Judge sets May retrial date in Miami football murder case

Prosecutors will retry ex-Miami Hurricanes football player Rashaun Jones on May 18, a judge decided Wednesday after having declared a mistrial earlier this week due to a hung jury in the second-degree murder case.

Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda also reduced Jones’ bond from $850,000 to $500,000 after rejecting his attorney’s request to lower it to $50,000.

Jones’ attorney Sara Alvarez said her client still would not be able to come up with the money needed for release under the reduced bond — about $50,000, or 10% of the bond.

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Miranda also asked Jones if he was interested in a plea deal, which Jones refused. That repeated an exchange the two had in a pretrial hearing in which Jones also said he would not take a plea, even at an offer of 15 years with time served — lower than the guidelines for second-degree murder convictions. He could receive a life term if convicted.

Jones has been in custody since his August 2021 arrest in connection to the murder of teammate Bryan Pata nearly 15 years earlier. Pata was shot in the head outside his apartment complex on Nov. 7, 2006, after coming home from practice.

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Prosecutors relied heavily on testimony to show that jealousy over a woman and a history of physical altercations drove Jones to murder Pata after Jones was distraught over having received word of a two-game suspension for having a failed drug test.

A former University of Miami writing instructor identified Jones as the man he saw leaving the apartment complex shortly after the killing.

Jurors who spoke to ESPN said the state didn’t have the evidence to prove Jones was the killer and said there were problems with the credibility of the eyewitness testimony.

Under Florida law, prosecutors have 90 days in which to retry a case after a mistrial.