ESPN finds key witness from 2006 Miami football murder case who was presumed dead

On Thursday, ESPN reported that they had a discovered a man thought to be deceased by Florida prosecutors: Paul Conner, a possible witness to the 2006 murder of Miami football player Bryan Pata.

Another Miami football player at the time, Rashaun Jones, became a suspect in the crime and is still awaiting trial for the murder of his former teammate. However, Paul Conner provided an important link between the men. ESPN noted in a 2022 article that the case "heavily relied" on his contributions as a witness living in Pata's apartment at the possible time of the crime.

"The day after Pata's shooting, Conner contacted police and provided them with the description of a man walking away from the scene of the shooting shortly after he heard a loud bang," ESPN wrote. "In the summer of 2007, police showed Conner a photo lineup, and he picked out Jones' photo, noting that he was '90 percent' sure that was the man he saw."

However, since that article, written when Conner was believed to be alive in Toledo, Ohio, ESPN notes that the Florida courts taking on the case have accepted that he is deceased:

"Miami assistant state attorney Cristina Diamond told Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda in a July 17 hearing that officials believed Conner to be dead after multiple failed attempts to contact him and a third-party commercial database indicating he was deceased," ESPN reported. "Miranda accepted the efforts to find Conner and ruled to allow his prior testimony from the hearing and deposition to be used at trial."

Alas, an ESPN reporter found the older man, a retired University of Miami teacher, at his current home in Louisville, Kentucky. ESPN was able to review his phone and noticed that at least one missed call traced back to a number related to the prosecution, while folks around Conner explained that he struggled with technology and has some trouble with his memory nowadays.

That would explain Conner, an 81-year-old, failing to even remember the case when asked about it by ESPN.

"Conner told ESPN in his Aug. 25 interview that he now doesn't recall what happened in Miami, and he seemed unfamiliar with his prior statements," ESPN wrote. They added these qutes from Conner himself:

"I'm getting up in years," he said. "My memory comes and goes. How long ago was this court case?"

It was quite a long time ago now, Paul. Who knows whether Paul Conner's old testimony or his new testimony will make any huge difference in the Jones-Pata case, but at least he was found, so the courts can rely on a living witness rather than falsely presuming him dead.

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