A LAWSUIT has been filed in America this week to unravel the mystery surrounding the brutal murder of a County Limerick priest.
Fr Patrick Ryan, aged 49, from Doon, was found dead in a motel room in Odessa, Texas on December 21, 1981. He was beaten to death.
The savage killing of the Pallottine priest made headlines in USA, Ireland and shocked County Limerick. A 24-year-old Apache Indian was sentenced to almost 30 years in prison for the heinous crime, however, newly-discovered evidence points at other possible perpetrators.
Fr Ryan was serving in the small Texas town of Denver City (not to be confused with Denver, Colorado) eighty miles northwest of Odessa, near the New Mexico border.
According to the Texas Monthly, Fr Ryan was passionate about helping the poor and was cherished by his working-class Hispanic flock during the two years he served there.
“He reminded you of Saint Francis of Assisi,” said one of his parishioners.
Scott Lomax, who has helped run the campaign to clear James Reyos’ name for 19 years, contacted the Limerick Leader with a statement from the Innocence Project of Texas which works to exonerate or free wrongly convicted people.
The project says that during the initial investigation, the police interviewed a man called James Reyos, who was the last known person to see Fr Ryan alive.
“Mr Reyos established through multiple witnesses, store receipts, and even a speeding ticket, that he was in New Mexico at the time of the murder. Texas Rangers verified the information and ruled him out as a suspect. The case went cold.
“A year later, while heavily intoxicated on drugs and alcohol, Mr Reyos called 911 and confessed to the murder. Once he was arrested, Mr Reyos recanted. The State indicted and tried Mr Reyos for Fr Ryan’s murder. Jurors at the time said their decision was based on the confession and on Mr Reyos’ ‘characteristics’. He was sentenced to 38 years in prison and released in 2012,” reads the statement
This week, the Innocence Project of Texas filed a lawsuit to formally overturn the conviction in a case they say has “haunted law enforcement, attorneys, legal scholars, and the Catholic Church for over forty years”.
“Even though no one disputed that it was physically impossible for Mr Reyos to have committed the crime, he was found guilty,” it reads.
The project says there was not a legal path forward to prove his innocence and because all evidence from the case was thought to have been destroyed.
“The lawsuit filed today by Innocence Project of Texas asserts Mr Reyos’ innocence as a result of recently discovered evidence by members of the Odessa Police Department (OPD). OPD found fingerprints in their archived files that had been taken from the crime scene and from Father Ryan’s stolen car and wallet. OPD ran the prints through AFIS, the national fingerprint database, and performed their own comparison.
“The analysis revealed the identities of Father Ryan’s killers - individuals with criminal histories who were known to be staying at the same motel at the time of the murder. All of the real perpetrators have since passed away,” reads the statement.
The 70th Judicial Court of Ector County will now decide whether to hold a hearing on the new evidence.
Mr Lomax told the Leader he has spent a lot of time carefully studying the details of Mr Reyos’ case, and eventually reached the conclusion that he is entirely innocent of the murder for which he was convicted.
“It is saddening that he has spent forty years fighting to clear his name but it is my belief that it is not too late to right this terrible wrong. Justice can be achieved and the new evidence in this case appears to not only clear James of any responsibility for this crime, but it also points to the guilt of three other men.
“I hope that the authorities in Texas share my view that this evidence is compelling and that James is finally exonerated and allowed to get on with his life,” said Mr Lomax.