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This is Jeffrey Roberts here with another
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episode of Murder at the U from
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our colleagues at ESPN and 30 for 30 podcasts. Remember, you can get new episodes early
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if you follow 30 for 30 podcasts
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on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app.
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Now, here's the next episode of Murder at the U. Previously on Murder at the U.
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The word swagger, which you hear at the U more than other places, and what swagger connotes to some people is something akin to violence. People kill you by anything. Yeah, People get pissed enough from a fight that they'll come back and kill you. I seen him on the floor. I remember saying, all right, it ain't funny. Why you laying on the ground for it? You not here. Brian is dead. There's more to this than meets the eye.
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The night of Brian Pata's murder, calls and text messages pinged among the Hurricanes. No one knew for sure what had happened, just that it was bad. Once the coaching staff learned about it, head coach Larry Coker called the whole team back to the Hecht Athletic center for a mandatory meeting. As more than 100 players, coaches, and staff members made their way into the team meeting room, rumors began to swirl.
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You know, everybody had their own 2 cents of what they heard or what they didn't hear. There's one I remember saying it was like a drive by, kind of, and I was like, what?
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Josh Holmes was a few months into his freshman year. Brian had driven him home earlier that night.
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I remember just a lot of different opinions at the time of what exactly had happened.
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That's when Duane Hendricks arrived. Duane and Brian were roommates and close friends. Brian had given him his nickname, Cat. Dwayne got home minutes after the shooting and found Brian's body on the ground. Police brought him from the crime scene to the athletic center.
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Katt had walked in, you know, covered, I believe it was a white shirt with, like, blood stains on it or whatnot. And I just remember Cat himself is a really big guy. And I just remember him breaking down and just, you know, at that point, that's when everybody just realized that it was the worst and that unfortunately, he was gone.
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A police officer briefed the team on the facts as police knew them. As Brian's close friend Eric Moncour listened, the reality began to sink in.
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He was saying that we don't, you know, we don't know exactly what happened. We don't know this. We do that. But what we do know is that Brian Patter is dead. After he said that, I just. I lost it. Again, man, it was rough. Guys were really upset. I mean, the upset is an understatement, you know, furious, full of rage.
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Clint Hurt was Brian's defensive line coach. It was still his birthday, and Bryan had pranked him just that afternoon.
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At that moment, I was not a coach in the play. I was not in the mental state to be a guy to punch. I gotta be honest, in my heart and soul, I wanted vengeance. I was so upset and distraught at that time where I couldn't stand the meeting. I had to walk out. I remember I punched a hole in the wall in the hallway and basically wrecked my office because I just. I totally lost it. Totally lost it
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looking around that room. Everyone on the team was paid, painfully aware of Brian's absence. But they noticed another player was missing that night too. That absence would eventually become central to the investigation into Brian's death. I'm Paula Levine from 30 for 30 podcasts. This is Murder at the U. Episode three everybody's a suspect. Memory is an imperfect record of the past. Neuroscience tells us that every time we recall a memory, we write over the previous version. So our recollection of past events is always a patchwork of stories we've told and retold. And the more time passes, the harder it can be to get at the truth of what happened. When we started reporting the story, more. More than a decade had passed since Brian's murder. So every time we interviewed someone, we had to consider the question, how accurate are these memories? In the first year of our reporting, producer Dan Aruda was doing most of those interviews. Dan, tell me about the first big break you had in your reporting.
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Okay. So in 2018, I had been trying to sit down and speak with as many of Brian's teammates as possible. At some point, Chris Zellner's name was mentioned and I was able to sit down with him. Try it one more time. Testing, 1, 2. Testing. Testing, 1, 2. Perfect. Start with this. Zellner was a teammate of Brian's. They had met when Brian hosted him on his initial recruiting trip to Miami.
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What did Chris tell you about the night of the murder?
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Chris remembers getting ready to go to class. He had a night class at the time. And. And he was just about to leave and he gets a call that the entire team is being summoned back to the Heck center, which is the football facility. I didn't know what it was, but they were like, no, it's important. Get here now. Get here now. And that's when they broke the news like, yo, Ryan's been shot. He didn't make it, you know, And I'm just like, what the fuck? Like, I just saw him. Once Chris hears the news, he immediately remembers something that happened earlier that afternoon in the locker room and tells his coaches he wants to speak to the police.
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So what was it that he remembered?
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He remembers being in the locker room after practice, and for some reason, he and Brian are some of the last players left in there. And Brian gets a phone call.
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This would have been how long before Brian shot?
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About an hour, maybe 90 minutes before the murder.
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What did he overhear from that phone call?
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Chris overheard Brian get in a very heated conversation with someone on the other end of the line. I have never seen him get that annoyed or that pissed off unless it was on a football field. But I just remember him, like, you know, talking about, like, if you want it, man, come see me then. You took it as, come and see me then. As, if you want to fight, come and see me then. I did take it like that. I did take it like, you know, it's kind of one of those things like. Like, yo, if you wanna keep talking shit like, yo, come see, like, it was one of those things.
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And what did Brian do after getting that phone call?
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According to Chris, he just shook it off like nothing ever happened. He literally just started smiling again. That's who he was. Like, he. He literally didn't let. Like, even when he was hurting, like, he didn't let that shit phase him. He immediately realizes that he's got information that needs to be out. So he remembers talking to Coach Mario Cristobal, who at the time was an offensive line coach, that he needed to talk to the police. I knew right when they told us what happened, man, like, that's the first thing I said. Let me tell the cops, because maybe they can look at who called or something. Because that conversation was one of those conversations where it was like, if that person was in front of him, I think they would be fighting. I know that had to be. I felt it had to be somebody, a part of it.
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What was your reaction when Chris told you about this phone call?
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Well, while it was still fresh in my mind, I wanted to call the team and debrief them with everything that I had just heard. I think it's clear that Chris thought that was an extremely important phone call, because he says the first thing he did when he heard Brian was killed was he hearkened back to that call and made sure when he got back to the Hecht center, he found Coach Cristobal and told him I Want to talk to the police. So I, you know, I think it's clear that he told the police and he said he only talked to them once. But there's no doubt in my mind that whoever was on the other end of that phone call had something to do with Brian's murder. I mean, I'm. You can't convince me otherwise. It's just too much of a coincidence that he's effing somebody and telling them, come and get it, and. And an hour later he's dead and there's no connection.
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In the end, this overheard call would turn out to be important and in ways none of us expected. In the weeks following the murder, Brian's teammates and family said their final goodbyes.
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Brian was in the casket like a.
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Like a beige.
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Because that was his favorite color. He loved the color beige.
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His sister Ronette remembered Brian's funeral at the New Birth Baptist Church in Miami.
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This suit was a beige suit. Brian said that he wanted to wear this suit for draft day.
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So that was the suit that put on him.
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Able to touch him. I was able to kiss him. He looked sharp.
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Very nice.
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Still in disbelief, though, every time I looked at him.
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After Brian's death, the team's next home game fell. On Thanksgiving.
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The Hurricanes make their entrance. What a long, excruciating and embarrassing season for these guys. A bunch of proud players trying to win one for the memory of their slain teammate, Brian Pata, who was just remembered with a moment of.
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After the game, the players laid a banner with Brian's portrait on the field. The whole team took a knee around it while reporters snapped photos.
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You look at this moment here. Brian Potter's image, the slain Hurricane teammate, a banner that fans made and the team gathering around it at midfield. What a moment. Miami fights.
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In the photo of that moment, the players are circled up around the banner with Brian's face and number on it. They're holding hands, heads down. Most of them have their eyes closed. That image seemed to show a team united honoring their teammate, praying for answers. Answers we hoped to find 12 years
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later, your 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. So in 2018. I drove down to the Homicide Bureau in Doral, Florida, and I met with the original lead detective on the case, Miguel Dominguez.
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What was your impression of Dominguez and his demeanor during the interview?
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I'd say he was stoic, friendly, but he felt like he kept his guard up. I'm not sure he understood what we were doing. He definitely didn't want to go into any details of the case to the crime scene. Was there any physical evidence left there?
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We do have evidence,
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But I'm really not privy to get into that. It's sensitive.
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Why do you think Dominguez and the rest of the detectives were so reticent to really give you the details of things that you wanted?
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I can only guess that because they said it was an open investigation, they were still very guarded about any information getting out which might eventually affect the prosecution at the end.
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Like, what did you expect to get out of that initial interview? If there was something that moved the ball forward, what was it?
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The one thing I really wanted was to get Detective Dominguez out to visit the crime scene. Kind of walk it through with me, get his theory on how he thinks the shooting took place.
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When did you go to the crime scene with Dominguez?
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It was literally a few days later. I think we're rolling here. Any trick questions this time, or were there trick questions last time? One. Okay. No trick questions this time, I hope. Okay. And if there are, I'm still not sure what Detective Dominguez thought was a trick question. What do you remember about arriving here the night of November 7th? Brian's vehicle was parked backwards into the parking space. He backed into a spot? Yes. So his driver door was facing the road, the roadway? Yes. Okay. And then somewhere directly behind Brian's suv, he ended up being killed. Where the concrete sidewalk is that provides access to the stairwell because Brian used to live on the second floor in that corner apartment. So as you exited the vehicle, he's about, what, 25 to 30ft from a staircase, which would have led him up to his apartment? Absolutely. Were any leads gathered or given to you that night that were in some way promising? That's hard to answer because, you know, every lead that we have, we believe it's promising or we're hopeful that it is. But unfortunately, obviously, we're here doing this interview, and none of those leads have come to fruition.
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That sounds like a pretty pat answer that a police officer would typically give, but it sounds like he didn't really want to give you any details about their investigation.
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Yes, it Felt like anytime I'd ask a question, he'd pause and then deflect. It felt like he wanted to keep information very general and not get into any specifics at all.
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What were you thinking at the time? Like, what was your response to their deflection?
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It was surprising and frustrating. Again, they had asked us to help them bring attention to this case. So here we are trying to help them do that. And the only way we can do that is by asking questions. Questions which they did not seem to want to answer. So what are we doing here? But it made me want answers more than ever because it felt like, why are they hiding things from us?
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So we put in a request to get a copy of the police report, which under Florida law, police have to release on cases that are no longer active. But the department turned us down. They said the case was still open and active. Eventually, we did manage to get our hands on that police report. But there was one major problem. The nearly 200 page document was heavily redacted. Thick black boxes, one after another, often blacking out entire pages. Due to the fact that police still claimed the case was open and active. We weren't going to accept that, and we'll get into that story later. In the meantime, the report, even with its redactions, did provide us with something valuable. Clues, snippets of what the police had looked into, breadcrumbs for us to follow. If we wanted to figure out who killed Brian, we realized that we would need to pursue some questions of our own. Questions like where did Brian's money come from? Remember on the night of the murder, Brian had $900 in cash in his wallet. He drove an infiniti with a $500 monthly payment. And he still had money to pursue an expensive hobby. Buying old Chevys, giving them custom paint jobs and rims and flipping them. He called those cars his babies.
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This is my baby right here. You know, y' all come out many times. They're both my babies.
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And they fit right into the Miami backdrop. He painted an Impala bright orange, and a Tahoe glossy blue.
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Candy orange, candy blue, candy orange, candy blue, candy orange set me off the side. I used to ask him, where are you getting all this fucking money from? Excuse my French.
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Brian's brother Edwin was as intrigued by the money as we were. Some of this explains itself. If you're buying and selling cars, you should be turning a profit. But Brian seemed to regularly have thousands of dollars on hand. And D1 football players don't have part time jobs. Brian worked on the Cars with his brother Fentnall. But even Fentanyl didn't know where Brian's money was coming from. Near the start of Brian's senior year, Fentanyl remembered seeing him in a new car.
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He had $14,000 cash in the car. And I said, something ain't right.
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I've been an investigative reporter for almost 30 years. Anytime there's a murder and there's large sums of money attached, the next logical question is, did the money have anything to do with it? Fentnall told us someone was paying for Brian's nights out. But Brian didn't want to tell Fentanyl who that was. He'd always refer to that person as uncle or Unc or my guy. Here's how Fednall remembers those conversations.
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We used to go out to the club and stuff like that. He'd be like, oh, I gotta call my guy. He never said the name. He said, I gotta call my guy. And the guy would send him Western Union, send some money on a different name. He never said who this guy was. Never. He always say, my guy. He said, I'm gonna tell you one day about my guy. We took carriage from Magic City, right? Magic fucking City. Hey, look here, man.
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That's Brian and his teammate Willie Williams on one of Brian's home videos. They're in a hotel room in Atlanta around the time the team played in the Peach bowl during Brian's junior year.
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Look here, man, we just spun the car note. I'm lying. We just punt, like eight condos. That's like $3,000. $3,000 spending money. We winning that city, losing who. We going to get our money back.
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Our team was drawn to this mysterious source of money. Brian's brother Fenal was, too. In fact, he was worried.
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Did you ever worry that whoever was giving him money played a role in it? Yes, because he. Yeah.
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B
So we took our questions to the Miami Dade Police. Dan asked Detective Dominguez how far police had followed Brian's money trail and whether they ever found out who my guy or uncle was.
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Did Miami Dade PD know that, according to Brian's brothers, he was receiving money from someone during his time at the university? There was that information. I did hear that he was allegedly receiving money from somebody. Was it investigated to try to find out who that person was? Yes. And we weren't able to confirm that Brian referred to that person as my guy or uncle. Does that name come across or that moniker come across anywhere in the investigation? My guy or uncle? That doesn't ring a bell. We were able to Find out when he was receiving money or how much money he was receiving? No, we've been told it was in the tens of thousands. What's your reaction to that? I don't know if that's true or not. I wasn't able to uncover that. Would that piece of information be useful? It's important. It shows a lifestyle.
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B
A lifestyle that it appeared the police didn't look into very much, but one we would come to learn all about over our years of reporting. For starters, money was absolutely swirling around University of Miami athletes at the time. A few years after Brian's death, all that money led to a major scandal that dominated college sports News. See, before 2021, the NCAA forbade players from getting any extra benefits. Even a free pizza could get a guy in trouble. Yet that didn't stop the boosters. They were often wealthy fans who would shower gifts and money on players. One of those boosters at Miami was a man named Nick Nevin Shapiro. The story I am about to share with you could turn out to be the biggest scandal in the history of college sports.
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It's unfolding right now at the University of Miami.
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According to the NCAA, Shapiro provided $170,000 in impermissible benefits to Hurricanes players between 2002 and 2010. Shapiro told us the amounts were much higher than that. Among other things, he says six Miami coaches were aware of his activities.
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And he said that he did it
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because, quote, nobody stepped in to stop me.
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I was worth over 200 million by the time I was 34 years old. I was loaded. Loaded.
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In 2011, Shapiro was convicted of securities fraud and money laundering for an alleged Ponzi scheme, defrauding investors of more than $900 million. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, though he still disputes the facts of the case and insists that his money mostly came from real estate investments.
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As south beach blew up, so did I. That's where my money was made.
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After trying to interview him for six years, Dan and I finally sat down with Shapiro in 2024, after his sentence was commuted. Shapiro told us he'd started following the Hurricanes in the late 70s, shortly after moving to Miami from Brooklyn.
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I became, I would guess, a fanatic psycho fan like most of South Florida. When Jimmy Johnson came and took the reins, and we became, like, the most hated team in America.
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B
But you did not attend the university, right?
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I couldn't afford it.
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I wanted to get into. I mean, I'm assuming you wanted to, right? You wanted to.
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I would have loved to. It's a private university. I went to the University of South Florida. But I was back every Saturday during football season. Whenever they were in the orange world, I don't think I missed the game my whole college life.
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B
Shapiro didn't graduate college, but that didn't stop him from building a business empire that the feds say was partly based on a fraudulent investment scheme. What made you decide to get involved with helping the program? Like, do you remember your first donation? To the Minute?
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To the minute. Here we go. 2001 season prior to us winning the title, I think I donated 12,500. And that. That was it. I was a booster, just like that.
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B
And what did being a booster get Shapiro?
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You know, you get to go to the events, you know, the banquets and things like that you get afforded. And as I made the next large donation, I negotiated my own deal. And part of that was running out of the tunnel, which nobody does.
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B
Shapiro said he got to run onto the field with the players before two games. How much did that cost you?
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Well, I made a $250,000 donation, and I gave a list of specifics of what I wanted to do.
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B
Shapiro used his status as a booster to get closer to Hurricanes players. He said he hosted house parties for them at his south beach home. And Brian was a regular at Shapiro's house.
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A
I was a very close friend of Brian Pattis and sort of like a little brother to me in many regards.
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B
One night, he had Brian and some other teammates over for a barbecue. Brian was playing with Shapiro's puppy, Teddy. But sometime later, Shapiro realized he'd lost track of Brian and the puppy.
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A
Brian's a big dude, you know? I mean, he was. He was a D lineman. And I walk in the room, and Brian's sleeping on my couch with my little. With my. My puppy on his chest, like, just. And he. My puppies passed out, sleeping.
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B
Shapiro also took Brian and other players out on his yacht. What was the yacht like, the Love Boat?
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A
It was whatever you could think of. It was just the best. I mean, I look back and think to myself what a schmuck I was. But it was a lot of fun, I guess, for everyone else. You know, pumping condoms out of the yacht bathroom would cost me like, 1500 bucks every time these guys went in there. It was insane. I mean, it was just. It was a floating Playboy mansion. It was wild.
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B
When you would have these house parties or the parties on the yacht, Would the guys bring their girlfriends or would just.
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A
No way. Okay? No way. Why would they. Would you ever provide girls? No, I would provide harems. I was Jew Hefner.
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B
Shapiro said he wasn't just cutting big checks to the university. He also paid players individually.
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A
And it came from a place of goodness in my heart. These kids were broke. Like, they were broke. Like, McDonald's was like five star to these guys. I couldn't believe it. And the university, you know, they're making tons of money. The conference, they're making tons and tons of them. They've been pimping these kids for years, making tons of money. Just so much money for. For everyone else but them.
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B
When detectives spoke with Shapiro a few months after Brian's murder, he denied ever having given Brian money. But that was before his conviction. When we spoke to him, he told us a different story.
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A
He was one of my guys, like, he was one of my brood. That was it. I was there on a call if he ever needed me, and. And if I was available, I'd be around.
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B
There were several people who told us that Brian referred to someone who was paying him as my guy or uncle. Would that have been you?
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A
I couldn't tell you. I don't know. I honestly, I don't know. I would look after him in very spot duty like it was. And when I tell you look after him, I'm talking a couple hundred. It was never anything more than 2, 300 bucks. I could tell you that for certain.
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B
If Shapiro was giving Brian only a couple hundred bucks, then it's unlikely he would have been the person Brian called my guy or Unk, who was bankrolling Brian's life. Our big break in the search for uncle came while we were looking into a different motive for Brian's murder. It had to do with a fight he was involved in at a nightclub a few months before he was killed. Nightlife in Miami beach in Coconut Grove was one of the big draws for students at the University of Miami.
- [27:32]
A
Students in general were hanging out in Coconut Grove every Thursday night. So all the athletes from University of Miami were hanging out there.
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B
Sean Shanazi ran several clubs and restaurants in Miami around this time. He says the Hurricanes were so popular in Miami that they were treated no differently from pro athletes. And at his clubs, we would make
- [27:51]
A
sure they skip the line. They go in and we put them in a VIP area so they not mix them with the general public. We comp them a bottle and they hang out.
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B
Shanazzi followed Hurricanes football like everyone else in Miami, and he would get to know the players who were regulars.
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A
I got to know them personally. They called me Unk and, you know, I would hang out with them they would call you Unk. Unk. Yeah, a lot of them. Yeah.
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B
Reid spent eight years trying to figure out who uncle was. Shenazi offered this up without even being asked. And it wasn't just Brian. Unk was a nickname that lots of players called him.
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A
But I think, you know, when it's just a club talk, nightlife talk, BS talk, fast talk. With Ryan, it was real. With everybody else, it was kind of a club talk with him. When he called me Uncle Sean, it meant something. Were you on the sly, kind of giving Brian a little money every month to kind of help him get by okay? I guess. Yeah. You know what I mean? If he was short, it's me. If he was, listen, I'm going shopping. I'm going on a date. And quite frankly, at the restaurants and all that, he would just come to the restaurant and eat. You know what I mean? And it had nothing to do with him being a football player. It was just somebody that I cared about, and I was in a position to do it. If he went and bought some clothes, I would just buy it, and he would go with me to the place that I shop. Hey, listen, the store I shopped at had nothing his size. So for him, he had to go to, you know, big and tall store.
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B
Shehnazi remembered one particular shopping trip he made with Brian near the end of his life.
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A
All he wanted was to get NFL and take care of his mom. That was it. You know, before the draft, we went shopping. I bought him a suit. You know, we're talking about how he's gonna go in the draft, and he got buried in that suit instead of walking the draft.
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B
Shenazi also helped cover Brian's funeral expenses, about $12,000. So Shenazi was uncle. He was almost like family to Brian, giving Brian money, but not in the amounts he would have needed to buy cars. That meant there was someone who we still hadn't found yet. But the whole reason we had gone to Shenazi, why he was so interesting to us, had nothing to do with Brian's money. It was because of a fight that Brian got into at one of his clubs in the spring of 2006. Brian liked going to clubs with Willie Williams. That was the friend with Brian in the home video from Atlanta.
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A
We just came from Magic City, right? Magic fucking City.
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B
Willie had been a star linebacker in high school with a clear route to the NFL. When he arrived at um, he became notorious for being a hard partier.
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A
Willie was Mr. Miami Man.
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B
By all accounts, Willie was cocky. All through high school. He had scrapes with the law, he resisted authority. And when he was out at the club, Willie was not one to back down from a fight, and neither was Brian. On May 13, six months before the murder, Willie and Brian were out at a club shenazi owned in coconut grove. Brian's brother edwin told us he got a call from Brian the next morning.
- [31:18]
A
It was early in the morning, which is rare for him to call that morning like that. Asking, he said, edwin, man, I just. We had a bad fight, bad fight, and I don't feel good about it.
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B
Brian told edwin about how he had gone to the club with willie and some of willie's friends, and one thing led to another, and they got into
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A
a fight with some street people that they thought was, like, real gangsters.
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B
Brian's brother edric told police that Brian beat someone up and someone else in the fight got stabbed or cut with a razor blade. Here, edwin refers to Brian by his middle name, sydney.
- [31:52]
A
And Sidney said that he remembered fighting and he just seen blood everywhere.
- [31:59]
B
After everyone got kicked out of the club, police reportedly came to break up the fight in the parking lot. As Brian and willie were leaving, someone called out after them, we're going to get you. Brian's brother fednall was in the club that night. He told the cops that the guys they fought belonged to a gang called the women westside boys. Could someone from this fight have come back to kill Brian for revenge? Six months later, we asked Brian's teammates if he'd seemed nervous. After that, Quarterback Kyle wright said he'd heard the story of the fight from Brian.
- [32:32]
A
He had told me a story about an altercation he had gotten into with some guys and some other teammates in coconut grove. And then he had seen those same guys a few weeks later at a park back where he was from, and they didn't do anything. And he said, if those guys were killers, they would have got me then.
- [32:54]
B
Still, after Brian's murder, Kyle thought back to that story.
- [32:58]
A
I never didn't really think much of it until that night. And of course, your mind goes to that place of, who knows, maybe it was those guys.
- [33:07]
B
Brian's girlfriend, Jada brody, told police about this fight on the night of the murder. Investigators seem to take this lead seriously. Remember at the scene of the murder, Former prosecutor Herbert walker thought it might be a targeted killing.
- [33:23]
A
It seemed more along the lines of some kind of, you know, like a
- [33:26]
B
gangland style assassination, if you will. Detectives talked to uncle Sean shanazi about that fight, too. He wasn't at the club that night, but he'd heard about it from his manager. He told police he didn't think the fight would have led to Brian's killing.
- [33:41]
A
Brian was not the guy who started the fight. Brian was in the group.
- [33:46]
B
If anything, he said, the other guys might want to get the person who started the fight.
- [33:50]
A
I was going to ask who started the fight. It would be willie.
- [33:53]
B
But by the time of the murder, Willie williams wasn't in miami anymore. Two months after the fight, and only a month before the football season started, he transferred to a community college in los angeles. Detectives interviewed willie about the fight. They wrote about their conversation in the police report. He told them he'd been scared. He said over the course of that fall, he had heard from three different sources that the guys they'd fought with had ordered a hit on him and brian. The month before the murder, Willie called brian from california to tell him that he was in danger. When brian picked up his cell phone, he was out with his girlfriend jada, at a movie. Brian told willie, I will handle it. My people know their people. The next day, Brian called willie back and told him, I took care of it. We are good. But according to jada's interview with detective dominguez, Brian was nervous after that. She told dominguez that he taped over the vanity plate for his suv because the plate split, spelled out pata. And as we know, by this time, Brian was sleeping in his closet with his guns. Police did try to figure out who brian fought with that night, but they don't seem to have followed up on the tip about the westside boys. Although we tried many times over the past eight years to arrange an interview. Willie would not speak with us for this series. But based on willie's account in the police report, Brian had called his people to try to get the beef squashed. Who had he called? Possibly this guy.
- [35:32]
A
My name Ali Adam.
- [35:35]
B
In the mid-90s, Ali Adam Co founded a street gang based in little haiti called zopound. The word zo comes from the haitian
- [35:43]
A
creole word for bone, but it really came from fighting. They said, man, your bones is hard.
- [35:51]
B
Adam says zopound got into the drug trade when he and a friend stole a shipment of drugs Coming into the port of miami.
- [35:57]
A
Our first one is 482 kilos off a boat and did it, like five times. 400 kilos, 600 kilos. So we're known zo pound.
- [36:08]
B
From boosting drugs meant for cuban gangs, Zopound moved on to flying in their own shipments of cocaine from colombia to haiti and then bringing them to miami. That brought zopound into conflict with other Miami drug gangs.
- [36:22]
A
We were making every so much money, you know, I got $4 million stash, 5 million. And all these girls in these cars just on my block, Just in the car, just sitting in there, you know, it's like a dream come true. It's like something you a rap video might do, you know?
- [36:43]
B
The feds eventually caught up with Adam. He served nearly 18 years in federal custody before his release in 2024. We spoke to him after he got out. Adam remained plugged into Miami's Haitian community even as his business expanded. He said he first met Brian at a high school football game.
- [37:03]
A
You going to them high school games. Their super bowl ain't got more people than Miami high school games.
- [37:10]
B
At the time, Adam was promoting a record label he called House of fire, giving label swag to the players.
- [37:17]
A
I give out house of fire t shirts, House of fire cups, House of fire hats to the kids. I want them to wear it. I'm promoting. They know the rapper's song. So I'll give Brian. Boom, man. I need a man. I need a 5x. I'm like, man, we gonna get you a 5x, man.
- [37:32]
B
Adam said he kept an eye on Brian's rise from Central High to the University of Miami. After he went to, um, Brian stayed in touch with Adam. Brian told Adam that he was majoring in criminology.
- [37:45]
A
You know, my mind is like, wicked, like, so he studied criminology. I'm like, for real. So I always looked at them dudes like, yo, I need you in the future. Now I might need you because this is my field.
- [37:57]
B
Adam said that Brian would drive back through the old neighborhood in his tricked out cars. And according to Adam, and he was the one who helped Brian pay for
- [38:05]
A
those cars, he lived a life where, you know, those old school cars cost.
- [38:10]
B
Did you ever give Brian money?
- [38:11]
A
All the time.
- [38:13]
B
So how much do you think you gave him?
- [38:15]
A
I don't know. Like, here, go three grand. Four grand. Four grand. Flip this. I'm about to do this, man. I'm telling you, I could flip this I'm doing T shirt and bring you back money. I ain't bring nothing back. Oh, man.
- [38:26]
B
Through all of our reporting, we were trying to track down the source of Brian's money. We asked Nevin Shapiro and Sean Shanazi, but they said they only gave Brian small amounts. Here Adam was telling us that he provided bigger amounts. The kind of money Brian would have needed to buy cars and rims. We can't confirm Ollie Adams account of his relationship with Brian. Brian's brothers weren't aware of any connection he might have had with Adam. Neither was his roommate, Duane Hendricks. But if a drug kingpin really was bankrolling Brian, that would certainly help explain why he wouldn't tell his family about it. His mom did everything she could to keep Brian and his brothers out of trouble. The Paddls hoped Brian's chance at the NFL would help them escape Little Haiti. Getting money from Zopound would never have fit into the family's picture of Brian. It took us eight years of reporting to track down this source of Brian's money. To us, the possibility that Brian was getting money from a founder of Zo Pound certainly seems significant. But there is no indication that the police ever interviewed Adam about Brian. In 2019, I interviewed Rudy Gonzalez, the supervisor on the case, and I asked him whether they ever looked into Brian's cash flow. Did you look through Brian's bank records? And if so, did you find anything worthwhile?
- [39:53]
A
No, we did not.
- [39:54]
B
You did not look?
- [39:55]
A
We did not look up his bank records.
- [39:59]
B
There was another big reason we thought the police should have wanted to talk to Ali Adam. That's because he's connected to Brian's fight at the nightclub. Adam said Brian never sold drugs for Zopound, or, as far as he knew, for other gangs. He wasn't a member of Zopound. But Adams said Brian would let on that he was connected to Zopound, especially when he got into fights.
- [40:22]
A
So if I look, he's using Zopound as a face.
- [40:25]
B
Do you think that he was representing himself as a member of Zopound?
- [40:30]
A
It should be natural for him, too, because it would be beneficial for him in every way of life.
- [40:36]
B
Adam told me that he remembered Brian asking him for help with some gang members who were posing some kind of problem for him. It struck Adam at the time because as far as he knew, Brian wasn't involved in street life.
- [40:48]
A
Be like, do you know? Blah, blah, blah. That might shock me, because you shouldn't know a deep street dude.
- [40:56]
B
When you say deep names, you're talking about people who are, like, deep in Zoepound.
- [40:59]
A
Nah, deep in other crews.
- [41:02]
B
Could these have been the guys that he and Willie fought with at the club? And when Brian told Willie, my people know their people. Could he have been talking about Ollie Adam? Adam said he didn't remember when this happened or what the specifics of Brian's problem were. Nor does he remember exactly who Brian was asking about. Just that they were bad dudes who someone like Brian shouldn't Have any reason to be involved with.
- [41:27]
A
He was asking for protection, but I won't ever deal with him in protection.
- [41:31]
B
Adam did confirm something about Brian, though. He said Brian would get into fights. He remembered seeing Brian go after someone at a club.
- [41:40]
A
He was just whooping him. By the time I see him, he was. It was over with.
- [41:45]
B
And did you.
- [41:46]
A
This is not just this. This is like three, four times. This is. He's a fighter, like, you know, like, oh, shoot, there he go again.
- [41:57]
B
As far as Adam was concerned, a fight at a club could definitely have led to Brian's murder. Those threats from the guys they fought with were going to get you. He would have taken that seriously.
- [42:09]
A
Yes, I would. Me personally, yes.
- [42:16]
B
Adam wasn't the only person connecting Brian to ZooPound. Back in 2006, Omar Kelly was a sports writer for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
- [42:25]
A
I started digging into it many, many years ago just because I knew Brian. I was covering that team. I had people and new people who were in the police department.
- [42:39]
B
Kelly said he did some reporting early on to try to figure out who the killer was until a source inside the Miami PD told him to knock it off.
- [42:48]
A
When I stopped looking into it was because I was warned that these people will literally come up in your house and kill your family. Family. If you address this, write about it, talk about it, deal with it, like, say anything about it.
- [43:04]
B
Kelly said, according to his source inside the police department, Brian was targeted because he was beloved by the Haitian community in Miami.
- [43:12]
A
Brian was a star in that community. He was popular. He was like a celebrity in that community. Therefore a celebrity of the zo pound. And you send messages. If you're killing somebody's family, they sent a message. It was loud and clear.
- [43:28]
B
Kelly thought Brian's murder could have been retribution for some other gang killing. So I asked Ollie Adam whether some other gangs might have been sending a message to Zoepound by killing Brian.
- [43:40]
A
Nah, you don't do that. Yeah, they don't do that. Yeah, they don't send messages. I'm not. And they don't do that. You know, we sent message, but, you know, Brian was just, you know, not to say we not perfect. We is not, you know, we cannot win them all. We done lost too many. Damn near. But Brian, Brian case, that wasn't the case in my lens, you know, in my lens. Nah.
- [44:06]
B
Adam went to prison a little more than a year after Brian's death. He says he thought a lot about Brian's murder while inside. He had his own theory of the case, and maybe he was just trying to draw attention away from Zopound. But Adam's theory revolved around a different figure in Brian's story. His girlfriend, Jada Brody.
- [44:29]
A
It's Brian and the girl, man. It's Brian and the girl. Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press 1 for more options. Hi, it's a message for Jada. Hi, Jada. My name is Dan Aruda. I'm a producer with espn. I'm calling because we're working on a story about Brian Potter. I was hoping you might be willing to see down with me and give me your thoughts and memories about Brian and help bring our story to life. If you get a chance and you can give me a call back, I'd appreciate your time. My number is.
- [45:17]
B
Dan left that voicemail. In 2019, we contacted JADA Brody multiple times over the years. We called, texted, sent direct messages and tried to work through her friends and relatives, But Jada declined to talk with us. So did her relatives. Still, as we interviewed Brian's family, coaches, and teammates, the picture that started to form of his relationship with Jada was complicated. According to the police report, it was abusive. As far as we know, there's no evidence connecting Jada Brody Brian's murder. Still, Jada was one of the first people former prosecutor Herbert Walker looked at closely. Everybody's a suspect when somebody dies.
- [46:08]
A
So, you know, even though the girlfriend's
- [46:11]
B
the first person to call, you know,
- [46:12]
A
whenever you have homicide and you have
- [46:16]
B
a domestic situation, the first thing you're
- [46:19]
A
going to do if you're. I mean, if we're honest, one of is to take think, well, you know,
- [46:24]
B
domestic relations, that's something people kill people over.
- [46:26]
A
That's something people get upset about.
- [46:28]
B
So you're kind of wanting to look at everything. Jada grew up in west Palm Beach, Florida, about 90 minutes north of Miami. She had plans of becoming an obstetrician. In high school, she was a member of the future business leaders of America and won a scholarship from the McDonald's Black history makers of tomorrow. She arrived at the university of Miami as a freshman in 2005. Brian's teammate Dave Howell went to high school with Jada. He remembers the first time Brian saw her.
- [46:58]
A
When, you know, Brian finally, like, I guess, laid eyes on her, he was just like, man, you know, she's beautiful. And I told him, I said, I know her. And I said, if, you know, you want me to try to introduce you guys, Then I can do that. And he kind of, you know, asked me about her and everything and I told him, I said, man, she's passing me all flying colors, like, she's a good girl.
- [47:18]
B
Dave brought the pair together at a party in the Rathskeller, an on campus restaurant.
- [47:22]
A
I wouldn't say that at first. They just clicked right off the bat. It was more of a, you know, you had to work to get with her, to actually be in a relationship with her. You had to win her over. You had to win her over. Correct.
- [47:35]
B
To most of Brian's teammates, his relationship with Jada seemed like a happy one. But those closest to Brian told us in reality it was toxic. Jada spent a lot of time around the team. Coach Hurt witnessed the relationship at close range.
- [47:50]
A
It was, you know, hot and cold. It was. There was days that where they were very close and they, you know, really got along and, you know, you could see care and affection for one another. But there was other days where they did not get along. And it could be a little bit of a volatile relationship from time to time. And that's not anything against Jada. You know, I just didn't always agree that that was the best compatible relationship for him.
- [48:16]
B
Brian's family and mentors had concerns about the relationship. Several of Brian's teammates said that he cheated on Jada, while club owner Sean Shenazi cast doubt on Jada's intentions with Brian.
- [48:29]
A
Brian was innocent. He had this innocence of a kid, innocence that he didn't see alternative motives. And me, being my age and my background, I always look for Artillery Motors first. And I'm like, okay, just be careful.
- [48:43]
B
Brian's brothers Edwin and Edric remember talking to Brian about Jada.
- [48:47]
A
Well, I just told him, she bad news, man. She toxic, man. They're like, don't worry about it. I'm gonna leave her anyway.
- [48:54]
B
They said Brian planned to end the relationship once he started training in Jacksonville for the NFL draft.
- [49:00]
A
I'm going to Jacksonville. I'm going to lead anyway. I'm a leave her, but gotta do it. He was trying to do it at the right time, but he didn't know how to do it.
- [49:08]
B
This would have happened a few months after the end of Miami season. At the memorial service that the university held for Brian, Jada read a text message. She said it was from Brian. It read, good morning, baby. I'm sorry I couldn't get you a car for our one year anniversary. I know we argue, but that makes us grow stronger. At the beginning of our relationship. I never apologized but now I apologize all the time because I don't want to lose you. In a few years, we're getting married. So you better be ready when I ask you. I love you so much. Former prosecutor Herbert Walker remembered asking Jada about whether Brian seemed ready to end their relationship. I seem to remember her trying to
- [49:52]
A
convince me that, oh, no, we were solid. He wasn't going to leave me. He wasn't going to leave me. And getting the impression from the mom, yeah, he was gonna leave her for sure. And she was on her way out the door.
- [50:04]
B
Multiple people we spoke to told us that Brian and Jada fought often, including his brother Fentanyl.
- [50:11]
A
Like, during the end, like, they was always arguing. It was always arguing over something petty or something like that. But she used to piss him off for some reason. She could push his buttons. Yeah. I remember one time he took all her stuff. He threw it out and said, get out. Out of the colony. Did you ever think it got physical? Did it? I think he put her hands on it probably before. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Did you ever see it? No, I never seen it. But you were sure that towards the end, he was telling you that he was gonna end it? Yeah. Said it more than one time.
- [50:50]
B
Brian's family didn't approve of Jada, and it seems that Jada's family didn't approve of Brian either. Fednull told us that at one point in the spring of 2006, Brian received a threatening phone call from a member of Jada's family.
- [51:04]
A
Somebody, a relative of hers, threatened him. And he said, yeah, he, like, F U2 Blasey Blasey Blasey. He like, you got a gun? I got a gun, too. I remember, like, here yesterday. Do you think he started looking over his shoulder a little bit more? Yeah, yeah. I'd never, you know, seen him that
- [51:20]
B
way, but he was upset. Brian's sister Renette remembered Brian didn't want to sleep at his apartment after getting that call, so he spent the night at her house, and he brought his guns.
- [51:32]
A
I don't think he slept that night, because I just felt like he was just watching.
- [51:41]
B
The police did look into a phone call from Jada's family. They found that in the spring of 2006, Jada had spoken to her father, Jerry, while he was in prison. Jada told her father that Brian had broken up with her because he suspected her of cheating on him and that he was talking trash about her. Jerry told police that he then called Brian from prison 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, including unlawful possession of a firearm. And his father said that Jerome would have killed anyone who messed with the family. When I talked to Zo Pound founder Ollie Adam, he told us he thought Jerome could be connected to the fight in the nightclub. Was Jerome with one of these rival gangs?
- [52:35]
A
I think he was one of them, yeah.
- [52:38]
B
Back then, the police report said that the people they were fighting with might have been members of the Westside Boys. Would that have been the gang he would have been tied to?
- [52:48]
A
Yeah, that would be the gang he tied to.
- [52:53]
B
You're sure about that?
- [52:55]
A
Yeah.
- [52:57]
B
Jerome was arrested several weeks after Brian's killing when cops found guns in a car he'd rented in Boston. In December 2006, Detective Dominguez traveled to Massachusetts to interview him in jail. Here's what Dominguez wrote in his report, read by a voice actor.
- [53:16]
A
After introductions were made, Mr. Brody reacted arrogant, appeared to be in a bad mood, and had an aggressive attitude towards this investigator. Mr. Brody stated, I will listen to you guys, but I'm not saying shit. Mr. Brody advised that he does not remember where he was when Brian Pata was murdered. This investigator asked Mr. Brody if he had ever met Brian Pata, and he responded by stating, I'm not answering that question. Mr. Brody then stated, you are all wasting your time up here. You all from Miami, and come 1800 miles to see me. Let me have your card. I will contact you through my family if I remember anything. You all are harassing my family. Mr. Brody terminated speaking with this investigator and displayed an aggressive behavior.
- [54:02]
B
We contacted Jerome, too, but he wouldn't speak to us either, except to ask how we got his number. But to Herbert Walker, the former prosecutor, this theory was credible. Did Brian beat up Jada at some
- [54:18]
A
point and the brother was gonna get revenge? That resonated with me more completely as
- [54:25]
B
a experienced Thomas High prosecutor that.
- [54:28]
A
That motive shops.
- [54:30]
B
And I thought, yeah, that.
- [54:33]
A
That of all the different theories I've
- [54:35]
B
heard, gangs and the incident at the
- [54:37]
A
club, I thought that that made the most sense.
- [54:41]
B
As I mentioned earlier, Jada wouldn't talk with us.
- [54:45]
A
She hasn't been the most cooperative person. But I would hope, you know, 12 years later that she'd maybe want to, you know, remember something that she could help us with.
- [54:54]
B
Early in his reporting, Dan spoke with a former detective on the case named Pat Diaz. By this time, Diaz was a private detective working for The Pata family. He and Dan visited the crime scene together.
- [55:07]
A
When you say uncooperative, was she unwilling to walk through the events of that night or is she just her memory? Oh no, she gave us a statement, but it was not anything of any substance that would help us in anything
- [55:18]
B
remember. Brian was worried about something in the weeks before his death. He was having nightmares, sleeping in the closet with his guns covering his license plate. After spending eight years looking into every corner of Brian's life, we found lots of reasons Brian could have been worried about his safety. And any one of those suspects could have been on the other end of that phone conversation Chris Zellner remembered Brian having right before he was killed.
- [55:47]
A
If you want it, man, come see me then.
- [55:50]
B
Chris was positive that on the night of Brian's murder he told police about that phone call earlier in the day.
- [55:56]
A
Let me tell the cops because maybe they can look at who called or something because that conversation was one of those conversations where it was like.
- [56:04]
B
And someone corroborated his story. Ed Hudak, the cop who ran security for the Hurricanes, also said Chris told him about that call.
- [56:12]
A
He told me he was arguing with somebody. I passed that on to the detectives as well because I mean, at that point, I mean, I'm just going to pass on information. So when he said that, that's what was going on, that was given to the detectives that night.
- [56:26]
B
The police conducted an interview with Chris the night of the murder. They even wrote down Brian's cell phone number. They would need that to access his phone records. But they didn't document the overheard call anywhere in the police report.
- [56:38]
A
Was that call investigated? His phone records were investigated and 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.
- [57:00]
B
That's important.
- [57:01]
A
Important, yes. And I, I do recall him being on the phone having a conversation with somebody. So you were able to identify who that phone call was with? I'm not going to confirm or deny that at this moment. Can you confirm or deny? Can I have his name? Chris Zellner. Z E L L N E R. Can you confirm or deny whether or not that person was interviewed? To be honest with you, I'd have to really look into that. You gotta understand, we interviewed a lot of people.
- [57:49]
B
It seemed like the lead detective on the case didn't know about this call until we told him. Now it's possible that Chris misremembered that phone call. Cell records provided by the police don't show any calls on Brian's phone around the time Chris remembers overhearing that conversation. But Brian had at least two phones and we have call logs for only one of them. And remember, Ed Hudak backs up Chris version. Here's what we do know. To this day, we've never seen any mention of this call in any police records. Ultimately, it seemed to us that there were a number of credible theories of the case. In each one, someone might have had a motive to kill Brian. And there was one big piece of evidence that overheard phone call that the detectives didn't seem aware of. But in the end, these leads did not point to the person the Pata family believed was the killer. They would suspect someone else entirely. Someone Brian knew well, someone he saw almost every day. And they had history.
- [59:03]
A
Brian get on top of this dude and headbutts him five times. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
- [59:19]
B
Back on the night of Brian's murder, the whole Hurricanes team assembled in the Hex center for a mandatory meeting. Everyone got the message and everyone showed up. All except one player.
- [59:33]
A
I think that's kind of started some of the speculation is like, dude, the man kind of just went missing. I I don't know if he can come to a, um, function. Like, I don't think he would do that because who knows what would happen from there. Are there guys on the team who have told you they think he did it? Yeah, people speculated that stuff from day one. M don't want to put it out there, but it was a teammate.
- [60:00]
B
Next time on Murder at the U. The story of Rashawn Jones. Murder at the U is based on reporting by me, Paula Levine and Dana Ruda, with support from Scott Frankel, Elizabeth Merrill and ESPN's investigative unit. Our senior producer is Matt Frasica. Our senior editorial producer is Preeti Varathan. Our associate producers are Megan Coyle and Gus Navarro. Story editing by Adeza Egan. Additional editing by Ben Weber and Mike Drago. Our archival producer is Matthew Fisher. Our line producer is Kath Senke. Production managers are Jason Schwartz and Sheena Williams. Fact checking by David Sabino. Original music and sound design by Ryan Ross Smith. Chris Buckle is vice president of ESPN Investigative enterprise and Digital journalism. Marcia Cook, Brian Lockhart, Heather Anderson and Burke Magnus are executive producers for 30 for 30.