A murder trial is moving forward after it was discovered that an elderly witness, previously thought to be dead, is actually alive.
In August 2021, former University of Miami football player Rashaun Jones was charged in the murder of his former teammate, 22-year-old Bryan Pata, who was found shot in the head in the parking lot of a Miami apartment complex on November 7, 2006. Jones has pleaded not guilty.
ESPN reported that prosecutors had told the court that a witness, 81-year-old retiree Paul Conner, was dead. They based this on information from a third-party database. Conner had lived in the apartment complex where Pata was killed and had informed police that he heard a loud noise and saw someone “jogging” near the crime scene. He later identified Jones from a photo lineup.
However, ESPN reporters found Conner alive when they visited his home in Louisville, Kentucky, weeks before the trial was set to start. On August 25, Conner told the outlet that he has trouble remembering details of the incident. His phone also showed many missed calls, some from Miami-area numbers.
“I’m getting up in years,” he told ESPN. “My memory comes and goes. How long ago was this court case?”
A prosecutor told the court during a hearing on Friday, September 19, that “ESPN released an article whereby they made contact with our eyewitness in this case, Paul Conner,” according to WPLG.
The judge ruled that the trial is scheduled to continue on October 6.
The prosecutor and defense attorney could not immediately be reached by PEOPLE for comment on how the trial will proceed given the new information about Conner, and it is not yet clear whether he will testify.
According to ESPN, prosecutor Cristina Diamond told the judge that after the outlet’s reporting, a detective contacted local police in Kentucky to check Conner’s most recent address.
“They were able to make contact with Paul Conner. So at this time, what I can tell the court is that Paul Conner is alive,” Diamond said, per ESPN. “I think the state needs to do a little bit of further investigation. It appears that he was very confused and is not certain what the case is about.”
