41-year-old murder conviction could get 2nd look

Feb. 2—The Innocence Project of Texas has filed a lawsuit to overturn the conviction of a 66-year-old New Mexico man who was convicted of murdering a Denver City priest in an Odessa motel room in December 1981.

The Innocence Project said in a news release the Odessa Police Department recently ran fingerprints found at the crime scene and inside the Rev. Patrick Ryan's stolen car and wallet and identified them as belonging to people with criminal histories who were staying at the Sand and Sage Motel at the time of the murder.

Those individuals are now deceased.

70th Ector County District Court Judge Denn Whalen must now decide whether to hold a hearing on the new evidence.

James Harry Reyos of Chama, New Mexico, was convicted by an Ector County jury of murdering Ryan, 49, and he was sentenced to 38 years in prison in June 1983. He was paroled in 2003, but ended up back in prison after being convicted of the misdemeanor crime of failure to ID. He was paroled for the last time in 2012.

Reyos, then 26, was indicted for the murder after confessing to Albuquerque police 11 months after the slaying, but he quickly recanted his confession.

In the years since his conviction, multiple attorneys and investigative journalists have expressed their belief in Reyos' innocence and a "The Case of James Harry Reyos: A Wrongful Conviction Revealed" was published in December 2017. Reyos himself sent numerous letters to the Odessa American also proclaiming his innocence over the years.

According to news accounts, Reyos has time-stamped receipts, a traffic ticket and an eye witness who place him in Roswell, N.M., at the time of the slaying and there was no physical evidence linking him to the gruesome murder.

According to the Innocence Project, the Ector County District Attorney's Office, the New Mexico Legislature, members of the Texas Legislature and the local Catholic Diocese all shared their belief that Mr. Reyos was wrongfully convicted.

However, everyone thought all of the evidence had been destroyed so there was no legal path to prove his innocence.

OPD recently found the fingerprints, though, and ran them through the national fingerprint database.

"The analysis revealed the identities of Father Ryan's killers," the Innocence Project wrote in its news release.

"IPTX applauds and deeply appreciates the assistance and cooperation of the Ector County District Attorney's Office and OPD. Their integrity, professionalism, and transparency in this case has set the bar for law enforcement agencies throughout the State of Texas," said Reyos' attorney Allison Clayton, deputy director of IPTX and director of the Innocence Clinic at Texas Tech School of Law.

Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan declined to comment Thursday and attempts to reach OPD Chief Mike Gerke weren't immediately successful.

Reyos has told various news sources he met Ryan, a native of Ireland, while hitchhiking from Lubbock to Hobbs, N.M. They shared some drinks and several days later the two of them met up again in Denver City.

Reyos has said the two were sharing drinks in the rectory at St. Williams Church when Ryan grabbed him by the shirt collar and demanded oral sex and he complied. Reyos said the last time he saw Ryan was when Ryan dropped him off in Roswell and Ryan was in the company of another hitchhiker.

Ryan's bloodied, bound and battered body was found the next day.

Reyos has said he confessed to killing Ryan after getting drunk and taking drugs because he felt guilty about the sex.

Eight years after his conviction, then Andrews County District Attorney Dennis Cadra reviewed the trial record and decided Reyos was innocent. He said Reyos would have had to drive 120 miles an hour to get from Roswell to Odessa and back again in order to commit the murder during the right time frame.

Cadra sent a letter to then Gov. Ann Richards in 1992 asking for him to be pardoned and released.

Reyos and his supporters also approached the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and former Gov. Rick Perry asking them to grant him a "pardon for innocence," which would expunge his record, restore his civil rights, and finally declare that he was not responsible for the murder.