Former US death row inmate Sunny Jacobs “loved Connemara” because of the freedom it offered her, her former postman has said. 

Sonia ‘Sunny’ Jacobs, who was in her 70s, died in a house fire in Casla on Tuesday; another victim, Kevin Kelly, was in his 30s.

Their bodies have been taken to University Hospital Galway for post-mortem and a Garda investigation into the fire is now underway. 

In 1976, Ms Jacobs, her partner, Jesse Tafero, their two children and a friend, Walter Rhodes, were driving through Florida. 

They were pulled over by two policemen and shots were fired. 

Rhodes accused his two friends of murdering the officers and they were sentenced to death.

Years later, Rhodes confessed that he had fired the fatal shots but it was too late for Mr Tafero, who was executed by the electric chair in 1990. 

After her exoneration, Ms Jacobs threw herself into anti-death penalty activism and in 1998, on a visit to Ireland for an event with Amnesty International, she met Peter Pringle.

Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle. Picture by: Leon Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Like Ms Jacobs, he too had spent time on death row - having been sentenced to death in 1980 for the murder of a Guard; his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal 15 years later. 

The pair fell in love, married and moved to Galway together. 

For years, the couple criss-crossed the country, sharing their stories at anti-death penalty events. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Independent Ireland Councillor Michael Leainde said locals in Connemara were in a state of “hurt” following her death. 

“The community is in a disarray at the moment - especially the village where Sunny came from, there were only 12, 14 houses,” he said. 

“In tight little communities like that, everybody knows everybody.” 

Cllr Leainde continued that the pair’s deaths were a “real, real shock to the area” and that he had got to know Ms Jacobs well during the decades she had lived in Ireland.  

“She loved Connemara because she had freedom and stuff like that,” he said. 

“They used to have animals and goats and stuff like that; they had them in the garden there. 

“They had donkeys and cats and dogs and she was into kind of animals like that.” 

Sunny Jacobs. Picture by: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Cllr Leainde added that after 17 years behind bars for a crime she did not commit, Ms Jacobs “really seemed to be happy”. 

“I’m a postman as well and I used to be into her three, four times a week,” he said. 

“So, I got to know Sunny very well and we just got on great with each other, she was a very intelligent lady. 

“If you were talking about something today and she said, ‘I’ll come back to you tomorrow and I’ll know more about it.’ 

“And she would, so she was very good on the internet and things like that. 

“And she was always reading books and writing books.” 

Gardaí have asked for anyone with any information about the house fire to contact Clifden Garda Station.

Main image: Sunny Jacobs. Picture by: Leon Farrell/RollingNews.ie