forums

Bryan Pata case update - upcoming bond hearing for Jones

Advertisement
TpaBayFlyFisher said:
I have a friend who represented a guy charged with capital murder. Spent three years in jail awaiting trial. Was offered a “time served” deal in exchange for a guilty plea to manslaughter. The client said NO. Jury convicted him of first degree. Did not recommend death so he was sentenced to life. Still says he is innocent but no new evidence has appeared and the Innocence Project gave up his case…..either an idiot or truly innocent.
Click to expand...
Wow thats tough, im leaning he had to be truly innocent to pass on walking out of jail.
 
Yoyo423 said:
I'm not a legal expert at all but with how old the case is and no real "smoking gun", I'm not sure if he'll be found guilty.

Personally, I think he did. But "beyond a reasonable doubt"? I'm not sure that threshold can be reached with the evidence and case they have.
Click to expand...
After listening to the podcast and reading about the the trial, I could see this as a hung jury or an innocent verdict because there was no weapon found, no 100 percent witness testimony and a lot of circumstantial evidence. I’m no lawyer though
 
hharvey09 said:
After listening to the podcast and reading about the the trial, I could see this as a hung jury or an innocent verdict because there was no weapon found, no 100 percent witness testimony and a lot of circumstantial evidence. I’m no lawyer though
Click to expand...

I’m not in the courtroom so this is probably totally irrelevant but knowing what i know about the case I have no idea how you can convict this dude of murder. There’s zero hard evidence THAT I KNOW OF. And if there was, it’d have been reported by now. My money is he skates.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I’m not in the courtroom so this is probably totally irrelevant but knowing what i know about the case I have no idea how you can convict this dude of murder. There’s zero hard evidence THAT I KNOW OF. And if there was, it’d have been reported by now. My money is he skates.
Click to expand...
Sad situation all around. Neither side has come out better from this. I wish it was black and white and everybody knew the truth but unfortunately I don’t know if they ever will.
 
Jones denied making call to Sanders asking him for money but cell phone records and Sanders testimony proves it happened. Jones lied about his whereabouts that he was home at time of murder with cell phone records conflicting with that. Also Connor's recorded testimony ID'd Jones leaving the scene of crime after he heard a pop at Pata's apartment complex, and Jones initially lied that he was at the mandatory team meeting but he was never seen at the meeting by any players. Also, the gun jones supposedly owned according to some players was a .38 caliber which matched the bullet that was found in Pata's skull. All the evidence points to Jones but it is no slam dunk since the murder weapon was never found.
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
The state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. They could not do that with this jury pool. Maybe the state elects to retry the case using another pool of jurors, but unless the evidence changes, Jones is not going to be convicted.
 
Wow. Only 1 of the jurors believe he was guilty and held out to cause the mistrial. I can't remember the last time I saw it go that way. Its usually 1 holding out on a guilty verdict.
 
Advertisement
honestly, what a disaster for the Pata family... completely mishandled...

case just gets ignored for 15 years and then only gets revisited because they were publicly shamed/pressured and then ends up with no justice or closure...

sad because it seems like if they pursued it aggressively from the beginning there could have been enough to convict... but instead the case was ignored and evidence sort of got weaker or vanished... almost feels like they would have been better off just letting it go instead of being dragged into all the feelings of the case again and being given false hope....
 
Ghandi said:
I don’t think they can.

There’s just enough to not convict.

I’m sure he’ll confess before he dies. That kind of guilt destroys a man.
Click to expand...
If you look at Jones now in the courtroom, you can kind of see he looks like a beaten man, he looks like he doesnt sleep much and isnt enjoying life.
 
Back
Top