ESPN reporters knocked on an apartment door in Louisville, Kentucky, last month and found a key witness in a high-profile murder case. A witness that Florida prosecutors had repeatedly told a court was dead.
The discovery has thrown the long-delayed murder case against former Miami Hurricanes football player Rashaun Jones into chaos. Jones stands accused in the 2006 killing of teammate Bryan Pata, and prosecutors had built part of their strategy around using prior testimony from Paul Conner since they believed he was no longer alive to testify in person.
What happened next tells you everything you need to know about how thoroughly authorities had actually searched for Conner. After ESPN found him alive and well, prosecutors and the lead detective contacted ESPN directly, asking for his information.
Conner, an 81-year-old retired University of Miami writing instructor, lived in the same apartment complex as Pata back in 2006. He told police he saw someone “jogging” away from the parking lot where Pata was shot in the head that November. Conner picked Jones out of photo lineups in both 2006 and 2020, making him a crucial witness.
As recently as July, Miami assistant state attorney Cristina Diamond told Judge Cristina Miranda that officials believed Conner was dead. Diamond cited multiple failed attempts to contact him and a third-party commercial database indicating he was deceased. The judge ruled to allow Conner’s prior testimony from hearings and depositions to be used at trial.
ESPN’s reporters went to Conner’s Louisville address — the same one listed in the database prosecutors cited — and found him alive. He’s struggling with memory issues related to his age, but he was very much breathing.
“I wasn’t aware anyone from Miami was looking for me,” Conner told ESPN, adding that he rarely leaves his apartment.
The state’s version of events doesn’t add up. State attorney spokesperson Ed Griffith told ESPN that police relied on a database that “seemed to indicate” Conner was deceased and claimed they asked Louisville officers to knock on his door. When pressed for documentation of that visit, Griffith couldn’t provide any.
ESPN checked with the Louisville Police Department and found no records of any officer attempting to locate Conner until July 22 — after ESPN’s investigation began — when a welfare check was conducted at the request of one of Conner’s former colleagues.
State attorney spokesperson Griffith pressed ESPN reporters for the address they had visited, which is the same address that was listed on the database report he had cited as evidence of Conner’s death. Lead detective Juan Segovia went further, texting an ESPN reporter directly asking for Conner’s contact information.
If authorities had really exhausted their search efforts, why would they need ESPN to provide details they supposedly already had?
This seems to fit a pattern that’s defined the case for nearly two decades. Jones wasn’t arrested until 2021, despite being among the first suspects considered by police in 2006. Officials can’t explain the 15-year delay beyond saying the case got a “fresh set of eyes” when Segovia became lead detective in 2020.
“I’m not shocked, but appalled,” Jones’ attorney Sara Alvarez said. “This is just blatant lies. Bald-faced lies.”
The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 6, though ESPN’s discovery has thrown those plans into question.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.