Paula Levine

There wasn't any security camera footage, and there was no record of any physical evidence linking Rashawn to the crime.

The entire case against Rashawn Jones appeared circumstantial.

But then there's this.

a piece of evidence we learned about only in our final interview with detectives.

When we heard this, I felt like a cartoon character with an exclamation point going off over my head.

It's still unclear what prompted police to finally disclose this information after five interviews and two years of conversations, but we were grateful for it.

We'd eventually learn more about this witness and what he told the police.

He didn't witness the shooting itself, but he saw someone leaving the colony apartments on foot.

He would later identify Rashawn as the person he saw.

Throughout our reporting, we'd hoped to get Rashawn's side of the story.

Remember, it had been 12 years since Rashawn had talked to the police about Brian's case.

We knew we might get only one chance to talk to Rashawn, so we wanted to wait until we had done enough reporting and knew exactly what questions to ask.

In the spring of 2019, Dan finally got Rashawn on the phone.

Rashaun didn't want the phone call to be recorded, so after they hung up, Dan filled in the rest of us on a conference call.

Hi, who's on?

Dan's here.

Danny, what do you got?

It's not good, unfortunately.

I spoke to Rashaun twice in the last half an hour, the first time we got cut off.

He is pretty adamant that he will not be taking part in our story.