The saga of James Harry Reyos is not one you would wish upon your worst enemy.
Reyos spent most of his adult life in prison for, by all accounts, something he did not do.
Not just something. But something horrific.
Reyos in June 1983 was convicted of beating Rev. Patrick Ryan to death at the Sage and Sand Motel in Odessa. He was sentenced to 38 years in prison by an Ector County jury. He served 20 years before he was paroled.
It’s hard to imagine the despair that must creep in during decades behind bars. It must be especially hard to swallow if you are sitting in prison and are innocent.
Reyos’ attorneys at the time of his conviction, the late John Cliff and former District Judge (and former District Attorney) John Smith always believed he was innocent. Even a prosecutor assigned to respond to Reyos’ appeal, Dennis Cadra, came to believe Reyos was wrongfully convicted.
Over the years there have been magazine stories, TV specials, and podcasts that all told of the Reyos saga. How in a drunken stupor a young Reyos confessed to the crime but also how the facts in the case simply made it impossible for him to be the one who beat the priest to death.
And, for years, those TV specials and news articles did nothing to get him out of prison or to clear his name.
That is where a number of Odessans come in.
The top kudos go to OPD Chief Mike Gerke, Special Operations Captain John Sikes, OPD Sgt. Scottie Smith, fingerprint analyst Stacy Cannady and retired Texas Ranger Brian Burney for going above and beyond to see that justice gets a second shot in this case.
While we are at it, Smith, First Assistant Ector County District Attorney Greg Barber, Deputy District Attorney Carmen Villalobos and Ector County District Attorney Dusty Gallivan played a role as well. Last week, all these forces combined during a hearing before Ector County District Judge Denn Whalen asking for Reyos to be exonerated. If Whalen agrees (he has not yet ruled) the case will be forwarded to the Court of Appeals for its consideration.
Whalen called the hearing the first of its kind in Ector County.
Seriously, where else can you find the Chief of Police, a former DA and investigators going to bat for a man convicted of murder?
Gerke testified his son, daughter-in-law and daughter last year asked him to pull the case file after they listened to a podcast about the case.
His detectives went over the file and, like their Chief, came to the same conclusion — there was no way Reyos could have committed the crime as he was actually in New Mexico at the time of the murder.
This was something both John Smith and the late Cliff already knew and presented at the original Reyos trial. Last week was the first time Smith and Reyos had seen each other since the original trial. Smith embraced Reyos saying it was probably breaking the rules but he was going to do it anyway.
Cannady, however, was the big star on the stand with a bombshell straight out of “Law and Order.”
While everyone believed all of the fingerprints lifted from the crime scene had been destroyed, she found 11 fingerprint cards and photos of six latent prints. Seven of the fingerprint cards could be entered into a FBI database that didn’t exist in the early ’80s.
New technology and old-fashioned eyeball comparisons led Cannady to determine a bloody fingerprint on the inside of the motel room door matches that of Charles Burkart; a bloody thumbprint left on a shower head matches Bobby Collins and a fingerprint left on a plastic cup matches that of Gary Ehrman.
In addition, Cannady testified she could eliminate Reyos, Ryan, Burkart and Ehrman as the person who left a fingerprint on the cruise control of Ryan’s car, but she could not eliminate Collins. The same is true of the bloody print left on Ryan’s discarded credit card.
Given the level of violence in the room, it’s highly unlikely Reyos wouldn’t have left any prints, Cannady told the courtroom.
It’s amazing the work all these folks put into helping Reyos be exonerated. Reyos, who not too long ago suffered a stroke, told an OA reporter that the day was surreal. “I’m feeling happiness because they all came forward and are giving me support. They believe in my innocence,” Reyos said.
We believe in him as well and wish him the very best. We also offer up the most sincere kudos to all those from Odessa who took the time to see that justice got the help it needs.
