Collier County sheriff's deputies came to visit armed with a warrant for his arrest in connection with a crime of which he'd been suspected for nearly three years.
He is charged in a traffic death they say he knew he committed then fled in February 2002.
Ryals, 43, of 2620 Fountainview Circle, No. 202, in North Naples, was suspected for 2½ years in a hit-and-run crash on U.S. 41 North near Pelican Bay that killed an Ohio multimillionaire. Ryals had left his pickup at the crash scene and hid from deputies who came to investigate before he got a ride home, witnesses said.
He is charged in the death of Michael Moritz, 68, a multimillionaire benefactor of The Ohio State University, where the law school bears his name. Moritz died of injuries suffered in the crash.
Ryals, who is charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident that results in death and leaving the scene of an accident with injury, is being held at the Collier County jail. He'll face a judge today to get bond set.
A witness who had come forward after reading a detailed account of the unsolved hit and run in the Naples Daily News in August provided information that allowed sheriff's deputies, who had developed other evidence, too, to go to state prosecutors and get a warrant.
She told authorities that Ryals was driven home in a family van just before deputies arrived at his parents' Naples Park home, according to Moritz family attorney Ted Zelman of Naples. He took her sworn statement for a civil suit he's filed.
"She said that when she was first questioned by police, she thought the deputies were talking about Ryals' son, not Jeffrey Scott Ryals," Zelman said. Three generations of the Ryals family were living in the house at the time.
Zelman said she read the Daily News story and realized that they were talking about Ryals, not his son, Tony. She talked to private investigators on the case, then deputies and Zelman.
"Once she knew who they were talking about, she told them what she'd seen," he said.
There were many details of the crash, most of them discovered by Zelman and private investigators hired by the Moritz family. But there wasn't much action from Collier deputies and state prosecutors, whom the family blamed for a few missteps and inaction early in the investigation.
Michael Moritz and his wife, Lou Ann, were at an Ohio State University gathering at the Naples Hilton on the evening of Feb. 23, 2002. Moritz, of Dublin, Ohio, was the university's largest single benefactor with a $30 million donation to the law library in 2001.
They had dined with friends, Edwin and Mary Jane Overmyer of Upper Arlington, Ohio, at Ohio State University's Winter College, a weekend in Southwest Florida for alumni and donors to the university. They listened to a talk by retired Ohio senator and astronaut John Glenn. They left around 9:30 p.m., heading north on U.S. 41 past Pelican Bay.
Lou Ann Moritz was driving and her husband was in the front passenger seat. The Overmyers were in the back seat. Overmyer was seriously hurt and one of the charges filed against Ryals relates to his injuries.
A tan 1999 Toyota Tacoma pickup was weaving and speeding, reaching 70 mph along Airport-Pulling Road in North Naples. Drivers noticed the truck making wild turns onto Pine Ridge Road before it reached U.S. 41 North near Pelican Bay. That truck, which was driven by Ryals, collided with the Moritzes' rented Ford Taurus.
Ryals then disappeared behind a nearby furniture store, other drivers who had stopped at the crash told deputies. Deputies say he called home for a ride. He never identified himself as the driver of the truck or tried to help anyone.
Michael Moritz died several days later, on March 5, 2002.
Ryals told deputies he was at home asleep at the time of the crash. Someone must have stolen his truck, he told the deputies who visited his parents' home shortly after the crash. Deputies took him back to the scene to identify his truck, which had his keys and his wallet inside.
Deputies had questioned neighbors about Ryals' whereabouts. But it wasn't until August that they got the tip from the neighbor who saw Ryals get the ride home just before deputies pulled up to question him. Deputies had noticed that he smelled of alcohol, but they couldn't place him in the truck.
Ryals gave deputies an elaborate account of where he was all day and all evening. Most of it could only be backed up by his wife and parents.
Deputies concluded that if someone had stolen the truck, not only did they leave the valuables inside, they were driving the truck toward the Ryalses' home. Investigators also learned that someone had been calling the Ryalses' home via cell phone between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., just after the crash.
Ryals has a criminal record. He was arrested four times on DUI charges. On March 27, 2002, a little more than a month after the crash, Ryals was sentenced to six months in the Lee County jail. He was released in August 2002, six months after the crash. In January 2003, he was arrested on a violation of probation warrant from Lee County on a previous DUI charge. A few days later, he was picked up again on a driving with a suspended license charge in Collier County. After going back and forth between the Lee and Collier county jails, he was sentenced to time served in April and released from the Collier jail.
The arrest was a welcome development for the Moritz family in Ohio. A short time after the crash, the family had taken out an advertisement in the Daily News offering a $100,000 reward for information leading the arrest and conviction of the person who killed Michael Moritz. Jeff Moritz wrote letters to prosecutors and made dozens of phone calls, trying to get someone to get the case moving.
"We had to keep after them," said Jeff Moritz, the son of Michael Moritz. "We kept asking and asking about it."
Moritz and Zelman credit Cpl. Karen Hebebrand for resurrecting the case and getting the warrant. The Moritz family questioned some of the police work early on in the case.
"She was really aggressive in pursuing the case," Moritz said. "She stayed on top of things. She was great."
He said she told him that they were using the case as a "learning tool so it doesn't happen again."
Zelman said she reorganize the evidence and made things happen in the case. He said all the evidence at the scene and from the truck, coupled with the new witness, they had something to build on.
"It's a very happy day for the Moritz family," Zelman said. "Finally."
Their private investigators from Ortino Investigations scoured local bars that might have been his watering hole that night and tried to recreate Ryals' whereabouts that night. They followed him, trying to refute all of his statements, including those on his driving habits. He said his wife drove him everywhere because his license was suspended. But the investigators saw him driving. And they claim he was driving on the night of the crash.
Victor Ortino, who runs the firm, was nearby when Ryals was arrested Thursday at the pool at Fountainview apartments.
"He was sitting by the pool with another guy and flirting with some girls," Ortino said. "He was surprised. Very."