Key witness in 2006 murder case of Miami football player Bryan Pata, thought dead, found alive, per report
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A potential key witness in the murder case of former Miami football player Bryan Pata was found alive at his residence in Louisville, Kentucky, after he was presumed dead by Florida prosecutors,Ā ESPN reported on Thursday.
Prosecutors told Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda as recently as July that Paul Conner — an 81-year-old retired University of Miami writing instructor, who lived in the apartment complex where Pata was shot and killed in November 2006 — was dead.Ā
A spokesperson for the state attorney’s office, Ed Griffith, said that police previously relied on a public database that “seemed to indicate” Conner was deceased, according to the report. However, that wasn’t the case, and Conner was, in fact, alive.
Conner initially contacted police soon after the shooting occurred in 2006, citing that he heard a “pop” and saw someone “jogging away” from the parking lot entrance near where Pata was fatally shot. Conner picked Pata’s former teammate at Miami, Rashaun Jones, out of a photo lineup.
Jones was arrested in connection with the shooting death of his former teammate nearly 15 years after the crime, back in August 2021 and is still awaiting trial over four years laterĀ after pleading not guilty to the crime. In March 2022, Miranda agreed to grant Jones an $850,000 bail and allow him out, pending the trial. However, Jones has not paid the amount needed for release, according to ESPN.
Pata and Jones had been in fights before the killing,Ā according to ESPN.
