DPS Handwriting Expert Will Not Rule Out Idea that Sullivan Wrote the Will

SAN ANGELO, TX — A Department of Public Safety forensic handwriting expert testified late Tuesday that she couldn’t rule out the late John Sullivan as the author of a will that gives his attorney John Young all of his estate.  

Prosecuting attorneys from the Texas Attorney General’s office put one of Texas’ premier handwriting experts on the stand in the John Young forgery, theft and money laundering trial late Tuesday.  

Sarah Pryor testified that she wasn’t presented enough samples of Sullivan’s signature and handwriting to rule him out as the author of the centerpiece of the case.  The handwritten will states that Sullivan leaves his estate to his attorney John Young.  Young was representing Sullivan in his online solicitation of a minor and possession of child pornography charges when he died on June 3, 2014.  

Pryor was given the original will and writing samples from John Sullivan, his attorney John Young the defendant in this trial, and Ray Zapata whom another jury has convicted of forging the will in question.  

Pryor provided prosecutors with a Powerpoint presentation of her findings.  Prosecuting attorney Shane Attaway questioned Pryor.  She told the jury that forensic handwriting professionals don’t use the term ‘match’ to describe handwriting; they use a scale which with evidence can rule out a writer on one end of the scale or confirm the handwriting is the same on the other.  

The DPS expert testified that she was given multiple handwriting samples from John Sullivan, John Young and Ray Zapata.  Young and Zapata were required to provide an exemplar in which they hand wrote the exact wording from the will.  

Pryor’s Powerpoint included slides showing Young's and Zapata’s exemplars.  Jurors saw that Young’s handwriting filled out the entire page where the Sullivan will covered just over half the approximately 3-inch by 6-inch page from the book.  Zapata’s writing didn’t stay inside the prescribed 3 by 6-inch page.  

Pryor’s report included that the signature of John Sullivan on the will was, “possibly unnaturally prepared handwriting,” and there were “possible attempts at deliberation.”   Deliberation is purposefully attempting to alter one’s handwriting.    

Pryor told the 12 jurors and two alternates that, “There are indications John Sullivan may not have written the extended portion of the will.”  

While the handwriting expert was the final witness to testify for the State on Tuesday, she wasn’t the only one. As we reported earlier, prosecutors put Maria Evans on the stand.  

Evans testified that she told John Young after John Sullivan’s death that Sullivan had a sister in Boston and intended to leave his estate to the Society of Saint Pius X and a trust fund for the boys he was accused of molesting.  

That revelation was a shocker to attorneys on both sides.  

Evans testimony continued Tuesday afternoon.  Young’s defense attorney Frank Sellers asked Evans about a young man named Otis.  She testified that Otis was 15 or 16-years-old and was living at Sullivan’s house.  She said he needed to be on psychiatric medicine to behave properly.  

Evans said that she talked daily on the phone with Sullivan and that she took Otis in when Sullivan was arrested for the child abuse charges.  Otis’s mother Misty Seals was living in the shelter for battered women with her four children.  Evans says Otis broke a window in that facility and was kicked out.  She testified that Otis was a teenager living on the streets when he met Sullivan.  

Evans then testified that upon Sullivan’s death, she took Otis and his two brothers and one sister into her house and was going to foster them.   Evans told the jury she was going to have major back surgery and the children could not stay at her house any longer.  She testified that Child Protective Services came to her house and took the children except for Otis, who went to live on the streets.  

Evans said John Sullivan liked getting money from insurance companies and hated paying taxes to the government.  She said he hated the government.  

Evans also testified that Sullivan would go to First United Methodist Church in San Angelo for a free meal.  At some point, he made a lewd comment to a child and was told he couldn’t come back.  

Under questioning from defense attorney Frank Sellers, Evans said Sullivan asked her to adopt Prady, a child from an orphanage in India because Sullivan couldn’t adopt due to being a convicted felon.  

Evans refused his request.

She told jurors Sullivan was afraid he’d lose his solicitation and child porn case and he was afraid to go back to prison.  Sullivan served time for fraud and tax evasion in the 1990s.  

Evans shocked attorneys Tuesday morning by testifying that during a meeting with John Young she told him Sullivan had a sister and wanted to leave his estate to the Society of Saint Pius X and set up a trust fund for the ‘boys.’  Both prosecutors and defense attorneys admitted that was the first time Evans had provided that information.

She testified, “I told him (Young) that Sullivan wants to leave money to the SSPX and the ‘boys.’ Evans said Young’s response was “ all of that has  changed.”  Evans also said that Zapata was present when she met with Young.  

During cross examination by Frank Sellers, Evans admitted that she testified before the grand jury and met with prosecutors on four separate occasions from 2014 to 2015 and just remembered today in 2017 that she told John Young that Sullivan had a sister and wanted to leave his estate to a charity that would benefit orphans.  

Also testifying Tuesday was San Angelo real estate investor Tracy Manning.  Manning told the jury that he had many business dealings with John Sullivan and that Sullivan was a smart man who financed some of Manning’s purchases of properties.  

Manning also testified that after Sullivan’s death, John Young contacted him and negotiated a deal where Manning could buy back from the estate the notes he had sold to Sullivan.  Manning had been in business with Sullivan since 2009 and agreed to the deal.  

Testimony resumed Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the Tom Green County Courthouse.