Friday, a Texas Attorney General prosecutor obtained a second indictment of John Sullivan’s former attorney John Young and Sullivan’s bail bondsman Ray Zapata.
Daniel Hurley is Young’s attorney. He argued in a sealed court plea San Angelo LIVE! obtained exclusively that the much ballyhooed handwriting analysis of Sullivan by San Angelo Police Department Detective Rodney Black was bunked by the DPS Crime Lab. He attached the two reports in the 32-page document dump on Jan. 23, days before the state handed down a new indictment.
SAPD’s Detective Black’s handwriting analysis, as requested by Texas Ranger Nick Hannah during the Rangers’ investigation, argued it was Zapata’s handwriting on the will in a one-page report.
“I have concluded a Handwriting Comparison between the Holographic Will in question and the documents with Ray Zapata’s Handwriting and have concluded, based on my training and experience as a Handwriting Expert, that Ray Zapata completed the Holographic Will in question,” Black stated in his report.
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Above: Police and an ambulance responded to the dead body report at 516 S. Jefferson in 2014. The man found dead of John Sullivan. Ray Zapata was seen in the front yard. (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)
The DPS Crime Lab did not reach any conclusions, and failed to back-up the SAPD detective’s report. In a detailed six-page report listing 17 exhibits examined by the lab, experts concluded, “There remains no basis for an identification or elimination of John Sullivan as having signed the signature in the name of Ray Zapata or J. Sullivan on the questioned document.” The report also states the same of John Young.
The report states poor line quality, “possibly unnaturally prepared handwriting,” and possible attempts at deliberation in the handwriting on the will. Because of this, the crime lab stated, “It may not be possible to identify or eliminate a subject as the writer of those signatures by handwriting comparison alone.”
Can you determine who wrote John Sullivan's will? See our previous story on the handwriting analysis here.
[[{"fid":"7023","view_mode":"preview","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Sullivan's will. (LIVE! Photo/Chelsea Schmid)","title":"Sullivan's will. (LIVE! Photo/Chelsea Schmid)","height":"675","width":"1200","class":"media-element file-preview imgbody"}}]]
Above: Sullivan's will. (LIVE! Photo/Chelsea Schmid)
Lubbock attorney Daniel W. Hurley, in the Jan. 23 court filing, asked the court to dismiss the 2015 indictment due to lack of probable cause and no evidence to convict his client John Young.
In the filing, Hurley detailed previously unknown details of the relationship between his client, Zapata, and the whistleblower, San Angelo attorney Joe Hernandez.
According to Hurley, Hernandez was previously Sullivan’s attorney and was a business associate of Zapata and bail bondsman Armando Martinez. The then-77-year-old Sullivan was arrested for online solicitation of a minor and child pornography in 2014 when Zapata and Martinez supplied the $2 million to bail him out of the Tom Green County Jail.
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Above: Ray Zapata enters a sheriff's vehicle before being booked into the county jail; smiles for his mugshot in 2015. (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)
Hurley said Sullivan had such a bad reputation that no local attorney would represent him. That’s when Young, a criminal defense attorney who hails from Sweetwater, was asked to take over Sullivan’s case.
Hurley stated that Young agreed to represent Sullivan on a seizure and forfeiture case where the state seized Sullivan’s brokerage account containing approximately $3 million. Young took the case on contingency, Hurley stated.
“John Young was one of the very few people who ever treated John Sullivan with any empathy,” Hurley stated.
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Above: John Young in darker suit enters the Tom Green County Courthouse (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)
Meanwhile, Joe Hernandez was Sullivan’s spurned former attorney. Previously promised a portion of Sullivan’s estate, when Hernandez learned all of Sullivan’s money was given to Young instead, he blew the whistle, claiming to Texas Ranger Nick Hannah that Ray Zapata forged the will. That is when the Texas Rangers began their investigation of the Sullivan will, Ray Zapata, and John Young.
“During his last days of his life, Sullivan made no secret about his animosity toward Joe Hernandez,” Hurley stated.
Hurley argued that SAPD Detective Black was not qualified to express an expert opinion under Texas statutes, and that the DPS crime lab report suggests Black’s analysis and opinion “flawed and erroneous.”
In the backdrop of the defense’s explosive evidence that the DPS crime lab cannot determine if Zapata or anyone else wrote the will, and that the entire case against Young be dismissed, the state filed a second indictment Friday.
The new indictment adds the additional charge of money laundering, removes the aggravated perjury charge, and removes the misappropriation of fiduciary and financial property charge.
Zapata’s attorney Mark Snodgrass said his client pleaded not guilty and he expects his client will prevail. He said he is uncertain about what the state is up to with the new indictment, but assured LIVE! the money laundering charges are insignificant. The charge assumes Zapata’s guilt for forgery and theft, which Snodgrass assured, Zapata is innocent.
We called and left a voice mail for Texas Attorney General prosecutor Shane Attaway, who is representing the state. He did not return our call.
San Angelo bail bondsman Ray Zapata is accused of forging Sullivan's will. John Young, acting as Sullivan's attorney, received all of the proceeds of Sullivan's multi-million estate. The state indicted both men in 2015 and the case has been slowly making its way through the Tom Green County court.
Because of the new indictments, both Zapata and Young were re-booked into the Tom Green County Jail yesterday before making an appearance in court. The proceedings were held in the judge's chambers.
For more, see:
- San Angelo Bail Bondsman, Defense Attorney Accused of Forging Will of Alleged Pedophile
- A San Angelo Lawyer Tipped Off Texas Rangers About Ray Zapata
- Zapata's Accused Accomplice Aces Polygraph
- Attorney Ordered to Reveal What He Did With Sullivan's Money
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