Omar Kelly's sad reminder: U-M player Bryan Pata's murder still unsolved

Go to the Sun-Sentinel website, below, to see some really touching photos as well as a photo gallery of Bryan, his family and U-M teammates, and how they've tried to honor him and keep his spirit alive in them.

Sun-Sentinel Hurricanes beat reporter Omar Kelly, never one to shy away from his feelings, shares some additional thoughts on Bryan Pata:
"Bryan was in my thoughts on draft day. While I watched Jon Beason's family celebrate Beason achieving that life altering dream of making it to the NFL I thought about the pain the Pata family was in. Not just on draft day, but every day."
Read the whole entry on Omar's consistently prescient and insightful blog at:
http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_college_hurricanes/

The Sun-Sentinel's up-to-date 'Canes site is at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/hurricanes/
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-sppata07may07,0,3820662.story
UM player's slaying 6 months ago remains unsolved
By Omar Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 7, 2007

NORTH MIAMI ·

Jeanette Pata's world is still turned upside down.

The Haitian immigrant who worked double shifts as a hotel maid to provide for her nine children can no longer work. She barely eats, and according to her 24-year-old twin sons, Edwin and Edrick Pierre-Pata, their mom still wakes up every other night crying, grieving over her youngest child, Bryan Pata, the University of Miami defensive lineman who was murdered six months ago today.

"She's still stuck thinking that Bryan will appear, come peeking out from around the corner. She still hears his voice, and every time it happens it crushes your spirit," said Edwin, the former Florida State tight end.

He had to leave his Tallahassee apartment to talk about his deceased brother because his mother was staying with him for a few days.

Talking about Bryan usually depressed Jeanette, who chokes up when she hears his name or anything about the Hurricanes. She was in Tallahassee because the NFL Draft took place the previous weekend and Jeanette knew all the buzz was going to be too much for her to avoid and handle.

Everyone who knew Bryan, from Miami Central High, knew he spent most of his life working toward and dreaming about the draft weekend. The signing bonus he anticipated was going to allow him to provide for his family, which had moved at least 20 times throughout his childhood because of financial struggles.

But those dreams ended on Nov. 7. An hour after leaving practice, Bryan Pata was murdered outside his Kendall apartment.The fun-loving, 22-year-old criminology major, whose world centered around his large family, football and tricked-out cars, was shot multiple times in the back of his head.

Instead of experiencing the highs and lows of draft weekend, Bryan, a two-year starter who was projected by some NFL Draft analysts as a potential mid-round selection, was buried Nov. 14 in the beige suit he planned to wear to his draft party.

His grave at Dade North Memorial Park lies across from the football field where he and his older brothers, Edwin and Edrick, who also played college football, grew up training, pushing one another to their limits.

Bryan's father, Junior Pierre, manicures the lawn every two weeks. Jeanette makes sure fresh flowers are always present, growing among the stuffed animals, balloons and a football with R.I.P. written on it. Edrick says every time he visits the grave he notices something new one of Bryan's friends has left, and for a moment, he smiles at the thought of how many lives Bryan touched.

The family plans to move him to a tomb 15 feet away when it finishes paying for the plot. The plan is for all the family someday to be buried around him.

Edrick said there's rarely a minute when he doesn't think about Bryan, and he knows he shares that habit with his siblings since the family's Sunday dinners haven't been the same.

A lot of the dinner discussions are about the investigation. Edrick admits he's obsessed with it.

"They have a lot of information, a lot of leads, but they can only tell us part of what's going on," Edwin said. "We try to fill in the other parts, but we've learned we can't do that."

A week ago, investigators told Edrick the case was starting "to heat up" with more leads. But after six months, there's no motive, no suspects and plenty of suspicion, despite the $25,000 reward for a tip leading to an arrest.

Jada Brody, Pata's girlfriend from West Palm Beach, and Dwayne Hendricks, Bryan's UM teammate who also shared the apartment, found his body just off the complex parking lot. According to Edwin, Brody mourned Bryan as much as the family did and has transferred from UM to Clemson.

Three Miami-Dade investigators call occasionally to update the family on the case and any leads. But when the phone calls stop and detectives take a few days to return messages, the Patas admit they become more discouraged.

Miami-Dade police refuse to discuss the investigation or details of Pata's murder.

"In open homicide investigations, we don't make a lot of comments so we don't take the chance of compromising the investigation," said Detective Mary Walters, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Police Department. "The need to know could run the risk of jeopardizing the case."

The family hired private investigator Greg Slate, hoping he would lead them to something relevant. But Edwin wasn't pleased with Slate's few discoveries and said Slate hasn't been in touch with the family after being featured in HBO's Real Sports segment about Bryan's murder. Attempts to reach Slate were unsuccessful.

Edwin Pata said if Bryan had died in a car accident or by something health-related, his death wouldn't be so unsettling. He suspects the family would have grieved, remembered and "maybe eventually coped." But with Bryan murdered execution style, the family has had a more difficult time.

Edwin, who graduated from FSU last spring and is working on a master's degree in educational leadership, said the only hope he has for closure is finding the killer.

Edrick has theories that his brother was killed by some element of "organized crime." He bases that off the police questions, and things people have told him, but won't elaborate.

"It was premeditated murder. They plotted on my brother," said Edrick, who played receiver at Division II Virginia Union. "They watched him. Someone knew and studied Bryan to the fullest, to the point where they knew what time he leaves practice, the route he took, when he gets home, where he parks his car."

Edrick pointed out that Pata's Infiniti QX56 SUV, a truck his brother-in-law helped him buy, wasn't stolen. Neither was his jewelry, nor the $700 Bryan had in his pocket that day to pay bills.

"They only wanted to kill Bryan," Edrick said. "In the process, they've destroyed my family."

If you have information about the murder of Bryan Pata, call Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 305-471-TIPS (8477).

Omar Kelly can be reached at okelly@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel