Hailing from Columbia, Rashaun Jones has been one of the top cornerback recruits in the nation. The Columbia High School- South product as a senior in 2003 had 60 tackles and a school record of eight interceptions, with 19 passes broken up. Jones spread his talents as a receiver on offense, making 21 catches for 390 yards. These made him rack up offers from North Carolina State, Clemson, South Florida, North Carolina, Florida, Syracuse, and Tennessee. But Jones chose to board the Miami Hurricanes wagon. Hardly did he expect that a dark phase awaited him in the near future.

Jones was initially set to redshirt, but got called into action on special teams for the last four games of the regular season. Over that stretch, he logged a tackle while contributing on both kickoff and punt coverage. Jones’ biggest highlight came against Wake Forest, where he pounced on Sinorice Moss’ blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown. As a sophomore in Miami, he primarily contributed on special teams while filling in with limited reps on defense. He appeared in eight contests, recording one defensive tackle and handling two punt returns that combined for minus two yards. But the next year, in 2006, he allegedly committed a heinous crime, but was arrested 15 years later in 2021.

On August 19, 2021, police arrested former Hurricanes DB in connection with the November 2006 shooting death of teammate Bryan Pata. The charges? Jones was held back on a first-degree murder charge in the killing. He was arrested in Ocala, Florida, on a homicide warrant obtained by Miami-Dade police. Bryan was Jones’ teammate, a defensive lineman who had graduated from Miami Central High School. He was majoring in criminology. On November 7, 2006, the 22-year-old was killed in a shooting in Kendall. But what made Jones the prime suspect?

There have been many witnesses from Miami itself. Eric Moncur, a former UM defensive end, and Dave Howell, an ex-UM defensive tackle. Along with them were two of the victim’s brothers, Edwin Pata and Edwin Pierre Pata. Both Moncur and Howell confessed that they had seen Jones and Bryan get into a fist fight in 2004. Moncur even had to jump into the altercation to split them apart from the heated exchange. After the fight, Howell said that on another occasion, he and Jones were in another student’s dorm when Jones left and came back with a small black revolver and pointed it toward him.

That’s how they connected the dots. Jones and Bryan remained on bitter terms. In 2005, Jones warned Pata and said, “I could burn you in the head,” months before the murder, according to Edwin Pata’s testimony about what Bryan told him. But none of them was the key witness when the actual incident took place. However, looks like the story has taken a massive turn.   

ESPN’s bombshell discovery in Louisville to accelerate Rashaun Jones’ case

In a conversation with an ESPN reporter and in questioning by police, Jones has said he did not kill Bryan. He has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Sara Alvarez, said, “It’s a shame and it’s disgusting that you would be willing to send a man to prison for the rest of his life without any evidence and then not be honest about what evidence exists and doesn’t exist.” That’s when ESPN dropped a stunner on Thursday, September 18. 

Paul Conner, a man Florida prosecutors once believed dead and a potential witness in Bryan’s 2006 murder, has been found alive. Just weeks before Rashaun Jones’ long-delayed murder trial was set to begin in Miami, ESPN reporters tracked down Conner in Louisville, Kentucky. All alive, living in an apartment in Louisville. State attorney’s office spokesperson Ed Griffith told ESPN that police used a public database, which mistakenly suggested Conner was dead. Now that he has been found alive, what makes him so important for the Jones’ case?

Now 81 years old, Conner, a retired University of Miami writing instructor, once lived in the apartment complex where Bryan was shot in the head back in November 2006. He took quick action and alerted the police to the shooting. Conner testified that on the evening of Nov. 7, 2006, shortly before 7 p.m., he was walking toward the Colony Apartment Complex, where both he and Bryan lived. 

As he approached the parking lot entrance, he heard a loud gunshot. Roughly 15 to 20 seconds later, he came face-to-face with a man moving quickly past him. “He smiled at me—his teeth were very white,” Conner recalled, adding that he later gave that description to a forensic artist. When shown a photo lineup, he identified Rashaun Jones’ picture. The reappearance of the missing witness could be the turning point that brings Jones’ case closer to resolution.