Presumed dead, key witness in Miami defender Bryan Pata murder case found alive

A key witness in the upcoming murder trial against a former Miami football player accused in the 2006 murder of former Hurricanes teammate Bryan Pata has long been considered dead by Florida prosecutors. Only, it turns out, the supposedly dead witness is, in fact, alive and well and living in Kentucky, according to ESPN.

ESPN reporters Paula Lavigne and Dan Arruda reported Thursday that they found the vital witness, 81-year-old Paul Conner, in a long-delayed murder trial of ex-Miami football player Rashaun Jones after traveling to his Louisville home and knocking on his door. Jones has already pleaded not guilty to the 2006 murder of Pata, who was shot and killed outside his Miami-area apartment following a Hurricanes practice on Nov. 7, 2006. The murder went unsolved until Jones was arrested and charged in 2021.

Upon informing Florida state prosecutors of Conner’s existence Thursday, a spokesperson for the state’s attorney’s office told ESPN that police relied on a public database that “seemed to indicate” Conner was deceased. Local police had asked for the assistance of Louisville police, though they offered no proof of such a visit or any further corroboration of the claim, according to ESPN.

Jones’ attorney, Sara Alvarez, told ESPN that their finding of Conner alive only further cast doubt on the state’s case against her client. She elaborated:

“I’m not shocked, but appalled,” Alvarez told ESPN on Thursday. “This is a bigger issue. This is just blatant lies. Bald-faced lies. It’s a shame and it’s disgusting that you would be willing to send a man to prison for the rest of his life without any evidence and then not be honest about what evidence exists and doesn’t exist.”

Pata played defensive tackle at Miami from 2003-2006 and entered the 2006 season as a highly-rated NFL prospect ahead of the 2007 NFL Draft. Jones, now 40, was a defensive back on the Hurricanes between 2004-2006 but saw his collegiate career end after being suspended from the team in 2006 following a third failed positive marijuana test, according to The Sun.

Key witness in Miami murder trial of former Hurricanes player now dealing with memory issues

Conner is a retired University of Miami writing instructor who once lived in the same apartment complex where Pata was murdered by a single gunshot to the head in November 2006, per ESPN. The witness contacted police shortly after the shooting and described hearing a pop and someone “jogging” away from the scene, per court records.

Conner also picked Jones out of a mugshot lineup twice, 13 years apart — once in 2006 and again in 2019 — and then recounted what he saw at a 2022 bond hearing and 2023 deposition with Florida state attorneys, according to ESPN. Jones’ trial is currently set to begin Oct. 6, though there could be grounds to delay it even more after Conner was found alive.

The now 81-year-old Conner told ESPN in an Aug. 25 interview that he no longer can recall what exactly happened in 2006. He said he was “unfamiliar with his prior statements,” per ESPN.

“I’m getting up in years,” Conner told ESPN. “My memory comes and goes. How long ago was this court case?”

Miami assistant state attorney Cristina Diamond told Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda as recently as a July 17 hearing that officials believed Conner was dead after multiple failed attempts to contact him, according to ESPN’s review of court documents. Mirada ruled Conner’s prior testimony from the previous hearings and deposition could be used at trial, and Jones’ attorneys conceded to accept the state’s evidence after initially objecting on the grounds they were unable to cross-examine the witness.

ESPN’s piece details several instances of official missteps made by Miami police throughout the 15-year investigation, including that Jones was among the first suspects police considered but didn’t arrest until 2021, nine months after previous reporting by ESPN. Though dozens of record requests, ESPN found the lead detective on the case had reached out to Louisville police and made contact with a leasing office of Conner’s current address.

The apartment complex “indicated that Mr. Conner did not live there,” per court records. Records obtained from the Louisville police show no effort was made to contact Conner until a July 22 welfare check after multiple inquiries from ESPN and a former colleague.

Conner told ESPN he’s lived at his Louisville address for “a couple of years.” When interviewed by ESPN, Conner allowed the reporters to review his phone and “there were dozens of unanswered calls, and he appeard unfamiliar with how to check his voicemail,” per ESPN. Multiple unanswered calls came from Miami-area phone numbers, “including at least one that matched a phone number” of the lead detective, according to ESPN.