American woman Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs and her caretaker Kevin Kelly were both tragically killed in a fire in Casla, Co Galway on Tuesday, June 3.
Jacobs, aged in her 70s, is a native of New York who had been living in Ireland for more than a decade, while Kelly, aged in his 30s, is a native of Co Galway.
The duo died in the Sunny Healing Center, which Jacobs and her late husband, Irish man Peter Pringle, founded to help other exonerees rebuild their lives after being released from prison.
Prior to meeting in 1998, Jacobs and Pringle had each been exonerated after being sentenced to death.
Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs and Peter Pringle in Dublin in September 2006. (RollingNews.ie)
In a statement on Tuesday, Gardaí in Co Galway said Gardaí and Fire Services were alerted to a house fire at Gleann Mhic Mhuireann at approximately 6:20 am.
The fire was brought under control by Fire Services, and the bodies of a woman aged in her 70s and a man in his 30s were recovered from inside the house.
Both bodies have been transported to the Mortuary at University Hospital Galway for post-mortem examinations.
The results of the post-mortems, along with the findings of the technical examination, will determine the course of the Garda investigation.
The local Coroner has been informed, and the scene has been preserved for a technical examination.
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to come forward. Anyone with information is asked to contact Clifden Garda Station on 095 22500, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.
In 1976, Jacobs was wrongfully tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Florida. Her partner at the time, Jesse Tafero, was also wrongfully convicted. He was executed in May 1990, two years before evidence of his and Jacobs' innocence was made known.
Sentenced to death, Jacobs spent five years in solitary confinement. After successfully appealing her death sentence, she then spent another 12 years among the general prison population.
In 1992, Jacobs was released after having her conviction overturned.
Six years after being freed, Jacobs traveled to Ireland where she had been invited to speak at an Amnesty International event in Co Galway. There, she was encouraged by Steve Earle - singer of the classic Irish song "Galway Girl" - to get in touch with Irish man Peter Pringle.
Like Jacobs, Pringle had been wrongfully prosecuted, tried, and convicted of capital murder and robbery by the nonjury Special Criminal Court in Dublin in 1980.
He was sentenced to death and 15 years' imprisonment, but in 1981, his death sentence was commuted to 40 years in prison without parole. After bringing his case before the Court of Criminal Appeal, Pringle's convictions were quashed in May 1995.
Although keen to avoid the spotlight after his release, Pringle went to see Jacobs speak in Galway and was moved by her story. He offered to drive her to her next speaking engagement in Cork, but first, he suggested a swim in the Atlantic, where he revealed to her his own painful experience.
Jacobs eventually returned to the US, but six months later, she headed back to Ireland again, this time to attend a local concert organized by Pringle.
“During that visit, we fell in love,” Jacobs told the New York Times in 2011, on the occasion of their marriage in Manhattan.
After their wedding, the couple settled into their cottage at Glenicmurrin, Costello in Co Galway.
In 2012, they began welcoming exonerees into their Galway home. Two years later, they established The Sunny Center Foundation, enabling them to "extend their assistance more broadly, using a unique holistic approach encompassing physical, mental, and spiritual healing and ongoing support."
In 2018, they opened The Sunny Living Center, a housing complex for exonerees in Tampa, Florida, and in 2020, their mission expanded to helping families and others who’ve been affected by the injustice of wrongful conviction, as well as extending their healing techniques to the general public.
84-year-old Pringle died on January 31, 2022, in their Connemara cottage home.
In the wake of her husband's passing, Jacobs wrote: "So much of Peter is part of The Sunny Center. We created this healing place together. And he is still part of this place, so much so. The rhythm of the day, the sound of the wind over the hills, the quiet calling of the birds. And his influence will be felt as long as The Sunny Center lasts. We were at the heart of it, together."
On Tuesday, The Sunny Center Foundation confirmed the deaths of Jacobs and Kelly.
"Sunny was a fierce advocate for justice and a guiding light for many," the Foundation said, adding that as someone who survived wrongful conviction, Jacobs "knew the difficulties of incarceration and the struggle to regain one's footing after being exonerated and released."
The Foundation said how Jacobs and Pringle "brought many Exonerees to the Center in Ireland to help them process their trauma and move forward to the next steps of their healing.
During and after the pandemic, Jacobs and Pringle "continued to support and counsel Exonerees remotely by video and phone."
The Foundation said that after Pringle's passing in 2022, Jacobs continued their work: "She hosted Exonerees and started a training program for those who wanted to carry forward her vision to establish similar centers for Exonerees within their communities."
By now, many of you have heard the news about Sunny. For those who have not, it is with great sorrow that I report that...
Posted by The Sunny Center on Tuesday, June 3, 2025
The Foundation went on to note how, as a yoga teacher, Jacobs "always provided words of wisdom to help those around her when life seemed difficult," and in 2020, she began putting that wisdom onto YouTube in a series of videos titled “Survival Yoga."
As an homage to Jacobs and a source of comfort to her mourners, the Foundation shared a video of Jacobs discussing her "Rules for Myself":
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