Prosecutors: Witness in Miami murder case found
-
Paula Lavigne
Florida prosecutors confirmed in a hearing Friday that their key witness in the murder case of a former University of Miami football player is alive and was contacted Thursday by officers where he lives in Kentucky.
ESPN reported Thursday that, despite prosecutors stating July 17 that they tried every effort to locate 81-year-old Paul Conner and had a report from a commercial database he was dead, journalists found Conner alive at his apartment in Louisville.
Conner is the only eyewitness in the case against former Miami football player Rashaun Jones, who is facing second-degree murder charges in the 2006 shooting of teammate Bryan Pata. Jones, who was arrested in 2021, has pleaded not guilty.
Miami assistant state attorney Cristina Diamond told Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda that, after the ESPN story was published, her lead detective reached out to police in Louisville and asked them to go to Conner’s last-known address — where ESPN reporters had found him.
“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, adding that she had reviewed the officer’s body camera footage. “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.”
When ESPN reporters interviewed Conner on Aug. 25, he said he did not remember details about the case. Miranda had ruled in July that, assuming Conner was dead, the state could present jurors a videotape of prior testimony he gave in 2022 in a bond hearing in the case in lieu of having him testify in person.
If a determination is made that Conner is not competent to testify, she said, “we may still be in the same situation.”
Conner first spoke to police shortly after the Nov. 7, 2006, shooting, and he picked Jones out of a police lineup. Police reinterviewed him in 2020. Conner also recounted what he saw at the 2022 bond hearing and in a 2023 deposition with attorneys.
At the time of the shooting, Conner lived in the same apartment complex as Pata. He said during his 2022 testimony that he heard a “pop” and saw someone “jogging” away from the parking lot entrance near where Pata, a likely high pick in the 2007 NFL draft, was shot once in the head.
How the confirmation of Conner’s status affects the case, which is scheduled for trial Oct. 6, is to be determined after attorneys argued in court Friday about what steps to take next regarding questioning Conner and going over the evidence of the state’s prior efforts to find him.
Jones’ attorney Sara Alvarez told Miranda that she wanted to request a hearing to determine if prosecutors violated the rules of evidence, saying she thought the false conclusion of Conner’s death “may have been intentional.”
Diamond rebutted that accusation, saying Miami-Dade officers made multiple attempts to reach Conner.
“This is our key witness in the case. This is somebody we want,” Diamond told the judge. “The defense is accusing me of making misrepresentations to the court. Every representation made to the court was based upon a conversation with an officer who I was prepared to have testify.”
Diamond was referring to officers from the Louisville Police Department who she said went to Conner’s address over the summer and “spoke to someone but believed it was not the witness.” She said she had a copy of the body camera footage as well. She said those officers told her they also spoke to someone with the apartment’s leasing office who did not find Conner in their records.
She said they did not locate a death certificate in Kentucky but relied on the third-party commercial database that stated Conner was deceased. Jones’ counsel asked for a copy of that report along with other records that would verify the state’s efforts.
The Louisville officers did not testify Friday, as the judge decided to give the attorneys some time to correspond with each other and decide how they wanted to proceed.
ESPN had asked for records or information from the Louisville Police Department regarding efforts to locate Conner, and a department spokesman said there were no records of any officer going to Conner’s address this summer prior to a July 22 request from a former colleague who had called for a welfare check on Conner after being contacted by ESPN reporters.
ESPN made multiple requests to police and the Miami-Dade State Attorney for records of their efforts to find Conner. After initially saying they had no documents, they eventually provided an email exchange in which lead detective Juan Segovia wrote that he left 15 voicemail messages with Conner since May. Segovia added that he also sent emails to an address that officers had used with him previously. They also provided a copy of a June 6 letter addressed to Conner at his Louisville address that asked him to contact their office.
They provided an email exchange with a Louisville police officer, but it had no information about Conner or efforts to find him, and they provided a copy of a subpoena for the officer to testify. ESPN reached back out to Louisville police with the name of the officer and a request for further information and is waiting on a response.
-
Adam Rittenberg
Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh voiced his support for coach Luke Fickell and the program Saturday after Maryland handed the Badgers a 27-10 home loss, which featured several “Fire Fickell!” chants by the student section.
Speaking with the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, McIntosh shared his “belief in the program and the people around our program, specifically Luke,” and reiterated his support for the players. Fickell fell to 15-15 in two-plus seasons as Wisconsin coach after consecutive losses to Alabama and Maryland. He is under contract through the 2031 season and is earning $7.7 million this fall.
The Badgers were booed as they headed to the locker room down 20-0 to Maryland at halftime and didn’t reach the end zone until 28 seconds remained in the fourth quarter.
“When you have kids that have given it all and are faced with, as a program, adversity like this, I think it’s a time for our people to come together,” McIntosh told the two outlets. “I think it’s a time for me to express my support.”
McIntosh, a former Wisconsin offensive lineman, fired coach Paul Chryst midway through the 2022 season and hired Fickell, who guided Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff in 2021. Although Fickell had no direct ties to Wisconsin — unlike Chryst and Jim Leonhard, the team’s interim coach in 2022 — Fickell’s hire was largely celebrated.
The Badgers have endured several quarterback injuries during Fickell’s tenure but could be in danger of missing bowl games in consecutive seasons for the first time since a stretch from 1985 to 1992. Fickell is 78-40 as an FBS coach.
McIntosh acknowledged the fans’ sentiment, saying, “Apathy is worst case, and so we’re far from that.” He also said he isn’t concerned about his job security. McIntosh is under contract through June 2029.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in the building that thinks that where we are at this moment in time right now, this is what Wisconsin football is,” he said Saturday. “… I’ll come back to what I said earlier: What’s left to be done about that? What’s left to be done about that is to learn from what happened on a day like today and grow.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said he felt a “pain that’s hard to describe” following his team’s 34-21 home loss to Syracuse on Saturday, which dropped the Tigers to 1-3 and his worst start as the Tigers’ head coach.
“This is a bad, bad feeling. Terrible,” Swinney said. “This is what we do. This is our passion. We work incredibly hard to get results that we want to get, and when we don’t get them, it’s a pain that’s hard to describe, but it comes with the territory. So we gotta flush it. That’s all we can do. There’s no hope for a better yesterday.”
Clemson closed as a 17½-point favorite at ESPN BET but suffered its largest home loss against an unranked opponent since 2001 against North Carolina, when the Tigers lost by 35.
With losses to LSU, Georgia Tech and now Syracuse, the Tigers have lost three of their first four games for the first time under Swinney. It’s also the first time the program has started 1-3 since 2004.
Swinney conceded he was emotional on the field after the game during the school’s alma mater.
“Disappointed, painful, hurt,” he said. “I’m human. I’m not a cyborg. This is my life. I’ve been here 23 years. I love this place. I give this place the best I’ve got every single day. … I’ve invested my life here, and when I don’t get the job done, I’m responsible. I feel the pain. Not just my pain, I feel everybody’s pain. That comes with my job, and I don’t run from that.”
Clemson finished with 503 yards, its most in a loss since 2016. It’s a stunning start for Clemson, which returned the most production in the FBS (80%) this season. Quarterback Cade Klubnik has his top three receivers back from last year’s ACC championship team, and the defense was expected to be one of best fronts in the country.
“We just can’t seem to put it all together when we need it,” Swinney said.
The Tigers have a bye week before traveling to North Carolina on Oct. 4, and Swinney said it comes at a good time because the team is “beat up emotionally and physically.”
“There’s no quit in me and I didn’t see any quit in our team or our staff,” he said. “We’ll get back to work. We have to reset our goals and what we still can do. We can’t sit around and dwell on missed opportunities. … It’s basically an eight-game season for us at this point. We’ve just gotta fight our tails off to find a way to win a game, create some momentum.”
-
Dave Wilson
FORT WORTH, Texas — After 104 meetings, the TCU–SMU Iron Skillet rivalry is over, with the Horned Frogs claiming the final edition 35-24 on Saturday.
TCU coach Sonny Dykes, who has been on both sides of the rivalry as head coach at SMU before moving west to Fort Worth, has been vocal that he doesn’t think the series should continue.
“It’s college football, it’s business and people have to make business decisions,” he said. “Sometimes nobody likes ’em.”
Last season, SMU won 66-42, and Dykes was ejected from the game after getting two consecutive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for arguing with referees. He said he has heard from plenty of SMU fans about why he didn’t want to play the Mustangs anymore.
Dykes won his last two games at SMU against the Frogs and Gary Patterson, then beat SMU his first two years at TCU in 2022 and 2023 before last year’s loss.
“I think the idea is that Coach Dykes is scared of the Iron Skillet game. Five outta the last six is what we won,” he said before referencing a 1970s power ballad by Meat Loaf, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.”
“I think that’s a Meat Loaf song, right? Five outta six ain’t bad?” he asked. “So yeah, I ain’t too scared.”
TCU was led by quarterback Josh Hoover, who was 22-of-40 for 379 yards, five touchdowns and an interception, along with a breakout performance from wide receiver Eric McAlister, a Boise State transfer from Azle High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. McAlister had eight catches for 254 yards and three touchdowns. He lost another when SMU defensive back Jaelyn Davis-Robinson wrestled the ball away from him in the end zone for an interception, and he also had a catch in the end zone that was ruled incomplete. The game wasn’t stopped for a review, but Dykes said afterward that the officials on the field said they were powerless to ask for a review because the booth had already reviewed it and ruled it incomplete.
“I saw the video,” McAlister said afterward. “That was two feet down. That’s good in the league.”
McAlister said it was important to claim this last win over the Mustangs.
“We see those guys out on the streets every day no matter where it’s at. It’s Dallas, so it’s not that far,” he said. “They might never sign this contract again. So at least we’ve got bragging rights.”
TCU discovered the Iron Skillet was broken while it was in its possession in 2018, and sources said it was hastily replaced with a Lodge Cast Iron skillet from a hardware store shortly before the game. On Saturday, Dykes was asked, given the skillet has had some issues in the past, what he would do with it now that it was in TCU’s possession indefinitely.
“Probably get a sledgehammer and break it,” he joked. “I don’t know. Our players have it right now and they’re excited about it. We took a picture. Now we’ll probably cook something in it.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment12 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024