FAIRFIELD – A 41-year-old man convicted for the 2021 murder of Wayne County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Riley appeared via Zoom last week in his effort to withdraw his guilty plea.

Ray Tate made a request for more than 1,000 pages of documents related to his case along with video surveillance footage of his arrivals and departures from the Wayne County Courthouse, which was granted.

In June 2022, Tate filed a handwritten motion to withdraw his guilty plea to Riley’s murder and have his life sentence overturned.

He claimed he was coerced into pleading guilty, had inadequate representation, and that he was never given a mental evaluation before he entered the guilty plea.

Another status hearing is set for May 4.

Tate also faces numerous counts in Missouri, where he allegedly headed after Deputy Riley’s murder at the end of 2021, and in Clinton County, where he allegedly held people hostage before surrendering to authorities after returning to Illinois.

The shooting of Deputy Riley, the flight to Missouri, and the return and surrender in Clinton County all occurred the same day. He is in prison on the charges to which he pleaded guilty in Wayne County.