A San Angelo Lawyer Tipped Off Texas Rangers About Ray Zapata

Two bail bondsmen, two attorneys and a dead millionaire: what began as an investigation into a wealthy slumlord charged with child sex crimes has led to a multi-agency investigation into the deceased’s lawyer and bondsman for the alleged forgery of a will and the charged theft of millions.

A probate hearing and subsequent lawsuit filed on behalf of one of the man’s victims compose a civil element of the complex case, which despite its many moving parts, all takes root in an investigation begun on Aug. 7, 2013.  

Aug. 7, 2013 was a Wednesday when Joel Callaway, a detective for the Texas Department of Public Safety, received a report of a man with a “creepy old voice” calling into the Girl Scouts of America (GSA) office offering “free kittens to any little girl scout”.

The calls had been going on for months and had begun to get explicit by August, prompting a representative to contact law enforcement. When Callaway went to take a report, he compared audio from a previous call made to San Angelo’s 911, and was able to identify the caller as 77-year-old John Edward Sullivan.

Immediately after the Girl Scouts incident, an investigation was launched, which was headed by the Texas Department of Public Safety. At least three victims were identified in affidavits DPS investigators provided to obtain search and arrest warrants for Sullivan’s house and person, while others continued to come forward after his arrest.

Witness accounts of fake Facebook pages and requests that people adopt overseas children and turn them over to the Sullivan filled the affidavits, which included portions of transcribed testimony from the victim’s forensic interviews and messages located on digital devices.

After seven long months of investigation, Sullivan was arrested on March 26 during a search of his home at 516 S. Jefferson St. He was booked into the Tom Green County Jail on one count of possession of child pornography and one count of online solicitation of a minor, with the possibility of more charges being added.

With millions in the bank, over a million in real estate and a number of foreign accounts, Sullivan’s bond was not cheap, and the 77-year-old sat five days in the county jail until Armando Martinez and Ray Zapata, both bondsmen for different bail bond companies in town, pulled together to split the bail on the high-dollar client.

Sullivan was free on April 1, and as the investigation continued in the background, he and attorney John Stacey Young began to prepare for a trial that would never come.

Things Get Weird

Two months and four days after his release from jail, on June 4, 2014, Ray Zapata and Armando Martinez went to Sullivan’s house in Santa Rita, where they found the old man dead inside.

Police arrived on scene late that afternoon and confirmed Sullivan had died of natural causes, and Zapata was seen standing outside the residence shortly after officers arrived.

At the time, no foul play was suspected, however when a handwritten will was submitted in a probate hearing 12 days later, another local attorney, who knew Sullivan, Zapata and Young, grew suspicious of the whole deal.

According to court documents, within 24 hours of Sullivan’s death, his criminal defense attorney, John Young, filed a petition to probate a will that was dated June 2 and was stated to have been written by John Edward Sullivan in the presence of his “good friend Ray Zapata”.

The will left everything to Young, entrusting him to carry out Sullivan’s “wishes an intentions as we have discussed”.

Finding the whole thing fishy, local attorney Joe Hernandez attended the probate hearing in Judge Ben Nolan’s court on June 16, reporting his suspicions and concerns to Texas Ranger Nick Hannah two days later.

“…Hernandez attended the probate hearing in which Ray Zapata presented testimony,” Ranger Hannah wrote in an affidavit. “Hernandez believed Zapata perjured himself…and Hernandez, who was familiar with the handwriting of both Sullivan and Zapata, believed the handwriting of the holographic will to be that of Zapata.”

Having heard Hernandez’s concerns, Ranger Hannah obtained handwriting samples of Ray Zapata from previously written bail bonds and contacted San Angelo Police Detective Rodney Black, a handwriting expert, to examine the writings.

“Detective Black…concluded the handwriting of the holographic will was consistent with the handwriting of Ray Zapata,” the affidavit states.

After meeting with Hernandez, Ranger Hannah turned to the second bail bondsman, Armando Martinez, who had been present with Zapata when Sullivan’s body was found.

Martinez reported that when they found the body, Zapata called Young to tell him of Sullivan’s death. He then took a picture of the body, Martinez said, and allegedly sent it via MMS or email to an unknown recipient.

According to the affidavit, Martinez stated that he overheard the phone conversation and recognized Young by his voice, who, Martinez alleges, told Zapata to find a piece of paper with Sullivan’s signature on it.

“[He] then witnessed Ray Zapata search inside the residence and, upon locating a book which appeared to be a Bible, take the book outside and conceal it in his vehicle prior to the arrival of the San Angelo Police Department,” Hannah wrote.

It was until the probate hearing on June 16 that Martinez learned of the will, he stated.

After taking Martinez’s statement, Hannah obtained Zapata’s telephone and text records, which corroborated Martinez’s statement regarding the phone call between Young and Zapata around the time the body was discovered, the affidavit states.

Zapata later acknowledged taking a picture of Sullivan’s body, but denied sending it to another person. He voluntarily showed Ranger Hannah his phone, which contained images of evidentiary value, thus prompting the Ranger to file an affidavit for a search warrant of the cell.

On Dec. 8, 2014, a search warrant was issued for Zapata’s cell phone that was executed that day. A flash drive with the data was seized in the search, however what information is on the flash drive remains confidential.

The investigation into Zapata and Young has continued since the search warrant, culminating with a grand jury indictment on March 25. In the meantime, two civil cases, one in which Young was named the beneficiary of the estate, and a lawsuit against him filed by one of Sullivan’s alleged victim’s mother for that estate, have seen repeated motions and hearings over the past several months.

Currently, all of the assets have been frozen and a temporary administrator has been named for the estate.

John Young, who voluntarily surrendered himself in Fisher County the morning after the indictments were handed down, issued the following statement on the charges: “What began as a complex will contest case has been turned into a tragic effort by disgruntled folks to gain an advantage in that will contest case.

“My lawyers and I look forward to vigorously and zealously defending against these false and untrue allegations before a jury of the good citizens of Tom Green County.”