30-For-30: Murder at the U

The latest season of ESPN's 30-30 podcast tells the story of a murder that's

“stunned the world of college football, but then just completely went cold.”

In 2006, University of Miami football star Brian Potto was executed in broad daylight, steps away from campus. No weapon, conflicting statements, a case defined more by rumor than evidence. And now nearly two decades later, a former teammate stands trial. This, after an ESPN investigation reignited the case and brought new scrutiny to long-bearing details. In a six episode true crime series, with episodes releasing twice weekly,

it's one you won't see coming. Follow and listen to murder at the you on the 30-30 podcast

feed wherever you get your podcasts.

It's 2006. Two guys in their 20s are driving down US1 in Miami in a black infinity SUV. The AC's blasting from music is blasting.

“We're on our way to my career. Can you remember that Rick Ross? You know, the US1 launched out.”

The driver is a football player at the University of Miami, Brian Palo. The guy next to him in the passenger seat is a sports writer from the Miami Harrow. His name is Mani Navarro. Mani has his camera trained on Brian. I was a young reporter who wanted to do something cool. MTV cribs was sort of big back then. MTV cribs was a show where celebrities led camera crews through tours of their houses.

Mani wanted to make something similar for the Miami Harrow. But in Mani's version, the celebrities would be University of Miami football players, the hurricane. So my idea was just make these guys personal. Tell a story that is unique in Miami.

These are Miami guys playing for Miami football program. Brian was really the first guy

I threw the idea across. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm down. I'm down. Let's do it. Let's do it. And you know, I got the camera on them because I want to make sure I get the audio and the video, you know, the whole thing. The two guys had to Brian's apartment complex. It's called the colony. We're several other university in Miami players live. It's classic Florida with corridors on the outside of the building, like a motel. We get to his apartment. He's like runs in there.

He starts picking stuff up, moving stuff around. He's like don't record yet. And he says, how do you want me to, where do you want to start? So why don't you open the doors? This is what they do want to have to be cribs right? They open the door? They welcome you in. I love y'all. My career. I'm Brian and Patta. In the rest of Miami, he was a tiger. If you walk in, it says, you know, it's a townhouse, two bedroom, two in a half bathroom.

You know, he's kind of like giving me the tour, opening cabinets up and showing me stuff. My cabinet right here, I love put it.

“He was just, he was so happy to kind of be the star of the show. You know, I think in his mind,”

I think you started to think, again, it's only the Miami Harold right now. But I could do this from TV, like this is like a nice little practice run. You know, here's some more family during a float estate game, more two sisters, more cousin. This is my mom right here. And this is my girlfriend, Jada. I just remember the feeling of this kid is so happy with his life. He knows that the best is yet to come. Like this is good. Like this good. I got a girlfriend. I got a

dog out of the neck. This is me, Ryan Potter. Are you getting it? All right, thanks a lot. But it was sort of this feeling of things are going to get better. It seems that way, listening to the recording, hearing Brian's enthusiasm, his giddiness, except for one thing. A few weeks later, Brian Pada would be dead. We do have a breaking story. A University of Miami football player has been shot and killed.

Amro's son's live in Kendall with the very latest ever. Michael Jackie Miami, day police confirming tonight, Brian Pada, UN's defensive lineman, was shot and killed tonight. From the outside looking in, it was the kind of case that police should have been motivated to

months shy of the NFL draft. But that is not what happened. Instead, weeks turned into months,

“which eventually turned into years and Brian's murder remained unsolved. But almost 20 years later,”

someone is finally set to stand trial for the murder of Brian Pada. I'm Paula Levine. From

30 for 30 podcasts, this is murder at the U. The story of how two university of Miami teammates found themselves on opposite ends of a murder investigation. And what happened when a team of ESPN reporters

“brought that investigation into the light. Episode 1, chillin with the canes.”

As a reporter, I try to stay out of the story. But sometimes the work you do to get the story

and what you uncover changes it. That's exactly what happened here. And that story starts in 2017 in the office of Ben Weber. That was a feature producer at ESPN. One of the shows Ben worked

“on at the time was college game day. ESPN's weekly show about college football. Glad to have you”

with us how great is it to have college football back on a full Saturday college game day rolling. In August 2017, Ben received an email from an odd source. I got an email that said that Miami police department was interested in helping us tell this story in an effort to try to find new leads. The story was more than 10 years old. And it was about the unsolved murder of a university of Miami football player Brian Pada. Is it unusual for police departments to pitch

stories to ESPN? I'll say in my 25 years here, that's the first and only time that that has happened.

And later this season, our before he died, he was on a phone arguing what's about it. Well come and get it then. You know he could find me. My I'm actually given a little bit uncomfortable with his father's shoulder. He had 14,000 miles cash in the car and I say something you're right. This is an assassination and there's more to this than meets the eye. A lot of people thought we had a killer amongst us. I thought looking into it because I was warned that these people

literally come up in your house and kill your family. Does MDPD know who killed Brian Pada?