Former Miami teammate charged with 2006 murder of Bryan Pata

Former Miami football player Bryan Pata was murdered in a shooting back in 2006, and it took police 15 years to make an arrest in the previously unsolved case.

Rashaun Jones, a former defensive back who was teammates with Pata at Miami, was arrested by Miami-Dade police on Thursday and charged with the murder of Pata, according to The Miami Herald. The 35-year-old had long been considered a suspect in the case, as he had once gotten into a physical altercation with Pata and dated Pata’s girlfriend.

Pata was shot in the back of the head outside his apartment complex near the Miami campus on Nov. 7, 2006. He had practiced with the Hurricanes earlier that day. There were no direct witnesses to the shooting.

Pata, a former defensive end, was a rising star before he was murdered. He was expected to be drafted early in the 2007 NFL Draft.