Silvon Simmons | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

There was no cops following us the whole night. Like it would have been no need for it. We
wasn't speeding. Wasn't doing anything criminal. It it it it just was It came out the clear blue sky.
On Friday, [music] April 1st, 2016, 34-year-old Silvon Simmons was planning to have a barbecue at his next-door
neighbor's house in Rochester, New York. >> [music] >> Just before 9:00 p.m. Silvon and his
neighbor went to the store. His neighbor drove them in a Chevy Impala with Silvon
in the passenger seat. Went to the store. Came back from the store. Everything was
good on the way there, on the way back. And um >> [music] >> Shortly after we pulled in the driveway,
went totally wrong. What happened? We got out the car. Police officer came. Like literally and just hopped out the
car. No sirens. No nothing. He >> [music] >> It was a a spotlight. He hopped in front
of and That's it. All you seen was a gun. According to Silvon the officer did not identify himself or
say anything at all. No sirens, no flashing lights, just one bright spotlight and a man coming toward him
with a gun. And you started running. Absolutely. Where do you run? Away. Which is the only way to run away was
towards the back of my house. As I'm getting close to my back door I hear the shot. I feel the shot.
I don't believe that he actually shot me, but I know I'm shot. And then he shot again.
Then he shot again. Then I dove over a fence. I get on the ground and um play dead.
>> [music] >> Officer Joseph Ferrigno fired his gun [music] four times. Three of the four
shots made contact with the back of Silvon's body. When you actually [music] there
the person getting shot you don't know what to think. Like the the first thing that come in your mind
is I got shot, I'm about to die. Like that's the first thing that come to your mind. Like
You don't think I got shot, I'm about to survive. Like all I wanted to do was get out the line
of fire. Like it was one, two, three. Like they kept coming. It was going to keep coming. Like like
That's all I'm thinking is that I can't believe that somebody is really trying to kill me
right now. Like Like I I I see the gun, but I I don't I don't have problems with
people to want to roll up and just shoot me down. So that was another shock of the story. Like I'm really getting shot
right now. Like like We We ain't got time to talk right now. Why you got that gun and you chasing me?
What What do you remember next? Um I'm just trying to be as still and quiet as I possibly can be.
So he think I'm dead. Next thing you know um my leg like start killing me. Like it's literally killing me. Like
like it's like my lung collapsed so I can't scream. I can't really do nothing, but my leg is killing me. But I do make
sound. >> [sighs] >> So he come over to me. Start kicking me, pointing the gun in the face, telling me
to shut up. I play dead again. Officer Ferrigno declined to speak with us. We can confirm that medical records show
bruising on Silvon's rib cage and broken ribs. He was handcuffed and then searched.
More officers arrived. I just want to survive. Want to know where the ambulance at.
So a thousand things a second going through my mind. My kids, my family, parents, friends.
Just people who care about me. Like what Like what they going to think? How this story going to
go? Like it's all type of stuff that's going through my head at the time. Later that night, the Rochester Police
Department's Jackie Shuman gave this statement to reporters. Officers were conducting an investigation involving a
vehicle in the area of Emerald Street near Jay Street. Uh during the investigation, shots were
exchanged between the officer and a suspect. The suspect was struck. He's in serious condition, but he's
alert. And at this point we are um still conducting our investigation. It's still
preliminary at this time. Officer was unhurt? Yes. Officer No officers are hurt.
I first heard about it in the morning on the news. Liz Riley is a special assistant public defender at the Monroe
County Public Defender's Office. The news was reporting that an individual had shot at a police officer and that he
was shot in return. Um My first instinct, to be honest, was they shot this guy and now there's a
cover-up. >> [music] >> I'm Phoebe Judge. [music] This is Criminal. What happened when you got to the
hospital? I had um tubes in my lungs and tubes in my throat. Cuz I was actually awake. So
I was like writing notes. So I'm writing notes to nurses. I'm writing notes to the police that's there in front of me.
It's a lot of police around me. And like I could feel a bad vibe. I'm like writing notes asking for my
parents, asking somebody to call them. When Silvon arrived at the hospital, they made an incision all the way down
his torso to check for internal injuries. The bullet that hit his thigh went through him and out the other side of
his leg. But he still had a bullet near his pelvis and another one in his mid back
that had come very close to his heart. He had a punctured lung. He had a chest tube as well as a breathing tube. And
that's why he was trying to communicate by writing notes. Yeah, I got to write notes. I don't wrote a thousand notes.
Like I need to see my parents. I need to see my kids. I need to see my family. I
need to see a lawyer. Like I need to see a lawyer for this because y'all doing something wrong
right now. He had been writing notes asking to see a lawyer, asking to speak to his father,
asking to have a phone call, asking to know what was going on, to see the news. And he was he wasn't getting any
answers. So he's very frustrated. He wasn't arraigned, so he was held. So he wasn't entitled to an attorney. They
waited until the breathing tube was taken out of him. And within hours after his breathing tube was removed today,
went in and spoke with him and interviewed him. Um while he was drugged up and had been
kind of out of it for days. >> [sighs] >> Um So when he was actually arrested, I
have no idea if even they knew what they were charging him with. The investigators tried to tell me like,
"Oh yeah, well something happened earlier in the neighborhood." And they started off with okay at 9:00. When
they started questioning me, they started off like 9:00. What happened? I'm telling them like we
went to the store. We come back from the store. Spotlight pop up. See a gun. Run from
it. Get shot. Come to find out police shot me. But then he come up with this story like and try to lead me
through the story. Like, "Yeah. Something happened earlier. Some people came back. It was gunshots fired in
front of your house. You went and got a gun so you could protect yourself. And when you seen the police officer, you
were scared." Something No. Um But he so sure it went like that. And I'm like, "That's not how it went." So
I'm like, "What am I getting charged with?" He was like, "Well there's going to be some assault
charges." I'm Assault charges for what? He was like, "Well you did shoot at the police." I I did
not shoot at the police. Did you have a gun? No, ma'am. >> [music] >> According to the Rochester Police
Department, a 9-mm handgun was found at the scene, 4 to 10 feet from Silvon. Police Chief Michael Simmonelli held a
press conference in which he said if someone fires a gun at an officer the ability to return fire is certainly
legally justified. The officer is entitled to protect himself. Silvon says he begged to be [music]
checked for gunpowder residue. Like I'm constantly like we can get to the bottom of this right now. Like if if
it went the way [music] if I actually shot somebody, like my hands. So like like it it it was
it [music] was a scary feeling. It was terrifying. It was like the worst thing ever. Like
cuz the officer was white. I am black. I was in the inner city when I got shot. [music] Except for I didn't have a gun.
And since I didn't have a gun and I survived, all of a sudden there's a gun [music]
involved just to justify me getting shot. Silvon Simmons was transferred from Strong Medical Hospital to the Monroe
County Jail. He was facing four felony charges. One count of criminal possession of a
weapon with the intent to use it unlawfully against another person. One count of criminal possession of a
weapon outside of his home or place of business. One count of attempted aggravated
assault on a police officer. And one count of attempted aggravated murder of a police officer.
One person remains in serious condition after exchanging gunfire with a Rochester police officer. Police say
[music] Sylvon fired at Officer Ferrigno on Immel Street when the officer approached Sylvon and someone else in
their car. Police say Sylvon missed and the officer returned fire hitting Sylvon
three [music] or four times. I would say it's it's typically not our practice to ask somebody
"Did you do it?" Assistant public defender Katie Higgins. She and Liz Riley were assigned to
defend Sylvon Simmons. We don't start conversations by saying "Oh, they're saying you shot at a cop. Did you do
it?" Usually it takes time to build trust. Um normally you want to talk to the client about what
the charges are, what the government is saying they did. But I do remember with Sylvon that he
was very confused for many days about why he was arrested and why they um why he was in police custody.
So when we went and met with him, he was pretty adamant from that very first meeting onward that he
did not do that. One of the first things Sylvon asked for was to see his parents.
Here's Liz Riley. We later came to know that his parents are just about the nicest people the world has ever seen.
And they had come up from Tennessee where they had basically retired to. And um no one could no one would let them see
their son. They knew he had been shot. They didn't know his condition. And so one of the first things that we
focused on was getting them into see their son. Their next step was to go to Sylvon's street and begin to talk to his
neighbors. Many of whom had been outside that night and had information about what they'd seen and heard. Katie
Higgins. We had extremely limited information. We knew what the charges were. We knew
the date and time that they had occurred. And that was it. We didn't know what evidence there was or wasn't. We
didn't know if the officer was actually injured. Uh we didn't know if there had been
you know, a bullet recovered that they were saying Sylvon had fired at the officer. I mean, we had very very
very little information about how strong the case was or wasn't. So certainly just seeing the charges and knowing that
the government was going to show up with a victim being an officer, a police officer that certainly
was intimidating. According to Katie Higgins and Liz Riley as other attorneys in Rochester learned
about the case and learned that it involved Officer Ferrigno they came forward with information. Probably at
least half a dozen lawyers came to me immediately telling me, "You got to know about this.
You got to know about that." And gave me little anecdotes of times that they had
had cases where he was involved. Uh I started collecting as much information as I could as to different
cases that I could perhaps use where he had been accused of using excessive force against other people's clients
because there was going to be some ability to build uh a background as to his temperament. In addition to
excessive force complaints, Officer Ferrigno has been named in multiple civil lawsuits against the city of
Rochester. As Sylvon's trial date approached, the district attorney offered him a plea
deal. Here's Liz Riley. He was offered um Let me back up just a second by saying
that if he had lost trial, he was looking at a sentence that ended in life. So any sentence he could have gotten had
he been convicted of attempted aggravated murder of a police officer would have been a potential life
sentence. In other words, it could have been anywhere from 25 to life. I think it went up to 40 to life.
And he was offered a plea to attempted aggravated assault with a flat sentence of 15 years plus 5 years of post-release
supervision. And he would not hear of it. I wonder if that's always stressful for you in your
position to be thinking, "Oh >> [sighs] >> I mean, it must be the most stressful
thing in how you offer advice about taking a plea deal if you if you think this guy really didn't do it?" It it is.
Yeah, absolutely. Because we can't guarantee results, you know? I mean, I'm I'm sometimes have said to people, "I'm not
magic, you know?" And 12 people that we don't know and we don't know what the pool of people is
going to be. We could get a a fabulous group of people that come in that are open-minded and and willing to
listen to things or we could get um [snorts] a jury where we have no choice but to put
people that you know, we would be less than happy with hearing a case for our client.
On a jury, you know, you can only strike so many people. And so you never know. And you never
know what's going to happen at trial. And the difference between a guarantee of 15 years, which you serve on a little
more than 10, or spending the rest of your life in prison is a decision I wouldn't want to make.
I probably would have taken the plea. First of all, [music] I didn't want to be in jail
for the 11 months that I was in jail before the plea deal came to me. So I I I just knew in my heart that
whatever evidence that they said they had was not the evidence >> [music] >> against me. Like I I I knew that I was
not wrong. Like I knew I was right. Like Now you're trying to like ruin my life for
15 [music] years and have me agree to something that I never did. Like I'm not going to I'm not going to do that. I'm
I'm I'm not going to do that. I I try to be a man of my word. I I couldn't do it.
Like I just couldn't do [music] it. Was there anyone asking you to take the plea deal? Did your parents just say,
you know, did anyone >> No. No. No. No. Absolutely not. They they they [music] told me it was my
decision. But when I told them no, I'm not taking that deal. They rolled with me. Like everybody I
knew just rolled with me. Like people who know me know me. So they know that that's not nothing that I'm like capable
of. I didn't lose my mind or like I wasn't on drugs. Like it it it wasn't any My life wasn't bad to say, "Oh, eff
it. Tonight I'm about to have a shootout with the police." Like that that's not in my character. Like I have I had a
good life. So people who know me they could feel the truth. But knowing that the jurors
out of 12 people, I know 12 people ain't going to think exactly the same. So it it was that was terrifying.
>> [music] >> That that was super terrifying. Scary. The trial began October 2nd, 2017,
a year and 6 months after Sylvon was shot. In her opening statement, Julie Hahn of
the Monroe County District Attorney's office said >> [music] >> "This case is not about taking sides on
a hot topic in our society. As tempting as it may be to make the case about [music] that, that's not your job as
jurors." Officer Ferrigno testified along with his partner who'd been with him that
night. They testified they'd been in the area looking for a suspect [music] who had quote "menaced someone, threatened
them with a gun." That person was thought to have a Chevy Impala. Sometime after Sylvon was shot, a report
was created where the individual who had been looking for the suspect in [music] the menacing case
wrote a report and gave a description of the vehicle as being somewhat similar to the car that Sylvon was riding in.
Um so this guy, his name is Ivory Golden. He was believed to have menaced somebody and he was supposed to be
driving an Impala. And the color of the car changed from reports anywhere from silver to gray to
tan to gold. Um and the report that designated what Ivory Golden's car actually looked like was written after
Sylvon was shot. So they kind of went back and made that report after the fact. Which was very troubling to me.
Um so they said that they saw this car and that it was um speeding. Which both Sylvon and uh
the driver of the car, guy by the name of Tron, deny happened. Um There were people out on the street at
the time that both Tron's car and then Ferrigno's car came down Immel Street who say that
there was nothing unusual about the way Tron drove his car. He backed into the driveway like he normally does. His
girlfriend had a a bum knee and it was easier for her to get in on the driver's side when it was positioned right by her
door. So there was nothing unusual about that. They didn't drive in in any kind of way. But Officer Ferrigno says that
they were speeding. That they banked the corner, that they sped up Immel Street, slammed on the
brakes, shot off the lights, uh and then backed into the driveway very quickly. Officer
Ferrigno testified that he saw both the driver and passenger lean down, {quote} as if trying to conceal something or
reach for something. He claims he identified himself and he approached, at which time he says that there was a
figure that got out of the passenger side that moved up the driveway. He says that he ordered the driver to
stay where he was and that he followed the individual down the driveway and then at some point
he saw what he believed to be a turn and then he saw a muzzle flash. A muzzle flash is is a gun kind of going
off. Correct. Yep. So, it was very dark in the backyard, um and there's this tree at the corner.
There's There's a little shed, then there's a tree, and then there's a little cut through, and then there's a
chain link fence. And right around that area is where Officer Ferrigno says that
he saw the muzzle flash and he agreed, he admits that he could not see anything that was going on in the
backyard, um and he took a few steps further and then he just started firing into the
dark. District Attorney Julie Hahn asked Ferrigno why he returned fire. And Ferrigno testified, {quote}
because I was scared he was going to kill me. The state also presented audio from
ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology that uses sensors to alert police when shots are fired.
The manager for forensic services for ShotSpotter testified that the audio sensors initially only detected four
shots. And that they changed the report to indicate [music] five shots. Three hours after Sylvon was shot,
somebody from the Rochester Police Department contacted ShotSpotter. [music] A Rochester Police Department officer
said during the trial that ShotSpotter found a fifth gunshot after this request.
ShotSpotter claims [music] that the original audio file is lost. Liz Riley and Katie Higgins argued that
it wasn't possible for Sylvon to shoot Officer Ferrigno because >> [music] >> he didn't have a gun.
His fingerprints and DNA were not on the gun recovered in his backyard. >> [music]
>> His repeated requests to be tested for residue were ignored. >> [music] >> No gun was found inside his home.
Only four shell casings were found at the scene consistent [music] with the four shots Officer Ferrigno fired.
Liz Riley says they also focused on the conflicting reports offered by Officer Ferrigno and his partner.
The version of events that Ferrigno's partner put in didn't make sense logically and I think we did a good job
of breaking down how his claim that he was there and he saw it happen was not accurate. It was just
physically impossible. He claimed to have been uh at the base of the driveway and witnessed the shot.
He also saw claimed that he heard a uh bullet pass over his head, um there was a lot of things that he said
that just didn't make any logical sense and I think that that was something that
helped us. The other thing that helped us is that that officer's brother >> [music]
>> was one of the first people that arrived on scene, so it helped it certainly helped solidify for me
>> [music] >> that there was a cover-up going on and I think it was it was facts that we could
use to show the jury that this was possible. What was it like watching Ferrigno take
the stand? Describe that scene. Officer Ferrigno is a pretty imposing figure. He's pretty
tall, he's pretty muscular. And he took the stand and the officers are trained to look at
the jury when they're testifying. And what really struck me during his testimony was
here was the prosecution's star witness. Here was their victim of an attempted homicide. He was a police
officer. He'd been on the force many years. You would think that the jury would be
absolutely all eyes, all ears, fascinated with his testimony. And instead watching him testify and
then watching the jury's reactions, that really was the first time that I started
feeling really optimistic in the middle of trial. Because the jury members were not making eye contact with
him. A lot of them were looking at their hands, at their feet, at the floor. They
were looking at um Sylvon, they were looking at the prosecution table, um but not at Officer Ferrigno as he was
testifying. All of them had already heard just very briefly that he had um had a
number of excessive force complaints against him. That was part of the jury selection process that they were all
informed about that um to ensure that they could still be impartial even having that information.
So, they may have had a little bit of background information that he was a an officer who had excessive force
complaints in the past. But their reactions to his testimony were really um quite eye-opening.
The trial lasted for nearly a month. After four days of deliberation, the jury came back with their verdict. They
found Sylvon not guilty of attempted aggravated murder of a police officer, attempted aggravated assault of a police
officer, and of criminal possession of a weapon with the intent to use it unlawfully against another person.
But he was convicted of being in possession of a gun that he didn't have a permit for outside of his home or
place of business. Katie Higgins. I remember Sylvon's mother breathing out this huge sigh after
the first not guilty, which was the attempted aggravated murder. And as soon as the foreperson said not
guilty, I remember hearing her kind of gasp and sigh and it was like all this air being let out of a balloon.
Like there was all of this air in the room and it just kept getting smaller and smaller as everyone's just kind of
all of a sudden being able to breathe again until the very end where Sylvon was so shocked by what had
happened that he he couldn't speak. And when Judge Chacho agreed to release him and give him some time out for the
holidays with his family before he was planning to sentence him on the one remaining count,
um he had asked him things like you know you have to come back to court and you understand your
you know you have to come back in the state for sentencing. And Sylvon was not able to to speak and
to say yes, I understand. And he ended up knocking on the table as his way of showing that he he heard and he
understood. And we walked back into the hallway at the end of that and Sylvon finally was able to kind of catch
his breath and he remember he looked at both of us and he said, I don't understand what just happened in there.
And Liz turned to him and said, you just got the rest of your life back. I I I was just thankful. I was super
thankful. I was just thankful for the people who believed in me and the people who was rooting for me and the people
who bust they who worked real hard to make sure that I had a a chance. Like I just I
can't wrap my head around it to this day. Like it's still overwhelming to this day.
Everyone went back to court after the holidays for Sylvon's sentencing on the possession conviction.
It was mandatory that he would be sentenced to three and a half years. But that's not what happened.
A stunning ruling today during the sentencing of a man accused of shooting at a Rochester [music] police officer.
In a highly unusual decision, Judge Chacho did not sentence Sylvon Simmons today.
>> [music] >> He overturned his conviction to the shock of all of the police officers in
attendance and to the prosecution. The judge said that ShotSpotter technology was not reliable enough without other
evidence. >> [music] >> Therefore, he granted the defense's motion to overturn the conviction.
Immediately after the ruling, there was an outburst from Officer Ferrigno and his family [music] who could be heard
saying that Simmons was lucky and that he should watch himself. Today Sylvon is back at work. Before all
of this, >> [music] >> he worked for a company called ABR Wholesalers delivering HVAC equipment.
The owners have known him since he was a little boy because his father used to work for them, too.
They stood by his side the whole time. He's back at work with them. He can't do the same physically
demanding labor he used to because of his injuries. He still has two bullets inside his
body. But he's there trying to get back to normal. If you could have a very simple
uh conversation with Officer Ferrigno, >> [gasps] >> w- what would you say to him?
I don't want to say no words to him. I'm I'm I'm I'm suffering. Like you hear what I'm saying? So, like
I don't know. I I need to I I know he I don't know. I I just need to I I I don't know what I'll say to him. I I
probably wouldn't even want to say nothing to him. That'll probably be the best thing, not
to say nothing to him. He know what really happened. Like he know that he know what really happened.
Like he know. [music] >> [music] >> Criminal is created by Lauren Spor [music] and me. Needy Wilson is our
senior producer. Audio mix by Rob Byers. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode [music]
of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com. We're on Facebook and Twitter at
Criminal Show. >> [music] >> Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio WUNC.
We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collection of the best podcasts around.
I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. >> [music] >> Radiotopia [music] from PRX

In 2016, Silvon Simmons was shot in the back by police officer Joseph Ferrigno. The Rochester Police Department said Silvon fired first, and charged him with attempted aggravated murder of a police officer.

“My first instinct, to be honest, was they shot this guy and now there’s a coverup.” -Liz Riley, Special Assistant Public Defender, Monroe County Public Defender’s Office.

Criminal is a show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Episode 111 originally published March 29, 2019. https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-111-silvon-simmons-3-29-2019

Music in this episode: “Crem Valle” by Blue Dot Sessions “Two Boys and a Girl” by Podington Bear “Slow Slow Sky” by Blue Dot Sessions “Stretch of Lonely” by Blue Dot Sessions “Thumbscrew” by Blue Dot Sessions “Burned” by Podington Bear “Transit Vidal” by Blue Dot Sessions

Brief Summary

Silvon Simmons recounts being shot by police and his legal battle for justice after being wrongfully accused.

Key points

Silvon Simmons Shot by Police. On April 1, 2016, Silvon Simmons was shot by police after a confrontation.
Silvon's Hospital Experience. After being shot, Silvon was in critical condition and wrote notes to communicate.
The Plea Deal Dilemma. Facing serious charges, Silvon refused a plea deal that could have meant years in prison.
Verdict Announcement. The jury found Sylvon not guilty of attempted aggravated murder, leading to emotional reactions.
Judge Overturns Conviction. In a surprising ruling, Judge Chacho overturned Sylvon's conviction, shocking the courtroom.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I can't believe that somebody is really trying to kill me right now.

Silvon reflects on the moment he was shot.

2:49WatchApr 21, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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