Queens man sentenced to 30 years for murder of detective shot by fellow officers
/
Jagger Freeman (right) and attorney Ronald Nir (left) in 2019. Freeman was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in prison in the NYPD friendly-fire death of Detective Brian Simonsen. Pool file photo by Charlie Eckert
By Jacob Kaye
Jagger Freeman, the man convicted of murdering an NYPD detective who was fatally shot by his fellow officers during a Queens robbery gone wrong in 2019, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison on Thursday.
With the sentencing, Freeman, who lived in Jamaica, became the second man to be sent to prison for over three decades for the death of Detective Brian Simonsen after his co-defendant, Christopher Ransom, pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges and was sentenced to 33 years in prison last year.
The sentencing follows a two month trial – the longest trial to occur in Queens Criminal Court this year – that featured over 60 witnesses who helped prosecutors from the Queens district attorney’s office prove to a jury that though Freeman did not have a gun and was not in the Richmond Hill T-Mobile store where Simonsen was killed, it was his actions that caused the detective’s death. A jury found Freeman guilty of all but one of the charges brought against him – a criminal possession of a weapon charge – following six days of deliberations.
“Actions have consequences and the consequences of your actions resulted in Brian’s death,” Linda Simonsen, the detective’s mother, said during the sentencing hearing Thursday. “Justice is served because you will be in prison.”
In addition to Simonsen’s mother, father and wife, around 100 detectives and NYPD officials, many of whom watched the trial play out, sat in the gallery during Thursday’s sentencing hearing. Also in attendance were several members of Freeman’s family, including his 7-year-old daughter who will be nearly 40 years old when her father is released from prison.
At the start of the sentencing, every bench in the courtroom – one of the largest in the courthouse –– was full, except for the one where Freeman’s family and supporters sat.
Though Freeman apologized to both Simonsen’s and his own family, he said Thursday, as he has stated throughout the trial, that he was not responsible for Simonsen’s death.
“I maintain my innocence,” Freeman told Queens Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Holder. “It is not adding insult to injury for me to maintain my innocence – it is my right.”
“Tragedy happens, that’s what it seems to be, not a murder,” he added.
Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo was joined by union members and the family of Detective Brian Simonsen on the steps of the Queens Criminal Courthouse following the sentencing of Jagger Freeman. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Prosecutors argued that Freeman, 28, was the orchestrator of two Queens T-Mobile store robberies, the second of which led to Simonsen’s death in Richmond Hill.
In February 2019, Freeman reached out to Ransom via text message and told him that should Ransom act as the muscle, stealing cash and property from the phone stores, Freeman would resell the goods and split the profits afterward, according to the charges.
The duo first struck a phone store on Linden and Farmers Boulevards on Feb. 8, 2019. Following the successful robbery, prosecutors said Freeman planned a second, again recruiting Ransom to “take all the risk,” according to prosecutor Shawn Clark.
On Feb. 12, 2019, Freeman checked into a Jamaica hotel and waited for Ransom to arrive. When he did, the pair took a taxi to the Richmond Hill T-Mobile store on Atlantic Avenue and 120th Street.
Arriving around 6 p.m., Freeman allegedly made his way across the street to watch as Ransom went inside the store with a fake gun and ski mask, and told two employees to open up the safes in the back of the store. A man outside saw Ransom enter the store with the ski mask on and called the police.
Simonsen and NYPD Sergeant Matthew Gorman, who were investigating an unconnected robbery pattern nearby, were the first to arrive at the scene. They entered the store but left to wait for more officers to arrive.
Uniform officers made their way to the scene shortly after and went inside the shop. Ransom came out of the back room, pulled out the fake gun and ran toward the front door, prosecutors said.
The police officers began to fire at Ransom, hitting him seven times. Running out of the store, he approached Simonsen as the officers continued to fire toward the suspect and the detective.
One of the shots fatally hit Simonsen in the chest. Gorman was wounded by a shot to the leg.
Freeman left the scene as the 11-second, 42-shot barrage rang out. He was arrested at a friend’s house several days later.
The district attorney’s office charged, and, ultimately, prosecuted Freeman of murder using the felony murder rule, which allows for defendants to be charged with murder if a death occurs during the commission of a felony, even if the defendant had no intention to kill or had no role in it.
It’s a controversial rule used in over 40 states, including New York. For years, criminal justice advocates have fought for the rule to be eliminated, arguing that it’s the only criminal charge that doesn't require intent.
“What is built into our law is this belief that individuals should be convicted of crimes that they committed and that they intended to commit — that’s mens rea,” Jamal Johnson, the director of Legal Aid’s Homicide Defense Task Force, told the Eagle in 2019. “For a charge that requires life [in prison] if convicted, to take away the mens rea element is profoundly unjust.”
When issuing the sentence Thursday, Holder said that “no one wanted to try this case,” because of the time and resources it would take to prove that Freeman was intimately linked to the detective’s death. However, he argued that the felony murder rule held up stronger in the case against Freeman than it does in many others, adding that any suggestion that Freeman was a “mere lookout…could not be further from the case.”
“In Ransom, you found a first class idiot to take all the risk while you sat back,” Holder said. “Maybe you thought if Ransom uses a fake gun no one will be hurt…[but] everyone thought it was real.”
Clark was less forgiving than Holder, and called Freeman a “coward.”
“A clear picture has emerged as to who is responsible for what happened,” the prosecutor said. “[Freeman] knew that [with Ransom] going in with that fake gun, something dangerous could happen.”
Freeman’s attorney, Ronald Nir, said that he disagreed with the judge’s interpretation of the felony murder rule in the case.
“No matter how you argue whether he was in the neighborhood or not, I just don't believe that Jagger was the mastermind of any of this,” Nir told the Eagle. “I disagree with them – I could see how we could appear that way, but I think it's taken out of context.”
Candice Winn, Jagger Freeman’s girlfriend and the mother of their child, speaks from outside the Queens Criminal Courthouse following Freeman’s sentencing on Thursday, July 7, 2022. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Candice Winn, Freeman’s girlfriend and the mother of their child, said that beyond Ransom, she was concerned that none of the seven officers who fired off the shots faced consequences in Simonsen’s death.
“The real people that need to take accountability are not even taking accountability for it, and it’s a slap in the face to [the Simonsen] family and to us,” Winn said. “Using Jagger as a scapegoat is ridiculous – it's really ridiculous.”
Speaking from the steps of the Queens Criminal Courthouse following the hearing, Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo celebrated Freeman’s sentence.
“We’re happy that Jagger Freeman will spend most of the rest of his life, if not the rest of his life, behind bars, where he belongs,” DiGiacomo said. “Life caught up to him now, he has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
At the conclusion of the hearing Nir filed a notice to appeal the conviction with Holder. Freeman has 30 days to officially file for an appeal which will be heard in the Appellate Division, Second Department should it be filed.
