Criminal professional Says Rashaun Jones Will Plead Now not Guilty to Payment of Murdering Bryan Pata
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Rashaun Jones will plead no longer responsible to the essential-level destroy price he is facing in the 2006 killing of former Miami Hurricanes soccer teammate Bryan Pata.
Protection authorized professional Michael Mirer, who is representing Jones, educated Elizabeth Merrill and Paula Lavigne of ESPN his client will plead no longer responsible to the cost. If convicted, Jones would possibly maybe very effectively be sentenced to existence without the possibility of parole or a death sentence.
A lift denied Jones’ request for bond at a hearing on Friday, which capability that he’ll stay in jail main up to his Sept. 17 arraignment hearing.
“Or no longer it’s an fresh case,” Mirer talked about. “I imply, the arrest warrant talks about evidence that police gathered attend in 2007, sat on for 15 years, and re-interviewing the same eyewitness that they allegedly interviewed attend in 2007 without any longer evidence in the arrest warrant.”
David Ovalle and Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald reported on Aug. 19 that Jones turned into once arrested and charged as authorities tried to solve who shot Pata in the head and killed him in 2006.
The Miami Herald portray explained there had been no witnesses to the shooting, despite the indisputable truth that a neighbor talked about he saw Jones stroll far flung from the scene. Investigators additionally talked about Pata and Jones had currently fought, and Pata educated his brother that his teammate threatened to shoot him in the head.
In accordance with Merrill and Lavigne, cellphone records suggested Jones turned into once no longer the keep he educated police he turned into once on that 2006 night, and a ballistics portray matched the bullet to a caliber of a invent of gun Jones possessed.
The neighbor additionally picked Jones out of a photo lineup in 2007 and in 2020 all over a convention-up interview.
“An ESPN investigation last drop printed police had lengthy realizing to be Jones a suspect,” Merrill and Lavigne wrote. “In accordance with police documents and interviews, Jones and Pata had a historical past of arguments and fights, and Jones beforehand dated Pata’s female friend.”
Pata turned into once in the center of his senior season and turned into once anticipated to be selected in the 2007 NFL draft.