Brian patta came from a big family. He had an even larger extended family when you consider the football team, the people in his life and community who looked up to him. My mom, she's from Haiti. Like most parents, to be successful in this country, you know, you have the dream, the American dream that come in and work hard. It was quite a struggle for my mom. You know, single parent home, you know, they try to make ends meet. It's a total of nine children, so there were six boys and three girls. Brian was the last of the nine. He was never called Brian at home. We never called him Brian. Everybody outside knew of him as Brian, but we knew him as Sydney. Brian Pettit, like a lot of people in Miami, didn't have it easy. They moved around a lot, spent a lot of time in little Haiti in the north Miami. Brian and his brothers, they were sports crazy. For them, it was a way to get away from some of the troubles in the neighborhoods that they lived in. Sports was for us, pretty much our only way to get to college, to afford college. That's why we part of the reason why we worked so hard at it. When I first met Brian, I was just like, wow, this guy is unbelievable talent. Brian physically was so gifted in high school. You knew this was somebody who could play at a high level in college. Brian was heavily recruited out of high school, but he knew he wanted to stay in this region. He wanted to stay in this area, but it ultimately came down to being close to his mom. There was only one school for Brian, and that was the university of Miami. He swarmed and brought down Brian Pata. He has a motor that will not stop. Miami Hurricanes in the early 2000s, hands down, is the best team of all time. Brian patta was high performing player on a team that was highly regarded. A lot of people think he would have had a long, substantial career in the NFL with Ryan his biggest hope was to make it to the NFL, be as successful as possibly can be in order for him to take care of his family. He was a big baby. He'll be sitting in the locker room, and, like, he'll. He'll just be laughing, like, what are you laughing at? What you laughing at? And he'll be listening to a message his mom just left for him, and she'd be like, brian, I dream you today. It used to make me laugh, too. She babied him. I mean, she loved him so much. You know what I mean? And we all did. Brian would be on the phone with his mom every single day. They talked. He always made sure he checked in with her. This trajectory that Brian Pata was on was not his alone. His mother, she was on this journey with him. What are you making? Oh, man, I'm cooking. Fish. He was going to experience the American dream, which is to have a better life than your parents had and to share that with them. And that whole trajectory was just derailed. Navigate. Police have fire with the emergency. Hello. Yeah, hello. What happened there? Somebody got shot. The guy's on the ground. I don't know where he's bleeding from, but he's on the ground, man. When police arrive, they start cordoning off the area. At some point, Miami Dade Police realizes that they need an assistant state's attorney's office representative to be there. They phoned Herbert Walker, who was on call that night. By the time I got to the scene, you could already see people beginning to gather around it. The night of the shooting, there was just a lot of police lights, people in the area. Everybody wanted to find out what happened, and everybody sort of calling each other, what's going on? What happened? After the initial incident, I remember meeting with friends and family members just to gather information. My experience as a prosecutor. Time is of the essence, and the clock is ticking. In the hours after Brian's murder, the Miami football team didn't know if this was an attack on Brian or if this was going to be an attack on multiple players that summer. Another teammate got shot a couple months prior to Brian powder ambush coming out of his house. I was scared myself, and nobody knows what happened. I thought somebody was trying to kill me, too. This is murder at the U. Paula. I'm Paula Levine. I got started on this in the spring of 2018. We were just gathering sound. At some point, we realized we had enough sound and enough of a story to make it a true podcast. The podcast itself didn't really come to fruition until the Story seemed a little more complete. From 30 for 30 podcasts, we had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. The podcast is the result of eight years of investigative reporting by ESPN. I would say we've interviewed more than 100 people, we've gathered more than 5,000 police documents. Anything we've been able to get our hands on has helped us in our investigation to this point. A star player on a major college football team murdered near campus just a few months shy of the NFL Draft. Brian Pat was an outstanding defensive lineman with UM and was being talked about as an NFL prospect until about 7:30 tonight when he was shot and killed in the parking lot of his apartment building. Give me my baby. Give me my baby. Give me my baby. A woman believed to be Pat's mother, wearing a UM jersey with his number on it, collapsed as she was rushed to the scene. Other family and friends were overcome by the news. In the weeks leading up to Brian Pata's death, his family had noticed some things that made them think that Brian thought something bad was going to happen to him. I last saw Brian that Sunday on the 4th. I cooked a huge meal for him, my mom and I. He came over and he just seemed kind of just really mellow quiet. He just spaced out and his head was down the whole time. Kept rubbing his hair and his hair was in front of his face. Just kept rubbing his head like this. His spirit was awful. He, we don't know, he couldn't explain it. And I remember him leaving and he said thank you sis, and gave me a big hug. It seemed like he was so far away from me, but he was literally right there. And I'm like, okay, I love you. I'll see you soon. And not knowing that would be my last conversation with him. November 7, 2006. Pretty average day for Brian. He and his teammate Eric Moncour decide that they're going to go register for spring classes. We went over, we registered for classes and then we went over and got something to eat. After that we went back to the Heck Athletic facility. We had a great day of practice. After practice we were told by one of Brian's teammates, Chris Zellner, that he was in the locker room. There was a call that Chris Zellner overheard where it seemed like somebody was threatening Brian. Just happened to be just me and Brian left in the locker room and then he received a phone call. It started off as a normal call and then it got started getting heated. Brian started to say like you if you want to come see me, come see Me, you know where the I'm at you. They hung up. I looked over. I didn't want to be too nosy and I was just like, hey man, are you good? Like you straight? So that was the angriest I've ever seen Brian powder, like ever. After practice is done, Brian gets in his car. He's heading home. He sees some of the younger teammates. He offers them a ride home and drops them off. Brian arrives home around 6:57. He's on the phone with his brother Fentanyl and he says to him, I'm going to let you go now. I just pulled in. Brian pulls into the parking lot in front of his apartment complex and exits his car. Within police estimate probably two minutes of that, he gets shot in the head. Brian's girlfriend Jada Brody says she heard a bang and people arguing. Jada goes outside to investigate. She sees Brian Pata laying face down on a sidewalk, feet from his car. She thinks he's joking because he's his jokester and realizes that there's a pool of blood around his head. There's police cars, fire, rescue everywhere. They basically gave me the quick overview of what had happened and told me that Mr. Potter was found face down on the sidewalk. I saw a large black male Just about 20ft from the entrance to his apartment. There appeared to be an entrance wound to the back of the head and it was a single shot. Based upon the fact that we didn't find any shell casings, it was suspected that it would have been a smaller caliber revolver style handgun. It was clearly not done as a robbery. They found Brian's wallet. There were nine $100 bills still in it, his cell phone. Like no one had stolen anything. To me, this might have been more in line of a hit, a targeted assassination, if you will. All through the night, the police canvassed the Colony apartments, knocking on every door. But they turned up no eyewitnesses. There was no security camera footage. There was no obvious trace of the killer other than the bullet that had pierced Brian's skull. It was. It was the worst feeling I ever had in my whole life as an older brother. You always want to protect your younger brothers. And I felt like I wasn't there to protect him. It was just awful. Awful. Who could have wanted a rising football star with a promising future? Dead detectives began asking questions that night, asking Brian's family and teammates if he had any enemies, if he'd been in any fights, if he was worried for his safety. Turns out the answer to all of those questions was yes. The university of miami. This is Miami. There is a dangerous, sexy, cool reputation in this town. Get entered into the game and if you are a college football player at the University of Miami, it's game time. Time to get serious. You are going to get caught up in that fast living lifestyle very quickly. But you know, this your boy entertainer, big battle, you know what I'm saying? Just showing y' all my cars or whatnot. The don't, baby. That was Brian. Yeah, he was. He was that flashy. Check you out on my inside. He sent me out. Ooh wee. He was very flashy. Back in the days, I used to do all the, um, players, cars, Cave brown, this EJ Don't. Brian came to the shop. This is what he wanted right here. This his favorite color right here. Candy apple gold. A serve. Look. He loved that. Brian's love of cars came during a time when a lot of kids his age were doing a lot of the same thing. Do it. He had a great joy of buying old classic cars, fixing them up, and then flipping them on the Internet. Just showing y' all my work, what I could do to my car. Cleaned out good. He enjoyed that aspect of taking something, making it beautiful, and then trying to get a buck off of it. That was one of the things that Brian wanted to do once he's got successful and got paid in the pros, is open up a car trap. Jam into that Rick Ross on our way to my apartment. Now us one. Going south. In 2006, MTV Cribs was a show that was still popular. On this episode of MTV Cribs, NFL Edition. Welcome, MTV Cribs. I thought, well, this would be really cool if we could start doing this with local athletes and sort of make it a local story. I was working for the Miami Herald. I was a high school college football writer. And because of my long relationship with Brian Potter, I just felt like he was the perfect candidate because he was one of those top ranked players who didn't feel like he was too big for you. He wanted to help tell his story. I attached a microphone with a tape recorder to Brian's shirt and we recorded it. What up, y'? All? This is my crib. I'm Brian Patter, University of Miami music tackle. If you walk in, this is a, you know, it's a townhouse, two bedroom, two and a half bathroom. It's a living room. You know, we got not that much stuff, but it's decent for athletes. I broke a tv. I kind of spilled juice on it. So no TV there, but a Cable box. Check out the kitchen. You know, we keep it clean. You know, probably got one dish in here, one up, going upstairs to the room. This is my room. You know, it's all right. It's not, you know, spectacular or nothing like that, but this is a little collage of me and my girl. Jada Brody was, at the time of Brian's death, his girlfriend. They'd been together for exactly a year. She had moved into his apartment earlier that summer. I introduced Brian to his girlfriend, Jada. My name is Dave Howell, and I was friends and teammates with Brian Petta. We were at an on campus party, and he ended up noticing her from, like, afar. And he was just like, you know, who's that? I was like, oh, I know her. I went to high school with her. Her name is Jada. He was just like, you know, can you hook us up? And I introduced him. That's Jada. Yeah. Brian was not, you know, some serial dater and all that. He was, yeah, just a typical college student. And I think at that point, he kind of settled down a little bit, Wanted to, you know, take this relationship a little more serious with Jado. They had their fights, they had their love. They were just a typical college couple. The day that he was killed, the night before, they were celebrating their one year anniversary. So it seemed like they were, you know, they were. They were on cloud nine to me. According to what she told detectives, Jada was in the apartment cleaning out her dog's kennel. She told police that she heard an argument outside, possibly Brian's voice, and went to see what was going on. She saw Brian lying on the ground. At first, she thought he was playing a prank. Then she saw blood around his head. Jada said she ran back upstairs to call 911. You never know who might be a possible suspect, and at that point, everybody's a suspect. One of the things that police looked into, and that we looked into as well were some conflicts that. That Brian apparently had with Jada's family. The police found that in the spring of 2006, Jada told her father, Jerry, that Brian had broken up with her because he suspected her of cheating on him. Jerry told police that he then called Brian to warn him not to speak disrespectfully about his daughter. The conversation with Jerry led detectives to Jada's twin brother, Jerome. Jerome Brody had been in and out of jail for various offenses, and his father said that Jerome would have killed anyone who messed with the family. You might have a situation where a brother, a sibling might feel strongly enough that he might take matters into his own hands. About a month after Brian's murder, Jada Brody's brother, Jerome Brody ends up getting arrested in Boston. And as part of the arrest, police find some guns and in a vehicle. Miami Dade gets this information that they have those guns tested to see if they're a match to the bullet found in Brian's skull. Miami Dade police flew up to Boston, tried to speak with Jerome. He was unwilling to speak, but those guns that Jerome had didn't match any possibility to Brian. We did our due diligence and we couldn't place him in the area. Jada's twin brother and other members of her family were deemed not to be involved. The police started going down all of these different rabbit holes, but they actually were starting to look at someone much closer to Brian. Hello? Whether Brian got mixed up with the wrong girl is one of the questions that certainly the investigative team looked into. Is there an ex boyfriend that is upset that she left him? Crimes of passion cause Passionate Action. 2020 is partnering with Vibe's open ear wireless headphones. That's Vybz. 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For a limited time, our listeners can get more than 60% off a pair of Vibes wireless headphones. Just go to abcsecretsavings.com 2020 again, that's abcsecretsavings.Com 2020abcsecretsavings.com 2020your little one grew 3 inches overnight. Adorable. Also expensive. Sell their pint sized pieces on depop and list Them in minutes with no selling fees because somewhere a dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kids will outgrow tomorrow. And he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now. Consider your future growth. Bird budget secured. Start selling on depop, where taste recognizes taste. Payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply. See website for details. Brian Pata, a defensive lineman for the Miami Hurricanes. Brian pata was shot and killed. Brian pata was great leader, a team leader, A selfless, fun loving kid. Teachers loved him. In tragedy, we missed Brian Pata. Brian was laid to rest at the new birth baptist church in Miami. The amount of people that was coming in, I think it was like over 2000 people. I remember a mom passing out, crying. Passed out completely? Yeah, completely passed out. A lot of our teammates was there, you know, it was a sad day, man. It was a hard day, seeing a lot of teammates break down and start crying. It was a really tough day for the university of Miami. Look at this moment here. At the first game after Brian's murder, the team kneeled for a moment of prayer and silent reflection, making with this big banner, Brian Potter's image, the slain hurricane teammate. A banner that fans made and the team gathering around it at midfield. That was rough. We were just, like, numb, you know, like you didn't feel like playing no football, you know what I mean? Like, the teammate just got killed. Months before Brian was murdered, one of his friends had purchased for him a suit to wear to draft day. Brian had picked us out to wear this draft, and they had it all out. And that's when it hit me. Then just looking at that, it's supposed to be the best night of his life, and this is the worst. You gotta bury him in it. There's an alternate universe in which this tragedy doesn't occur where Brian pata goes on to the NFL and he would have been a multimillionaire. It would have been another Miami hurricane's American dream story. Everybody wanted to find out what happened. Just a lot of questions. Who did this? Who would have wanted to kill Brian pata? In the hours after Brian's murder, the Miami football team decided to bring all of the players back to the athletic center, the heck center, to brief them all on what had happened. The one glaring thing that people noticed is that there was one player not there. Brian had an issue with one player on the team, and that was Rashawn Jones. He didn't like him. He didn't get along. He's not a good person. Brian Pata's name was buzzing at that time. There was a lot of talk about his future, a lot of hype about him going into the NFL draft. Rashawn Jones was more of a background player. You didn't hear his name a whole lot. Rashawn Jones was a safety on the football team. The defensive back really didn't play very much. I looked at him as, like, a cool, young guy jokester. You could tell by the way he worked on the field. He was somebody who was passionate about the game. He was a ladies man. I mean, I knew every time I seen him, he was trying to, you know, get at the girls. In the early days of the investigation, police came across a specific beef that Brian had with Rashawn, and it was largely over Jada Brody, Brian's girlfriend. Prior to Brian and Jada being in a relationship, it was rumored that Rashawn and Jada had some form of relationship. That is what the friction that was there between Brian and Rashawn, according to some of Brian's teammates, there would be taunting about, you know, she's my girl. There was definite jealousy and factors there that put those two at odds over who she liked, who she was dating, and what her history was with both guys. He just said that the guy kept trying to. To fight him. And so they kept getting to these little fights. In 2004, there was an incident between Rashawn and Brian that had happened on campus in one of their dorm rooms. The dorm fight. Me, Brian and Eric were walking up to Eric's room, and at that time, we saw Rashawn leaving out of the room. We were just kind of, like, confused. Like, why is he in there? I don't know. He said he was looking for DVDs. He was trying to apologize to me, but, you know, I really didn't want to, like, hear it. You know, I was just tired. I was ready to go to sleep because I had to be up in a few hours. Rashawn ended up trying to, you know, leave out of the room. And then Brian ended up punching Rashawn. And me and Eric kind of looked at each other, like, did this really just escalate like that fast? I broke it up. When Rashawn was walking out, he told Brian he might as well go ahead and clip up. They heard Rashawn say to Brian, you better clip up, meaning that he better get a gun. I was like, y' all about to shoot each other right now. Get the out of my room. Like, you know what I mean? I'm about to go to sleep like, you know, I'll holler at you. Rashawn Jones threatened Brian. So you never take anybody who threatened your life lightly like that. I don't think that he looked at that as like a threat. I mean, he never really mentioned it after, you know what I mean. Here's what we had learned about Rashawn. Rashawn had conflicts with Brian. He would have known the hurricane's practice schedule and what time Brian would arrive home. According to the police report, there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, no murder weapon was ever found, and there was no record of any physical evidence linking Rashawn to the crime. Clearly, the name Rashawn Jones came up, but it was on a list of many names that we were looking at. Initially, police looked into a broad string of incidents involving the Miami football team, but they weren't able to make any connection to Brian's shooting. As the investigation continued and police widened their search, they realized there was a long list of people who may have wanted to harm Brian. At one point, the police had been alerted by a jailhouse snitch that his cellmate had allegedly confessed to him one night. As part of vetting, the police had the informant take a polygraph. No arrests as of yet. As police in Miami continue their investigation. Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down at the age of 22. The murder of Brian Pata took on mythological proportions in this town. It was like everybody had a different theory. What's that? Yeah, we learned that Brian had a busy life. It wasn't just football and his girlfriend. He was involved in a lot of things. The investigation at the start went in so many different directions. There were so many different angles they were trying to go with. I felt like the police just didn't know. Which leads to really, truly go for. It wasn't a limited field of suspects. You need to follow the evidence. One of the tips that came into the Miami police was that if they wanted to find Brian Pattis killer, they needed to look for ties with the Zo pound gang. Zo pound's a well known gang in the Miami area. They were notorious for doing crimes of great violence. Zopin was featured as one of the bad guys in one of the Will Smith, Martin Lawrence bad boys movies. Yo, dry off, sweetheart. That's ice pick. He said the Haitian Zopound's about to do a rep. Let's move. There is no indication that Brian was a member of this gang, but there were members of the Zopound gang who told us that they Were aware of brian, that they knew him. The homicide detectives weren't able to bring back anything that would tie a specific action of the zopound to this incident. There was a lot of talk about Brian getting into fights with some pretty potentially dangerous characters. Oh, boy. It is not uncommon at all to see bad blood lead to fists being thrown. In a nightclub in miami A few months before brian is killed, Brian and some of his teammates are at a club called club life, and they get into an altercation with some guys there who belong to a gang. There was definitely a physical confrontation. Brian's throwing punches, and he's clearly involved in the fight. And as they are leaving, members of this gang are telling them, we're going to come after you for this. And one of the teammates with brian at the time is calling brian and telling him that, you know, someone's got a hit out on us. At first, brian was definitely worried about these guys. His girlfriend found him sleeping in the closet where he kept his shotgun. And I think that that was certainly a reasonable indication of concern or fear or paranoia on brian's part. The club life investigation didn't seem to go anywhere. But then, a few months later, the police got another promising lead, an alleged jailhouse confession. There was a jailhouse informant. His name was bernard brinson, and he claimed that he was having a conversation with another inmate by the name of emmanuel jones. And emmanuel jones would end up telling him that he got paid to do a hit and that he believed that the person he got paid to do the hit on was Brian pata. They went and actually administered a lie detector test, and the jailhouse snitch passed the lie detector test. Back in 2007, police had quickly ruled emmanuel jones out as a suspect. There is evidence in the police records that that man had an alibi because he was in jail on November 7, 2006. But weed discovered the police had the timeline of his arrest all wrong. That robbery took place in August 2006, but Jones wasn't actually arrested until december, A month after brian's murder. Miami police did not respond to our requests for comment. Years later, I was able to actually track down the alleged confessor, Emmanuel jones, and I got him on the phone, and I was trying to bring him back to that time period in 2006. If someone were to say, hey, you confessed to this murder, do you remember where you were in november? I was nowhere around. No murder. I don't know anything about no murder. They wrote, he had an alibi. He was in jail for stealing a dirt bike in an armed robbery. There was all this talk of jailhouse confession and tales of professional hits. All of this just swirled because there was just this emptiness that the police couldn't fill. You hear this person's the lead person and next week someone else is the lead person. When it took longer than six months, all of a sudden you're like, what's going on now? A tragedy that has no, no closure, no conclusion, and no answers. The murder of Brian Pota. It takes too long to know who killed him. I don't know what to say anymore. Every day I'm talking, we try to call a detective to ask them questions. They don't want to pick up the phone. We leave the message. They don't call back. It feels like Miami Dade needed to do something new. Their hand was almost forced into doing something creative. As a reporter, I try to stay out of the story, but sometimes the work you do to get the story and what you uncover changes it. That's exactly what happened here. To my knowledge, this is the first time a police entity has ever reached out to ESPN for help with a case like this. ABC Wednesdays the Emmy winning comedy Scrubs is all new. This is a whole new chapter for me. No more sad sec. That's what I'm talking about. I want both of our sacks to be fun. You two idiots are perfect for each other. From executive producers of Ted Lasso and shrinking. We were all a part of this victory. Now get those nachos out of the preemie. Warmer nachos. Feels like there's more applause for the nachos than my speech. The new season of Scrubs Wednesdays, 8, 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu. For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job and has trust issues with small town sheriffs. Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad free included with prime. Welcome inside Radio City Music Hall. The 2007 NFL Draft is now in April of 2007, the NFL Draft was held at Radio City Music Hall. The Chicago Bears take Greg Olson tight end Miami. Seeing those guys that he knew and get picked, it was real sad to watch. Introduce yourself, man. I am Greg Olson. How you doing, Pat? Greg Olson and Brian were good friends on the After Brian's death, Greg Olson went on to have an incredible NFL career and a long broadcast career after. It reminds you of what could have been for Brian. The life that he could have lived. It isn't entirely clear to us how this case ended up becoming a cold case. There was a ton of media attention at the time, but fell off. The family reached a point that they were very frustrated with the police efforts to finding answers. When you look at the police file, you see very, very little new inserts from 2010 to 2016. It was almost like nothing had been done. It's March of 2017, and the family is holding a joint press conference with Miami Dade pd. It's hurt. It's hurt. It's hurt. Ten years now, we don't hear nothing from my son. Brian's mother turns very accusatory towards Miami Dade Police. They don't work in the kids, the world. This is the way to say, something just hurt me. I think it was the pressure from the family that finally prompted the Miami Dade Police Department to reach out to the media to see, okay, look, the family wants us to do something. Let's at least make the effort to put the word out there again and see if we can generate some leads. Maybe now, 10 years later, somebody who might have information, might be an adult now, maybe they'll do the right thing and make that one phone call that we need. So in the summer of 2017, Miami Dade police reached out to ESPN in the hopes that we would produce a feature for this matchup tonight, hoping that it might trigger something and somebody watching it. We discussed it internally and thought, let's see if there's something more to this story than just a college gameday piece. You know, we're ready to kind of jump in with both feet and then see what we can do to move the case forward, if you will. That sounds great to me. Yeah, that sounds awesome. We would ask lots of questions. A lot of them they couldn't answer, but a lot of them, they did. What do you know, if anything, about maybe what led up to it or if there was an argument or anything? We don't know if he had bad blood with anybody. As of right now, we really don't have a motive. One of the things that really drives me in an investigation is looking at, okay, the people who were supposed to be doing a good job at this, what did they do? I wanted to dig further into this. Once we started putting in requests for actual police evidence and police files, it quickly became a little bit adversarial. There are a lot of questions we have about witness interviews, phone records, and any other possible leads that you guys have gone down that we would love for you to share with us. That's stuff. That is, since it's still active, we can't disclose. They did start to provide some documents, but the problem was giant sections of them were blacked out. If we didn't get the information, we couldn't tell a complete story. Greg Cooper and Dean Jackson are members of a cold case unit in Utah. We realized we needed some out of house guidance on how we had perceived Miami Dade's police were, they're former investigators, law enforcement. And when they looked at this, they agreed there were some of these angles that the police hadn't ruled out. There was some redaction to those reports. So without having that information, it created questions about the investigation and how far it went, how thorough it was. One of the things that I just can't get over with this is that there were some just basic omissions and errors in this that you would not think that a police department of that size would be making. It's like, you know, in 2006, there weren't text messages. Did you guys look through Brian's texts from what was available on the physical phone? I don't believe there was text messaging back then. That was the old style flip phones, you know, those push to talk phones were the old things that I don't believe there was text messages. By the time we went back to them a year later, we had learned a lot about Brian's life. And at that point we were asking them questions which they didn't even have answers to. We were told by Chris Zellner, Brian's teammate, that in the locker room after practice the day of the shooting, Brian was engaged in a very heated phone call. Was that call investigated? I don't remember that individual's name. I don't think I personally interviewed him. Obviously that's somebody that I would like to speak to Also. After we all got the news that Brian passed away, I immediately told the police officers and they just kind of like, okay, thank you, we'll take that into consideration. And that was it. No follow up questions? No like, do you think you heard anything? Do you think you heard a name? Nothing like that. I never heard from them ever again. The caller that Chris Zellner had overheard is a cause for concern in that it was never identified who the caller was or what the nature of the conversation was that should have been tracked down, identified and interviewed. When the police department was being reticent with us about information that really made me curious because, well, you wanted us to do this like you wanted this exposure. What is it that you don't want to tell us? It appeared as though the Miami Dade Police turned on the very people that they had recruited into this effort to help solve this cold case. ESPN decided that the only way to try to get an unredacted copy of the files was to sue Miami Dade Police. So we're here on the case of ESPN Inc. Vs. Miami Dade county, et al. Case number 2025 0229C01. Eventually, we were ruled against, but while on the stands, we were able to get several officers of Miami Dade to admit. Does MDPD know who killed Brian Pota? Yeah, we have a strong belief as to who's responsible for his death. And that revelation confirmed what was previously released to us by accident in the heavily redacted police reports. In some of the initial batches of records that they gave us, they included dossiers on a lot of the people they looked into. The only cover page that had the word suspect on it was the COVID page for Rashawn Jones. We knew that was important. They forgot to redact it. That was the first indication that they were not being truthful with us. Do you have a specific, specific suspect in mind? No, I mean, anybody. We didn't have a specific suspect. The police are not required to be truthful to reporters. However, in denying they ever had a main suspect, they made us even more skeptical of their information. They had considered Rashawn Jones a suspect from the beginning. In November of 2020, our investigative team decided that it was ready to publish something with everything we had learned. That photo that was featured so prominently of all the players on the field kneeling by that banner of Brian's face will look very different based on the players who are pictured in it. Place your hands behind your back for me. Place under arrest. My mom, she still talks to him. And we help her clean the grave site. The heartbreak of not knowing. There's not a day that my mom did not wake up. She's in tears. She'll never be the same. I remember my son every day. It's sad. While interviewing the family, we learned that every year they held a vigil on the anniversary of Brian's murder at his gravestone. I try to keep this case active as much as we can. Thirteen years later, you realize nothing's been really done. Somebody just kill him like this. It's not right. One day, two gonna come out. From the outside looking in. It was the kind of case that police should have been motivated to solve quickly. But that is not what happened. Instead, weeks turned into months, which eventually turned into years. And Brian's murder remained unsolved. In November of 2020, our investigative team decided that we'd put probably taking the case as far as we could to that point. That's when the digital story came out. The family was so appreciative that Brian's name was finally being talked about again. And some pressure, it seemed, would be put back on Miami Dade Police. You may remember this case because Pata was a star football player for the University of Miami, spent over a decade and the murder of Brian Pata is still unsolved in one of South Florida's most infamous unsolved murders, the shooting of a University of Miami linemen. And it remains unsolved to this day. We felt like that got the ball rolling again. It opened it up big time. Our story was the very first time that the public had been told that Rashawn Jones, a former teammate of Brian Pata's, was the person that police were considering most likely to have killed him. One of the theories of Brian's murder definitely revolved around his teammate Rashawn Jones. There was pretty open conflict between the two of them. After reading the ESPN article and then just kind of putting this piece and this piece together to kind of make it make sense, I started to believe that it. That there was definitely a capability of this being, being Rashawn. I received a voicemail from Edric, Brian's older brother. Hey, Dan, good morning. It's heating up really good. I think they're about to make an arrest soon. Nine months after our story comes out, we get word that the Miami Dade Police Department is moving to arrest Rashawn Jones. I believe one of the catalysts was the ESPN article that came out. I think also the state prosecutor also get a little more aggressive in his approach towards arresting someone. They show up at a Dollar Tree warehouse in Ocala, Florida, where he's working, and they're waiting for him. When he leaves work and he's arrested, being placed under arrest. Another exclusive tonight, the wife of a former UM football player coming to his defense after he was arrested for murder. I heard them say, rashawn Jones, put your phone down. You're under arrest. Rayshawn Jones wife says he says he knows nothing about that night and doesn't know who killed Brian Pata. He's not this person that they're trying to portray. She says even though Jones and Pata had a history, it was resolved before his death. He said it wasn't even at odds when Brian got killed. He's not a murderer. He's not an arrest in the 15 year old cold case. The murder of a University of Miami football player. Brian Pata was fatally shot outside his apartment back in November of 2006. And now police have arrested his former teammate, 35 year old Rashawn Jones, and charged him with Pata's death. I said to myself, it's about time. It's about time. My mom was, she got up and she started to dance and she started to praise God and say thank you. I kept trying to say, it can't be true, wait till it's all proven. But like at that moment, I'm not gonna lie, I was really upset. Look at this moment here, Brian Potter's image, the slain Hurricane teammate, A banner that fans made, and the team gets gathering around it at midfield. Initially, the photo of this moment looked to us like a team united grieving one of their own. But now one player sticks out. Rashawn Jones. Somehow he's made it to the front row. He's on one knee, looking down at Brian's face on the banner. Knowing the rumors that were swirling around the team at that time, that photo started to look very different. When I see that photo, I just be like, wow, you know what I'm saying? Just give you chills, man. You know what I mean? It's a little scary. So the question now is, looking at that image, are we seeing a man who is praying for his teammate or who is praying for forgiveness? After Rashawn Jones was arrested, we were really waiting around to see what was the tipping point. What was that missing piece of the puzzle that you said you needed to make an arrest? Were you anywhere near the scene where Brian was killed that night? I wasn't even hearing. What if I told you there was an eyewitness that saw you leaving the scene right after. 35 year old Rashawn Jones, a former defensive back for the Canes, was arrested in Lake City, in Marion county earlier today with the help of U.S. marshals. After Brian is killed, Rashawn had gone on to marry his high school sweetheart, Ashenda. He has five children and, you know, he's, he's doing some coaching stuff. He's, you know, somewhat still involved in football, but, you know, seems to be living a pretty average life. In August of 2021, Rashawn Jones was arrested and was subsequently interviewed and interrogated for this crime. Have you already petted him down? Yeah, we've gone through everything, pockets and stuff. And in walks Miami Dade Police Detective Juan Segovia, who took over this investigation from Miguel Dominguez. Who retired right after our lawsuit. How many hours did you sleep last night? The approach that the detective is using at this point really is non accusatory. It's just an interview approach to begin with. What can you tell me about your relationship with Ryan? I mean, we had an up and down relationship. Okay, what happened? What does that mean, up and down? We was teammates, I guess. Females got involved. So it was, I don't know, I guess jealousy over females. I think Rashawn wants to find out how much information, what the detail is, what it is eventually that the detective has to share with him. He doesn't seem to be concerned about admitting that, you know, they've had some ups and downs. Not yet. Not yet. Because they haven't put it into that. Into a context for him to have concerns about that. Rashawn had somewhat of a history of getting into altercations, and there was another player that would tell police that Rashawn actually pulled a gun on him. Did you own a firearm back when you were at University of Miami? No. You never had carries? Never. Did you ever make it sound like a carrier firearm? I don't know. That was a lot going on back then. I mean, I don't remember if I. If I said, oh, I didn't know. He said, I. Karen found. Most likely the realization is they're trying to connect me to a weapon, a weapon that's connected to the homicide. All of a sudden he starts stammering, and you can see that he's thinking about that. He's trying to go back through the files in his memory. On the morning of Brian's murder, Reshawn is called into the coach's office and he's told that he's failed his drug test, which is going to lead to a suspension. It was for marijuana. It was for marijuana. So I don't go to practice that day. Okay. When I leave out his office, I go home. Miami Dade pulled phone records for Rashawn Jones, which show that at 3pm on the day of the murder, Reshawn activated a new phone number. What was the reasonable change in her number? Explain. I don't know. At the time, I felt like I was gonna get a lot of backlash for my second marijuana. I mean, from my drug test. From who? From friends, family. I know I let my family down. Mother them, grandmother them. One thing that stood out when we finally got to look at his phone records was that there were 56 calls, but there was a gap between about 6:40 and 7:40. And police believe Brian was shot around 7:00'. Clock. So when you got home, you turned off your phone? Yeah. What'd you do that? I just didn't want to be from the outside world. Okay. I was frustrated with myself. At the time of the shooting, police are contacted by someone who lives at the Colony apartment complex by the name of Paul Connor. Paul Connor was a writing instructor at the University of Miami. On the night of the murder, Paul Connor was about to make a turn into the parking lot. He hears a pop. And seconds later he walks by a young African American male going in the opposite direction. Police later showed Connor a photo lineup and Connor identified Rashawn Jones as the man he saw that night. What if I told you there was an eyewitness that saw you leaving the scene right after you remember that old man that you crossed with in the sidewalk there? I wasn't there. He can't eyewitness me. You were identified in leaving the scene how? And I wasn't there? He was show. He was shown six photographs. He was shown six photographs and you were one of them. And he immediately identified you. I can't explain it to you. I don't know. Just really bad luck. Really bad luck. I'm telling you, I have nothing to do with this guy. Murder. Nothing. Ain't no 15 years of telling myself I didn't do it or ain't no trying to convince myself I didn't nothing. His concurrence that, yeah, it's just bad luck. This is just bad luck. Really bad luck. For me, it's a lot more than bad luck. It's either fact or it's. It's being trumped up against him. Why would all these people lie about your. I guess from the. I used to live. I mean, I used to be young and wild. So I guess that just didn't. Projective. They got on. On me of how I was. But that. That ain't got nothing to do with picking up no trying to kill nobody, harm nobody. That's not in me. Ashenda is brought into the interrogation area as well. And she comes to talk to Rashawn after they've interviewed him. They said they got the eyewitness and people seen that. They seen me with a gun when I was in Miami. Oh, I threatened Brian when I was in Miami. People heard me threaten him. That's all they got people hurt. They ain't got no DNA. You can't make me think my husband is a killer. I said, listen, you have to literally show me him standing over the body for me to believe that he killed this man. I love you. You got a star witness involved here identifying Rashawn as the individual responsible. And it behooves the prosecution to ensure that that individual is safe and willing to participate and capable of it. In the lead up to the trial, the prosecution had been telling the court that they had been issues with tracking down Mr. Connor. They tried his phone number, they tried his address. He was nowhere to be found. They just presumed that he was dead. But something here just didn't seem right. I find people for a living. I just. Just didn't believe he was dead. Mr. Connor, this podcast is brought to you by Avocado Mattress. And if healthy, comfortable sleep matters to you, this is one organic brand worth knowing. That's because what you sleep on actually matters. Most mattresses rely on synthetic foams and chemical materials that trap heat, break down over time or off gas. Avocado does it differently. Their mattresses are handcrafted with natural organic latex, organic wool, and organic cotton designed to be naturally cooling, incredibly supportive, and long lasting. They're certified organic by Gotz and meet multiple non toxic and safety certifications made for people who care about their health and the environment without sacrificing comfort. I love that Avocado proves you don't have to choose between comfortable, supportive sleep and your values. And now you can get up to 15% off all avocado mattresses. Just go to avocadogreenmattress.com get up to 15% off at avocadogreenmattpress.com avocadogreenmattrush.com from 30 for 30 podcasts. Did you say someone got shot? Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down the key to this case. It's Brian. 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. Being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Mommy kept all of these. Mommy was so happy when she got this jersey. Yeah, my son said. My son. That's him holding it. That was the first jersey. This just tells you right here how much of a jokester he was. Oh, my God, I miss this boy. Yeah. You hear stories or you watch a documentary, you see something like this. To think that one day that you'd be that same family, wanting justice, wanting closure. And you're sitting there just waiting, waiting, waiting. This is him as a baby. It's been a roller coaster ride for all of us. We've been. We talk about it then all of a sudden, they get pushed. You know, then it gets pushed and pushed. It's been a roller coaster ride. If the family hadn't pushed, if There was no 2017 press conference with Jeanette Pata, if there was no involvement of espn, would we even be at this point? The former UM football player accused of killing a teammate, charged with second degree murder at his arena today. Jones has pleaded not guilty. The first substantive thing that happens in his case is a bond hearing, which is in 2022. Please come forward to the witness stand right up here. One of the most interesting things about the bond hearing was that we finally got to see for the first time, Paul Connor, the writing instructor from Miami, who claimed that he saw someone matching the description of Rashawn Jones leaving the apartment complex after the shooting. How would you describe the person that you saw, Mr. Connor, a young African American, six feet, just six foot, one tall, approaching the gate. What did you notice about the man and his facial features? Well, he smiled at me. He had a clean set of white teeth, no gold teeth. The bond hearing lasted a few days, and at the end of it, the judge set rashawn's bail at $850,000. But his family couldn't come up with the portion needed for bail, so he remained in the metro west detention center in Miami. Time passed, and four years after his arrest, Rashawn was still in jail waiting for a tr. I got contacted by Rashawn because another client referred him. I went to see him at the jail, and he told me a little bit about his case, about the fact that it had taken 15 years. The case did not sit right with me, and I decided that I was going to represent him. Rashawn Jones has a fiercely passionate and dedicated defense team in his corner. Sarah Alvarez is 30 years old. This is her first. First murder case ever. So when I came onto the case, the witness list that the state had filed was very incomplete. I realized that there was a lot left to do in terms of deposing these witnesses and also tracking down other witnesses who the state was saying they had never had contact with. As it turned out, one witness was extremely difficult to track down. In the summer of 2025, the state attorney's office comes to a hearing and says something that is pretty shocking, which is they can't locate their main eyewitness, which is Paul Connor. They couldn't find him. They said they had run him in all the records, databases, and we kept pushing and asking for evidence of this. The prosecution had been telling the court that they they had been issues with tracking down Mr. Connor. They tried his phone number, they tried his address. He was nowhere to be found. They just presumed that he was dead. As someone who does this for a living and tracks people down, I did not believe that Paul Connor was dead. Because when you die, you create a paper trail. Paula Levine phoned one of Mr. Connor's previous co workers. She was so concerned that she called a welfare check to be done on him. Remember, this is a private individual just calling up the Louisville Police Department to do this. Hey, are you Paul? Yeah. Oh, how are you? Yeah, I'm okay. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Have a good one. A few weeks later, producer Dan Arruda and I made a trip to Louisville to see for ourselves. We arrived at the address that both we and Miami Dade had for Connor. Hi. Are you. Are you Paul Connor? Yeah. Have you been contacted by anyone recently? Miami State attorney's office at all? No. Just before the murder trial for Brian Pota is. Is about to start, a key witness is found who police thought was dead. It wasn't the police that discovered this key witness wasn't dead. It was ESPN. I mean, that's just wild. 2020 reached out to the Miami police with specific questions about their investigation. They did not respond to our requests for comment. All rise. So as the case finally heads to trial after all. All these years, all eyes are on that courtroom in Miami. Nearly 20 years after the deadly shooting of a, um, football player. It's time for trial for a teammate accused of the crime. This case got really personal for all of us. We were ready to take the gloves off and throw down. Everyone out. Everyone out. Yes, everyone out. Including them. Out. Out. Unb. So this is courtroom four one. It's really only used for the big trials. It's the same courtroom where Ted Bundy was tried. And they knew that the media would be interested in. In this case. The first day where testimony is scheduled to begin, here comes the Pata family in force into the courtroom. His brothers and sisters and his mom Jeanette, who is in a wheelchair. We've been preparing for the unknown because this is the hardest thing. We've never gone through this before. And to see them all come in and fill up two full rows in the gallery, it was powerful. They sat down, and I think they bore witness. That's the best way to put this to what they hope is justice. The inescapable feeling here is justice delayed. Is justice denied? State of Florida versus Rashawn Jones. State prosecutors say over the 15 or so years of this case, all evidence really pointed to the defendant. We are asking that you just pay close attention to each and every witness who testifies, because each person will provide a piece of evidence that in the end, points only to one person. The man sitting at that table over there, Rashawn Jones. So for the prosecution, this case basically comes down to the relationship between Brian, Jada, and Rashawn. All roads did not lead to Rashawn Jones. Just because the government tells you that something is true does not make it so. Rashawn looked, as he's sitting at the table, very professional. He didn't really glance over at the family. He really kept his focus on his counsel for 15 years. The police interview Rashaun along with other teammates and other students, but they never really treat him like a suspect. They don't bring him in for a sworn statement for 15 years after he's already been arrested for this horrible crime. Would you like to call your first witness? In an extremely emotional moment in the courtroom, you have Duane Hendricks, Brian's teammate, former roommate, testifying about the moment when he saw his friend lying motionless in front of their apartment. I noticed Brian on the ground, so I hopped out of the car, and I was like, yo, stop playing. He had a puddle of blood behind his head. That's when it hit me. It was, well, he wasn't playing, and it wasn't a game anymore. Did you call anyone from his family? I tell people to this day, that was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, to call that. To call his mom and say that her youngest is dead. When the prosecutor first started showing some of the photos from the crime scene and some of the photos of Brian's body, it was a really emotional moment for the family. I mean, they were leaning forward. They were grabbing tissues. Some of them turned their heads away. It clearly had an effect on them. Good afternoon. Dave Howell, Bryant's teammate, testified about the hostility that he saw between Bryant and Rashawn over Jada. Did Brian and Rashawn get in any other disputes? Yes. Were they overdrained? Yes. Did you see any of those disputes? Yes, I did. Can you tell us what you saw? It was in front of the cafeteria. It was just words between the two of them, and they moved on. There was nothing physical. And former teammate Eric Moncour testified about the day that they came up to his dorm room. Brian ended up pushing him, and he pushed him, and I think he punched him, pushed him and punched him. And then he got on top of him and started headbutting Him. And then I ended up grabbing Brian, pulling him off. And Rashawn got up and he walked out the room. He was like, boy, you might as well go ahead and clip up. During cross examination, the defense attempted to downplay the statement. Clip up. You didn't actually believe that Mr. Jones was going to shoot anybody, correct? No. You didn't take this as a serious threat? No. After this fight that happened in your dorm room in the summer of 2004, you thought that it was over at that point, Correct? There was no further beef? Yes. And you never heard anybody bring this fight up again, right? Not to my knowledge. But the key testimony came from that alleged eyewitness, Paul Connor. I'll keep this very brief. I really just have one question for y'. All. What did Rashawn's teeth look like in November of 2006? So if you think about it, this entire case could possibly come down to the description of someone's smile. He witnessed. Taking the stand today in the murder trial of Rashawn Jones, a former U. M. Perspective detailing what he heard and saw the night Brian Pata was shot and killed. The state plays for the jury a recorded testimony of Paul Connor from a hearing in 2022. It was treated as regular testimony. He smiled at me. He had a clean set of white teeth, no gold teeth, and that's about it. I described him to the forensic artist. And is this a fair and accurate representation of the sketch that was created based upon your representation? Yes. The million dollar question in this is, did the jury believe Paul Connard? But another witness, Bruce Johnson, who was a teammate of both Rashawn and Brian, is called to testify. The defense takes this as an opportunity to question him about Rashawn's teeth. I really just have one question for you. What did Rashawn's teeth look like in November of 2006? They just wasn't. Everything went straight. It was jagged, kind of messed up. Would you describe them as a clean set of white teeth? No. Now, these two statements are completely at odds with each other. Can you please introduce yourself to the jury and tell them where you're employed? Yes. My name is Juan Segovia. I'm a homicide investigator with the Miami Dade sheriff's office. One of the final witnesses that the state called was detective Juan Segovia. And he had been assigned in 2020 to take over the case. And his testimony was incredibly useful for the prosecution because it took all these little pieces of testimony from all these other people and essentially tied it together in a very effective narrative as to the motive, the means, the opportunity for rashawn Jones to kill Brian Pata. What information did you gather that led to you getting an arrest warrant? It was the threats accompanied with the display or talk of the same type of firearm that killed a victim. It was the phone records. It was the identification of Mr. Connor and all the circumstantial stuff that happened the night of. The jury. Also got to hear the post arrest interrogation interview of Rashawn Jones. Let's talk about Jada. Jada's name comes up a lot during the investigation. It's not the first time that you have any beef with Brian whatsoever. Yeah. That you can. That you remember. That was over Jada. Yeah. You dated jada? Never dated jada. Did you guys have any relations? I had a relations once. On cross examination, the defense pressed segovia on whether or not Rashawn ever owned a gun. You have no personal knowledge whatsoever that Mr. Jones actually owned a firearm at any point, do you? Not legally. Not legally. Right. You have never seen Mr. Jones with a firearm? I've never seen him. The prosecution ends its case on the very graphic testimony of the medical examiner. I do. Who uses a model to describe the fatal injury that takes Ryan's life. The pathway of the bullet to miss body was from his left side, Several inches above his left ear. That was hard for the family. It was an incredibly emotional way to end those five days of testimony. This time save us. We had so many other leads, all of which were more viable than rashon. Ultimately, the court ruled that these different viable theories be excluded at this time. The defense rests. Even without that, we felt so good about the case because they still didn't have anything. And we trusted that a jury would feel similarly. I had to ask somebody next to me, did I hear what I thought I heard? Mr. Jones, your attorneys have indicated after speaking to you that you do not wish to testify. They're not going to cross call any witnesses on your behalf. Have you had an opportunity to discuss that with them? Yes. Are you deciding not to testify in this case? Yes, ma'. Am. We were stunned. I think anybody there who was witnessing this was wondering what had happened. Both the state and the defendant have now rested their case. The attorneys will now present their final arguments. You'd remember one of the worst days of your life. You test positive, your future is unsure. You don't have the girl, you're gonna get kicked off the team. Things are not going your way. And then it all just boils over. Does this look anything like Rashawn Jones. Does this look anything like Rashawn Jones? Nothing. Paul Connors selection is not reliable. It is not credible. Rashawn Jones was not at the colony apartments. Rashawn Jones did not shoot him. Rashawn Jones had nothing to do with his death. Rashawn Jones failed a drug test. He was at home at the time that Brian Pata was killed. All eyes for the jury. This family has been put through so much for so long, and they get so close to what they believe is finally going to be justice for them. I can't even imagine what they're going through. We are now on verdict watch as the jury evaluates the evidence and the murder of his teammate Brian Patup. The only thing that is not a foregone conclusion here is what that jury is going to decide. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I've received your note. I've received your note indicating that you continue to va deadlocked. And so at this time, I will declare a mistrial and a hung jury. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank you for your time and consideration of this case. The breakdown was. Was five for not guilty and one for guilty. And the person who was leaning to guilty was just unmoved. This has to be extremely difficult for the family. And in particular Jeanette, Brian's mother, she has called for justice for her son, her youngest child. Child. Anybody who's seen the video of Janette running down the street wearing Brian's jersey yelling, give me my baby. Give me my baby. Give me my baby. And then to juxtapose that with her being wheeled into an elevator because she's so frail that she can't walk on her own, kept saying, 20 years. 20 years. And she still has that same desperate plea in her voice. Just, we're frustrated, but we're also resilient. We're going to remain steadfast and confident that we're going to get the answers that we need. What do you think you would do differently? That's a hard question to answer. I'll leave that for the next one. There are no winners here. At the end of the day, we're still at the same place. We don't know who killed Brian. We don't know the truth. And I don't think we'll ever know the truth. The damage is done. The lives of multiple individuals have been completely ruined. His fate was really demoralizing and discouraging, not just for the mighty hurricane football program that fell into a precipitous decline after that. It was devastating for this city and particularly for the community that Brian came from, which is always looking towards our athletes as role models, as symbols of hope and opportunity. He did have such a love for the community that he was raised in, and he understood the importance of him making it. And when you have a young person who's from this area and is able to advance not only the identity of Little Haiti, but become somewhat of an ambassador of the culture, and his life has taken way before its time. It's heartbreaking. Brian's part is life. And the tragedy of his experience is like a candle from the dark. And when that light is lost, it hurts us all. What's going on? Hello. You know, I'll look at a picture or something. I get emotional. But then I'll think back how we used to spend our times together and, you know, the jokes he would crack and, you know, the times we would spend and just those memories, the positive, all the good stuff, you know, but you think of, oh, man, he's not here anymore, you know, that's when the tears flow. A gentle, giant, loving individual, full of life, full of energy, positive energy. Someone who's truly missed. It's still hard for us today. A little bit after his death, I dreamt about Brian. He was talking to people. He was saying he's a okay, I'm okay. I wasn't supposed to die, but I gotta go over on the other side. You guys won't see me anymore. God is letting me in the door now. Those were his words. Then a big purple door open and it's bright light and he walks in between. He looks and he waves. Say, I love everybody. I love everybody. Then he hugs me. It felt so real. And the door shuts behind him. And then that was it. You know, it's a dream that keeps Brian connected to his loved ones. His family's journey for justice will continue as the state is expected to retry Rashawn Jones. So more to come. David. For additional information on this story, you can listen to the 30 for 30 podcast Murder at the U, which chronicles ESPN investigation into the case. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Debra Roberts. And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good. Jackson Hewitt handles your taxes and your stress. Inhale our no surprise price of 149 or less. Exhale. Paying more for complicated taxes. You won't. Inhale. New tax law knowledge. Exhale. Missing out on your biggest refund? Certainly not. Don't miss paying 149 or less. Rest easy. Jackson Hewitt's got your taxes guaranteed limited time offer for new clients on the draw turns Participating locations only. Turns@jacksonhuet.com 149.