"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."
""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."
Prosecutors confirmed in a court hearing that key eyewitness Paul Conner is alive and was contacted by officers at his Kentucky residence. Journalists located Conner at his Louisville apartment despite a commercial database indicating he was dead. Conner is the only eyewitness in the case against former University of Miami player Rashaun Jones, who faces second-degree murder charges in the 2006 shooting of teammate Bryan Pata and has pleaded not guilty after his 2021 arrest. Miami assistant state attorney Cristina Diamond said a lead detective asked Louisville police to visit Conner’s last-known address and that body-camera footage shows officers made contact. Conner appeared confused and uncertain about the case, and a judge had previously allowed prior videotaped testimony to be used if Conner were presumed deceased.
Read at ESPN.com
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