Court hears Lindsey's final words
One of the last things Utica police Officer Thomas Lindsey said over his police radio during an April 12 traffic stop was "Code 4," meaning everything's OK.
But as a courtroom of police officers heard those final words replayed once more Tuesday during the trial of Lindsey's accused killer, Wesley Molina-Cirino, the slain patrolman's voice was a haunting reminder of how quickly things can change.
"It appeared to him that the situation was indeed under control," Assistant District Attorney Laurie Lisi told jurors during opening arguments in Oneida County Court.
About seven minutes later, Lindsey would be shot in the right side of his head and two city police officers would discover Lindsey's body lying on the 1100 block of Neilson Street, Lisi said.
The patrolmen would then announce "officer down" - two words that no police officer ever wants to hear, Lisi said.
"The world of every Utica police officer was changed forever," Lisi said.
Molina-Cirino, 24, of Utica, is charged with aggravated murder in Lindsey's death, and his trial is expected to last well into next week.
As prosecutors argue how police concluded Molina-Cirino was Lindsey's shooter following a two-month investigation, defense attorney Rebecca Wittman will try to show why she believes police locked their focus possibly on an innocent man.
Wittman suggested in her opening argument that more people had to be involved in a conspiracy to kill Lindsey. She then took aim at the credibility of Sammy Rivera, the man who police say was driving the red Neon stopped by Lindsey before he was shot.
"If Sammy Rivera is telling you the truth, how did that random traffic stop turn into an execution within two minutes?" Wittman asked.
Rivera also first said Lindsey's killer was a "black man in a white hoodie," but it wasn't until nine days after Lindsey's death that Rivera identified Molina-Cirino as the shooter.
"If you lie about the small things, you will certainly lie about the big things," Wittman said. "It doesn't get any bigger than having an officer shot."
Lisi suggested Rivera initially was not cooperative because he feared for his life, and he did not trust police who at first treated him as if he was Lindsey's "assassin."
"But the people's case does not rise and fall on the testimony of Sammy Rivera alone," Lisi said.
Observer-Dispatch
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<td>WHAT THEY SAID</td>
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<td>The prosecution Utica police officers Brian French and Salih Rizvanovic said they saw nobody else in the red Neon that officer Thomas Lindsey had stopped on Neilson Street except the driver.
When Utica police Officer Stanley Fernalld approached the red Neon that fled Lindsey's shooting, Fernalld said Sammy Rivera approached him shouting, "I didn't do it." Rivera then said, "A black guy in a hoodie did it."
In hopes of negotiating his way out of a drug charge, Molina-Cirino volunteered information about who killed Lindsey and where to find the gun, prosecutors said. After several interviews, police used Molina-Cirino's statements to charge him in Lindsey's death.
The defense Officers French and Rizvanovic said they did not identify Sammy Rivera as the driver of the red Neon that Lindsey had stopped, and Rizvanovic specifically said Rivera was not the driver.
Officer Fernalld said Rivera was wearing a baseball hat when he was taken into custody moments after Lindsey's shooting. But several officers said they saw the hair of the red Neon's driver and described it as curly and close-cropped.
The day after Lindsey's death, many people probably heard why it happened or thought they knew what happened, the defense argued. But just because Molina-Cirino was one of those people who thought they knew, police used that knowledge against him.</td>
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