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paula lavigne
multiple authors
A judge on Thursday delayed a rehearing of an earlier case Miami University Amid an internal police investigation of the lead detective, a misconduct complaint against the former chief prosecutor and the reinstatement of a controversial jailhouse informant, the football player was charged with the murder of a teammate in 2006.
Rashaun Jones’ attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case Thursday morning because of the developments, requesting additional records and permission to use them in questioning during the trial.
At a hearing Thursday, Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Christina Miranda warned lawyers to file before the April 27 deadline and said she would not have time to rule on the petitions before a scheduled May 18 hearing. The lawyers argued that they could not file by the deadline because the events triggering their motion occurred within the previous week. After heated arguments, Miranda rescheduled the trial for September 14.
“I don’t understand why you think this case is any different than every other case heard here today,” Miranda told defense attorneys. “I don’t have any days available between now and then to do all the tasks you want to schedule in my calendar.”
Jones, 40, has been in prison for nearly five years after being arrested for the murder of Brian Pata. A trial earlier this year ended in a hung jury, prompting the judge declare a mistrial.
Jones’ attorney Sara Alvarez told ESPN that her client chose to remain in custody for a longer period of time so he could follow developments in the case.
“Today, Rashaun was given an ultimatum,” she said. “Rashaun made a very difficult but smart decision, and decided to preserve his rights – even if it meant remaining in custody until he could once again have his day in court.”
Pata’s brother Edwin Pata expressed frustration at the delay.
“This defense team is unprofessional and lackluster[s] Respect for the courts,” he told ESPN. “We’ll remain optimistic about the case — everything else we can’t control.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ESPN on Thursday that lead detective Juan Segovia, who handled the Pata case in 2020, is the subject of an internal affairs investigation. The spokesperson declined further comment, citing the pending litigation.
Segovia allegedly used an anonymous Instagram account, @balanceof_justice, to post defamatory statements toward Jones and a witness during the February trial at which Segovia testified, according to an emergency motion filed by Alvarez on April 30 to order preservation of the account.
In response to a post about the testimony of Jones’ ex-girlfriend, accounts posted on local media reported about the trial, with comments such as “Guilty”, “I’ve seen a lot of trials, she’s guilty as sin” and “She’s lying”. Another comment read, “RIP Brian, thank you MDPD for a job well done.”
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 that Segovia was named to the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees: “Wow, the Miami Dade Sheriff’s Office is impressive.”
The proposal said the account was linked to an email, phone number and IP address associated with Segovia. The account followed — and was followed by — several accounts involving Miami-area law enforcement and the judiciary, including Segovia’s wife, Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Christine Hernandez.
ESPN made a connection between the account and a phone number and an email associated with the spy.
Segovia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
Alvarez also filed a motion this week seeking more information 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 because he sent an email threatening to “freeze” the state’s case.
Jones, who is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and identity theft, gave a statement to Segovia 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 confessed to killing Pata.
In July 2025, when attorneys for both sides discussed whether George Jones would testify, Assistant State Attorney Christina Diamond said that Jones had sent her a “threatening email” and she agreed to remove him from the witness list.
After the first trial ended in March, George Jones reached out to Edwin Pata via social media and suggested he could help with his 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 commuted. He said he was “stressed and upset” and would refuse to testify. He said that testifying would put him in danger in jail and he would not be able to take the stand.
“They’re going to crucify me because I’m George Jones,” he said during a phone call last week, referring to his criminal history.
It is unclear whether a deal was struck that led to Jones being added to the witness list again. ESPN has filed public records requests with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding Jones’ participation in the upcoming trial and communications at his sentencing, and has not yet received responsive records.
ESPN has been unable to reach Jones as he was flown to Miami from a federal prison in Memphis on Friday, 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 running back 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 that Von Zamft had engaged in “serious professional misconduct” in the case of a man convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in a 2004 trial.
The charges relate to issues including tampering with witnesses’ testimony, providing benefits such as food, tobacco and personal visits to witnesses in exchange for their testimony, and not disclosing information to the defense.
Von Zamft has not responded to ESPN’s request for comment, but in a response filed Wednesday to the Florida Bar’s complaint, he either denied the allegations or noted that his actions did not amount to misconduct and said that “none of the alleged acts or omissions were the product of unintentional, clerical, administrative, mistake, or otherwise intentional misconduct.”
Alvarez asked the judge to force the state attorney’s office to provide all records related to George Jones, including his communications with von Zamft.
“Their entire cooperation history in this case was managed by an ASA who has now been formally charged by the Florida Bar with the same misconduct: undisclosed coordination of cooperating witnesses and failure to disclose cooperation benefits,” Alvarez wrote in his motion.
In asking the court to dismiss the case, he also cited the cumulative effect of the 15-year delay, noting that it had “led to the death or unavailability of eight important witnesses and a deterioration in the independent memory of every surviving investigation witness.”
Miranda said a hearing will be held on May 18 on a motion and request by defense attorneys to reduce Rashaun Jones’ bond, which is currently $500,000.
ESPN’s Dan Arruda and Scott Frankel contributed to this report.
