Norfolk man gets 49 years for shooting at police

NORFOLK

Officer Matthew Turcotte turned the corner of an abandoned building in Denby Park, steps behind fugitive Jervod Simmons.

Turcotte saw a muzzle flash in the dusk. Simmons squeezed four or five pistol shots from inside 20 feet. Turcotte ducked for cover, unscathed.

Turcotte and his partner continued a running pursuit. Simmons fired over his shoulder, even as he weaved through a crowded parking lot.

Simmons "wanted Officer Turcotte to die," prosecutor Linda Bryant told a judge Friday. Police finally captured Simmons in a nearby apartment that night, Sept. 28.

On Friday, Circuit Court Judge Norman Thomas sentenced Simmons to 49 years and 2 months in prison for attempted capital murder of a police officer, a weapons charge and probation violation. Simmons was on probation for assaulting another police officer in 2007.

In a February plea agreement, Simmons, 23, acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Simmons told the court Friday in a statement that he now does not admit guilt to the charges.

According to a stipulation of evidence filed with the court, Turcotte and his partner, Officer Michael Giraudo, were on patrol at 7 p.m. Sept. 28 in Denby Park. The officers had a wanted flier for Simmons.

Turcotte spotted Simmons in the parking lot of an apartment building in the 500 block of Ashlawn Drive. Simmons ignored several orders to stop and get on the ground, according to the court record.

Simmons ran around a corner, stopped, and turned his weapon on Turcotte. Turcotte testified Friday he thought he had been shot or worse: "I thought I was dead."

Simmons was captured that night in an apartment in the 500 block of East Little Creek Road. Police later found several spent .45-caliber bullets in nearby apartments and lodged into exterior walls, according to the court record.

Since the attack, Turcotte testified, he has had regular nightmares and anxiety.

Defense attorney Mike Fasanaro argued that no one was hurt in the shootings. He said Simmons had mental health issues and had trouble understanding the court's paperwork.

But Bryant said Simmons was a member of the Crips gang and posed an ongoing threat to the community. "His career was basically to be criminal," she said. "A violent one at that."

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2341, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com