ESPN -- Witness in long-delayed U murder is not dead - ESPN

Florida prosecutors have repeatedly told a court that a key witness in their murder case against a former Miami Hurricanes football player accused in the 2006 killing of teammate Bryan Pata was dead.

However, with the long-delayed murder trial of Rashaun Jones only weeks from its scheduled start in Miami, ESPN reporters knocked on an apartment door in Louisville, Kentucky, recently and found the witness, Paul Conner, very much alive.

Conner told ESPN he wasn't aware anyone from Miami had been looking for him and said he rarely leaves his apartment.

Prosecutors told Florida 11th Circuit Court Judge Cristina Miranda as recently as July that Conner was dead. A spokesman for the state attorney's office, Ed Griffith, told ESPN on Thursday that police relied on a public database that «seemed to indicate» Conner was deceased, and that police asked officers in Louisville to knock on Conner's door. He offered no documents of such a visit nor details of an officer visited or what happened.Griffith also pressed a reporter for the address ESPN visited — the same address that was listed on the database report Griffith cited. The lead detective in the case, Juan Segovia, also texted an ESPN reporter asking for Conner's contact information.

It's unclear how the revelation about Conner will affect the trial, currently set to start Oct. 6. «Is there an impact of that on the case? I would have to say yes, potentially,» Griffith said.

Jones' attorney, Sara Alvarez, said ESPN's finding raises further questions about the state's case.

«I'm not shocked, but appalled,» she said by telephone Thursday. «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