Paula Levine
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
The police questioned him, but he didn't hear from them after 2007.
Rashawn was still on the team in the spring, but then, after failing another drug test, he left.
He transferred to a college in North Carolina, and he ended up playing arena football in Texas.
But after Texas, Rashawn moved back home to Florida.
In 2018, he married his high school girlfriend, Ashenda.
By that time, he had five children.
And this is where our timelines converge.
It had been nearly 12 years since Brian's murder.
Rashawn and the people in his orbit were going about their lives, most likely not thinking about Brian Pata, until we began calling them up and asking questions.
Rashawn grew up in a small town in northern Florida called Lake City.
Rashawn's friend, George Timmons, describes the town this way.
George grew up playing football with Rashawn from the age of eight or nine.
Rashawn was raised by his mother and grandmother.
George said he and Rashawn would hang out at his grandmother's house.
In high school, Rashawn became a nationally ranked cornerback.
As he went into his senior year in Lake City, universities such as Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida recruited him.
But, like Brian, Rashawn chose the U. George also decided to play football at Miami.
Rashawn joined the Hurricanes in 2004, one year after Brian.
He played in about half the games in his first two seasons.
Linebacker John Beeson came to Miami the same year as Rashawn and remembered him as a strong player.