Florida prosecutors told a judge their key witness was dead.
ESPN decided to knock on his front door.
And what they found exposed one shocking lie that could blow up a 19-year murder case.
ESPN does the job prosecutors wouldn’t do
Paul Conner was supposed to be the star witness in the 2006 murder trial of former Miami Hurricanes football player Bryan Pata.
The 81-year-old lived in the apartment complex where Pata got gunned down and had previously identified former teammate Rashaun Jones as a suspect.
But Florida prosecutors had a problem – as recently as July, they told 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda that their key witness was dead.
Turns out they never bothered to actually check.
ESPN reporters did what the state attorney’s office apparently couldn’t manage.
They knocked on Conner’s door in Louisville, Kentucky in August and found him very much alive, sitting in his apartment.
"I’m getting up in years. My memory comes and goes. How long ago was this court case?" Conner told the reporters who tracked him down.
Prosecutors caught red-handed in courtroom deception
The state attorney’s office now claims they relied on "public database information" that "seemed to indicate" Conner had died.
The state attorney’s office explained that they relied on public database information that "seemed to indicate" Conner had passed away.
That’s bureaucrat-speak for "we didn’t bother to verify."
Officials said they requested Louisville police check on him at the same address where ESPN later located him, but records show no follow-up occurred.
"Is there an impact of that on the case? I would have to say yes, potentially," Ed Griffith, spokesperson for the state attorney’s office, told ESPN.
You think?
Defense attorney Sara Alvarez didn’t mince words about the state’s "mistake."
"I’m not shocked, but appalled," Alvarez fired back. "This is a bigger issue. This is just blatant lies. Bald-faced lies. It’s a shame and it’s disgusting that you would be willing to send a man to prison for the rest of his life without any evidence and then not be honest about what evidence exists and doesn’t exist."
The case that won’t die
Conner’s prior testimony was central to a March 2022 bond hearing in which Judge Miranda granted Jones an $850,000 bail.
Jones has not been able to post the required amount and has remained in custody for four years.
His trial is finally scheduled to begin October 6 – nearly two decades after Pata’s murder.
Conner’s testimony was the backbone of the prosecution’s case against Jones.
Conner told police at the time of the shooting that he heard a "pop" and saw someone "jogging" away from the scene.
On multiple occasions, he picked Jones out of a lineup.
Additional evidence in the case involves accounts of ongoing conflicts between Pata and Jones, plus claims that Jones possessed a gun similar to the weapon prosecutors believe was used in the murder.
A system that failed from day one
This prosecutorial screw-up is just the latest disaster in a case that’s been plagued by incompetence since 2006.
The case has faced numerous setbacks from the beginning, including a nine-month gap before police arrested Jones despite him being identified as an early suspect, the failure to recover the murder weapon, and repeated court delays and attorney changes.
Now ESPN reporters are doing detective work that Florida prosecutors apparently can’t handle.
Jones, 40, has pleaded not guilty in the case, which has been plagued by delays.
But here’s the real question – if prosecutors will lie to a judge about a key witness being dead, what else are they willing to lie about?
The October trial will finally put this case to rest after 19 years.
Whether Conner’s faded memory and the state’s credibility problems will be enough to convict Jones remains to be seen.
But one thing’s for certain – ESPN just exposed how Florida’s justice system really works when nobody’s watching.
¹ New York Post, "Key Witness in 2006 Miami Football Player’s Murder Thought to be Dead, Found Alive," September 19, 2025.
² ESPN investigation as reported by New York Post, September 19, 2025.
