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Paula Lavigne
Multiple Authors
A judge Thursday delayed the retrial of the former University of Miami football player accused of killing a teammate in 2006, amid an internal police investigation into the lead detective, a misconduct complaint against the former lead prosecutor and the reintroduction of a controversial jailhouse informant.
Attorneys for Rashaun Jones filed a motion to dismiss the case early Thursday morning because of the developments, among other filings requesting additional records and permission to use them in questioning during the trial.
In a hearing Thursday, Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda admonished the attorneys for filing past her April 27 deadline and said she would not have time to rule on the motions before the scheduled May 18 trial. The attorneys argued that they could not file by the deadline because the events triggering their motions had occurred within the past week. After a heated back-and-forth, Miranda rescheduled the trial for Sept. 14.
“I don’t understand what makes you think this case is any different than every other case that was heard here today,” Miranda said to the defense attorneys. “I don’t have any days available between now and then to do all of the work that you would like to schedule into my calendar.”
Jones, 40, has been in jail for almost five years since he was arrested and charged with the murder of Bryan Pata. A trial earlier this year ended in a hung jury, which prompted the judge to declare a mistrial.
Jones’ attorney, Sara Alvarez, told ESPN that her client chose to stay in custody longer so that they can pursue the developments in the case.
“Today, Rashaun was given an ultimatum,” she said. “Rashaun made a very difficult but smart decision, and chose to preserve his rights — even if it means staying in custody until he can have his day in court once again.”
Pata’s brother, Edwin Pata, expressed frustration at the delay.
“This defense team is unprofessional and lack[s] respect for the courts,” he told ESPN. “We will continue to stay optimistic about the case — everything else we cannot control.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ESPN on Thursday that Juan Segovia, the lead detective who took over the Pata case in 2020, is the subject of an internal affairs investigation. The spokesperson declined further comment, citing the pending trial.
Segovia allegedly used an anonymous Instagram account, @balanceof_justice, to post derogatory statements toward Jones and a witness during the February trial in which Segovia testified, according to an emergency motion Alvarez filed April 30 to order preservation of the account.
The account posted on local media reports about the trial, with comments such as “GUILTY,” “I’ve watched a lot of the trial, he’s guilty as sin” and “She’s lying,” in response to a post about testimony from Jones’ ex-girlfriend. Another comment was, “RIP Bryan, thank you MDPD for a good job.”
Alvarez wrote in the motion that such statements go “directly to his bias … and his credibility as the lead detective and the state’s key investigative witness.”
The account also commented on a post from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office in September about Segovia being named to the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees: “Wow, Miami Dade Sheriff’s Office is impressive.”
The motion states that the account is tied to an email, phone number and IP address associated with Segovia. The account followed — and was followed by — several accounts tied to Miami-area law enforcement and judiciary, including Segovia’s wife, Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Christine Hernandez.
ESPN established a connection between the account and a phone number and an email associated with the detective.
Segovia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
Alvarez also filed a motion this week asking for more discovery about jailhouse informant George Jones (no relation to Rashaun Jones). Last week, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office added Jones to its witness list even though it had agreed to remove him last summer after he had sent an email threatening to “tank” the state’s case.
Jones, who is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and identity theft, gave Segovia a statement in April 2022 that during a conversation in November 2021, while both were being held at the Miami-Dade Metro West Detention Center, Rashaun Jones had confessed to killing Pata.
In July 2025, when attorneys from both sides discussed whether George Jones would be a witness, Assistant State Attorney Cristina Diamond said Jones had sent her a “threatening email,” and she agreed to strike him from the witness list.
After the first trial ended in March, George Jones reached out to Edwin Pata via social media, suggesting he could help their case. But in a series of messages and phone calls with ESPN in recent weeks, Jones said he learned that no one from the state attorney’s office would be able to get his federal sentence reduced. He said he was “stressed and upset” and would refuse to testify. He said testifying would put him in danger in prison, and he wouldn’t last on the stand.
“They are going to crucify me because I am George Jones,” he said during a phone call last week, referring to his criminal history.
It’s unclear whether any deal has been struck that led to Jones’ reintroduction to the witness list. ESPN has filed public records requests with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding communication over Jones’ participation in the upcoming trial and his sentence, and has yet to receive responsive records.
ESPN has been unable to reach Jones since he was transported Friday from the federal prison in Memphis to Miami, and his attorney did not have further information.
When George Jones gave his statement to Segovia, the assistant state attorney handling the case was veteran prosecutor Michael Von Zamft. Von Zamft signed off on arresting Rashaun Jones in August 2021 but was replaced by Diamond in 2024.
On March 27, the Florida Bar filed a complaint in the Florida Supreme Court alleging Von Zamft engaged in “serious professional misconduct” in the case of a man convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in a 2004 trial.
The allegations pertain to manipulating witness testimony, providing witnesses benefits such as food, tobacco and personal visits in exchange for testimony, and not disclosing information to the defense, among other issues.
Von Zamft has not responded to a request from ESPN for comment, but in a response filed Wednesday to the Florida Bar complaint, he either denied the allegations or noted that his actions did not amount to misconduct and said “any alleged act or omission was inadvertent, clerical, administrative, the product of mistake, or otherwise not intentional misconduct.”
Alvarez asked the judge to compel the state attorney’s office to provide all records pertaining to George Jones, including his communications with Von Zamft.
“The entirety of his cooperation history in this case was managed by an ASA now formally charged by the Florida Bar with the identical misconduct alleged here: undisclosed coordination of cooperating witnesses and failure to disclose cooperation benefit,” Alvarez wrote in her motion.
In asking the court to dismiss the case, she also cited the cumulative effect of the 15-year delay, noting that it “has caused the death or unavailability of eight material witnesses and the degradation of every surviving investigative witness’s independent recollection.”
Miranda said the motions and a request by defense attorneys to lower Rashaun Jones’ bond, currently at $500,000, would be heard May 18.
ESPN’s Dan Arruda and Scott Frankel contributed to this report.
