Prosecutors: Informant in Pata case says attorney tried to bribe him

Prosecutors reported in a new court filing that a jailhouse informant told police and federal agents that a defense attorney tried to pay him $15,000 not to testify in the upcoming retrial of a former University of Miami football player accused of killing his teammate.

The informant, George Jones, is a federal inmate who has said that while in custody in Miami five years ago, his then-cellmate Rashaun Jones (no relation) confessed to the 2006 murder of teammate Bryan Pata.

According to the prosecution filing, George Jones told authorities that an attorney was paying the bribe. The document names the attorney as "Jeremey." A Miami defense attorney, Jeremy McLymont, is not part of Rashaun Jones' defense counsel but has been in communication with lead attorney Sara Alvarez. He also represented George Jones in 2022 when he gave his statement regarding the alleged confession to a detective.

Wednesday's filing references both defense attorneys only by first name, but other documents and interviews confirm their identities. The filing lists two statements George Jones allegedly made, one on July 21 to a detective from the Miami Dade Sheriff's Office involved in the Pata investigation, and another on Wednesday to federal agents.

The first statement to the detective, as summarized by authorities, reads: "Hey, Jeremey deposited $9,000 in one of my accounts. When asked what the money was for he responded for that and your case."

The statement to federal agents this week is longer, according to the filing, and notes that Jones was awaiting another $6,000.

"The money is for Rashaun Jones," the statement reads, according to the filing. "He was told not to show up and testify. The attorney said that he is the 'smoking gun' and he is good friends with Sara.

He told the agents some of the money "is for him to say the State told him to lie in the other case," apparently in reference to another murder case involving a McLymont client in which George Jones is also an informant.

The filing also notes there is further information in a report from the federal agents with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, but it doesn't offer specifics.

Assistant State Attorney Cristina Diamond and a spokesperson for the office declined to offer further details as to whether there was independent evidence backing up George Jones' claims. They referred an inquiry about the report to the office's public records custodian, who said Wednesday she was working on the request and did not immediately provide the document.

They also did not answer a question as to whether they or federal agents were seeking criminal prosecution of either attorney.

McLymont did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. He no longer officially represents Jones, who was convicted of a variety of white-collar crimes.

Alvarez issued a statement saying, "Rashaun Jones is innocent and remains presumed innocent under the law."

"This process should be determined by evidence-not shifting, unsubstantiated allegations from a jailhouse informant," Alvarez said. "The State's latest filing offers no independent evidence to support those allegations, and we are confident the facts will bear that out. Our focus remains on protecting Rashaun's constitutional rights and preparing for trial."

George Jones did not testify at the first trial, which ended in a hung jury in March. Rashaun Jones was arrested in August 2021 and charged with shooting Pata in the head outside his apartment complex on Nov. 7, 2006, shortly after football practice.

The two were cellmates at a Miami jail, and in April 2022 George Jones gave a statement alleging that Rashaun Jones told him that he got into a "heated argument" with Pata in the parking lot and then he blacked out. George Jones said his cellmate then said, "'The next thing I know, he's on the ground...I didn't mean to shoot him. I didn't mean to shoot him."

For more than a year, attorneys for the state and defense have argued over George Jones' testimony. In a 2024 interview with ESPN, George Jones said he had been promised some reduction in his federal sentence by former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney Michael Von Zamft in exchange for his testimony.

In a deposition in 2025, in the murder case involving McLymont's other client, George Jones also talked about his interaction with Von Zamft over Rashaun Jones, and said he believed that in exchange for his testimony, Von Zamft would talk to his federal prosecutor and the state attorney's office "would see if they could help me with my federal charges."

During those conversations, George Jones said Von Zamft also asked him to gather information about McLymont's other client.

Von Zamft, who was the initial prosecutor on the Rashaun Jones case, is no longer with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office and is currently defending a misconduct complaint by the Florida Bar in the Florida Supreme Court.

Diamond said in a hearing Wednesday that she has promised Jones nothing, and that she has no ability to get his federal sentence changed.

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