 Michael Rhynes (Photo: Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
Ferrari was known to keep a large amount of cash on Thursdays to cash paychecks for factory workers in the largely industrial area where the bar was located.
Ferrari tried unsuccessfully to open the safe, then shoved the gunman out of the kitchen toward the front door. Diane LaFredo, a food server, later said that she heard Ferrari say, “I know you—you’re—” just before gunshots rang out.
When the shooting stopped, Ferrari and a customer, 36-year-old Robert Hurysz, who tried to intervene on Ferrari’s behalf, were mortally wounded. The gunmen fled empty-handed. A police officer later compared the shooting to the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881.
On October 6, police arrested 23-year-old Michael Rhynes and 29-year-old Jesse Hammock. Police said they were led to the men by an anonymous tip from Crime Stoppers. On October 9, 19-year-old Adrian Jackson turned himself in to police.
On October 12, 1984, all three were indicted on charges of second-degree murder, attempted robbery and criminal use of a firearm. Authorities said they were the three masked men.
In November, police arrested 23-year-old Thurman Dicker, and accused him of being the lookout and driver of the getaway car used in the crime. Police said Dicker went into the bar to scout it out, went to the back to use the telephone, then left. Customers said that seconds later, the gunmen burst in.
By April 1986, Hammock, Jackson and Dicker had been convicted in separate trials in Monroe County Supreme Court.
Rhynes’s defense attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case against Rhynes, arguing that witnesses had given conflicting testimony in the trials of Jackson and Hammock, and therefore were unreliable.
The District Attorney's office did not oppose the defense motion for dismissal, saying that the prosecution was “left with insufficient evidence to go before a jury.”
District Attorney Howard Relin said, “We don’t try cases for exercise and I don’t think we have enough evidence for a reasonable chance for conviction.”
However, in a June 3, 1986, ruling on the eve of Rhynes’s trial, Monroe County Supreme Court Justice Raymond Cornelius refused to dismiss the case. Justice Cornelius declared that “it has not been established to the Court's satisfaction that the People will be unable to prove a prima facie case.”
The trial was postponed.
As a result, Rhynes went to trial in August 1986. By that time, the prosecution had two new witnesses, both former inmates in the Monroe County Jail. Both testified that Rhynes had admitted to them that he was involved in the crime and had been one of the gunmen who fired shots during the chaotic seconds after Ferrari and Hurysz tried to thwart the robbery.
Ali Hasan, who was granted immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony, testified that he and Rhynes had robbed Rico’s in the spring of 1983, more than a year earlier. Hasan said that in that robbery, he, Rhynes and a third man he knew only as Larry waited outside the bar in the parking lot until after closing at 2:30 a.m. When a waitress came out, they asked where the owner was. Hasan said she took them inside and to an upstairs room where Ferrari was sleeping. Hasan said they forced Ferrari to go downstairs, open the safe, and hand over the money. Hasan said they took the money and fled.
Hasan also said that about three weeks before the September 27, 1984, heist, he met with Rhynes and two other men. Hasan claimed that during their conversation, Rhynes asked if Rico’s was still open. Hasan said Rhynes “started talking to the other two guys about this [sic] was a place that can be robbed on a Thursday night or Thursday.”
On cross-examination, however, Hasan admitted that there was no further discussion about actually planning a robbery.
LaFredo testified that she heard Ferrari begin to say that he recognized one of the gunmen, but the shooting erupted and she did not hear the rest of his sentence—if he completed it at all. She testified that Rhynes had frequented the bar in the past, perhaps as many as 30 times, each time for only about 20 minutes. But she could not identify any of the gunmen because they were wearing masks.
The core of the prosecution’s case came from Roy Timmons and Joe Smith.
Timmons testified that he had known Rhynes since grammar school. He said he first learned about the shooting from media accounts. After he was arrested on a charge of first-degree robbery in December 1985, he was in the Monroe County Jail. He said he saw Rhynes three or four times when they were going to the visiting room or being moved to different floors. He said that on one occasion Rhynes told him “what took place with Rico.”
According to Timmons, Rhynes told him that Dicker drove the car and that Rhynes “shot Rico when he didn’t open the safe.” Timmons claimed that Rhynes had mentioned that “Jesse and Adrian” were present.
Timmons had reached an agreement with the prosecution to testify in exchange for the reduction of the robbery charge to a misdemeanor and a sentence of time served. Timmons admitted that because he had two prior felony convictions, he would have faced a potential life sentence on the robbery charge as a habitual offender.
At the time Smith testified, he was serving a sentence of 2½ to five years for burglary. He said that in June 1986, he contacted the District Attorney’s Office to negotiate a deal for his testimony. He said that he encountered Rhynes in mid-November 1985 in the jail. Smith said inmates were being moved around and Rhynes came to his unit. He said they became friendly.
Smith said he and Rhynes occasionally smoked marijuana together, which they got from other inmates. Smith testified that on occasion, he was in the jail’s law library when Rhynes asked him to “look up something concerning a robbery.” During their conversation, Smith said Rhynes admitted committing the robbery with Jackson, Hammock, and Dicker.
“He said on that particular day—I can’t recall the date nor time—but he said they had went in the car, that the car was stolen…Thurman was driving and they went in, him and Jesse Hammond [sic] and Adrian Jackson,” Smith said. “Jess…had a rifle and him and Adrian had a handgun, and he said that Jess asked [Rico] to open the safe and [Rico] refused to open the safe and he shot him. Then another guy ran over to help him, and he shot him also. [Rhynes] said he was at the door all this time.”
Smith said that following a meeting with the prosecution, he was promised a sentence of one and a half to three years along with a letter to the parole board telling of his cooperation.
During cross-examination, Smith admitted that he had seen news accounts of the trials of Jackson, Hammock, and Dicker. He said he was prompted to call the prosecution after learning through the news that the prosecution appeared to need witnesses. Smith also conceded that his primary motivation for testifying was to get a reduced sentence, not because he was “a humanitarian trying to help the community.”
Smith also admitted that before he ever talked to Rhynes, Timmons had told him key facts about the case. Smith said he talked to Rhynes to confirm these facts. According to Smith, Timmons claimed that Dicker was one of the gunmen, not the driver.
The prosecution also called Dicker’s brother, Winfred Dicker, who claimed that the day after the murder, Rhynes, Thurman Dicker, Hammock and a fourth man were at the house where the Dicker brothers’ mother lived. According to Winfred, Rhynes admitted that he took part in the robbery and that Hammock started “shooting the place up and then everybody started shooting.”
During cross-examination, Winfred admitted that he really couldn’t remember “what one person said as compared to what another person said.” He also admitted that he had read about the crime in the newspaper after it happened. He also admitted he didn’t come forward until after his brother was sentenced in June 1986 to 58 years to life in prison. By that time, Hammock and Jackson each had been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
Phyllis Taylor testified that she was hanging out at a girlfriend’s house with Rhynes a few days before the robbery and saw him with a shotgun by his feet. She also admitted she had testified at a different trial that a man named Kevin actually had the shotgun. She also testified that her boyfriend, Clevon Clark, admitted that he shot Ferrari because Ferrari recognized Clark. Taylor also admitted she had given a statement to police that Hammock, Dicker, and Clark—not Rhynes—had committed the robbery.
The defense called Rhynes’s mother and uncle, both of whom testified that he was at his mother’s house at the time of the robbery, and that he had slept all day because he had been out late the night before.
On August 15, 1986, the jury convicted Rhynes of second-degree murder, attempted robbery, and criminal use of a weapon. He was sentenced to 52½ years to life in prison.
In April 1989, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirmed the convictions and sentence.
Over the years, Rhynes, acting as his own lawyer, filed four motions for writs of error coram nobis seeking to set aside the convictions. All were denied. He also filed four post-conviction motions seeking to vacate the convictions. Those were denied as well. In 2015, he filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus. That was denied because it was filed too late.
In the 1990s, a woman named Deborah Kilbourn was volunteering with a group dedicated to working with people in prison. She became convinced of Rhynes’s innocence and through her church group, raised money to hire an attorney and later an investigator.
The private investigator, Scott Parker, tracked down Timmons and Smith. Both recanted.
Timmons said in an affidavit dated in October 2021 that Smith “told me that he had a plan to get out of jail and told me he had some information, although false, that he told the District Attorney concerning Michael Rhynes and stated that the D.A. is willing to let him out of jail.”
Timmons said, “Joe Smith [told] me to say Michael Rhynes had the gun so that’s what I said, that Michael told me he had the gun, but the only thing is that Michael Rhynes never told me that or anything about the crime—I lied to get back at Rhynes for hitting my mom and I lied so I could get out of jail and be with my newborn daughter.”
Timmons further said that he met with an investigator for the district attorney’s office who “told me details of Michael Rhynes[‘s] case so I could falsely testify.” The investigator “told me I would be released if I agreed to testify,” Timmons said in the affidavit.
Smith provided an affidavit in July 2021 saying that two years after Rhynes was convicted, Smith was released from prison. He said that at that time, he sent a letter to the district attorney’s office “explaining why I lied” at the trial. He said he “got no response—I wrote three more times admitting my perjury, but still received no response from the D.A.”
Smith added, “I have no knowledge if Michael Rhynes was involved in any crime or not, but I feel horrible that I have contributed to him being incarcerated because I lied to get a better deal for myself.”
In August 2022, attorneys Jonathan Edelstein and Robert Grossman filed a post-conviction motion seeking to vacate Rhynes’s convictions based on the recantations.
In January 2023, a hearing was held before Justice Stephen Miller in Monroe County Supreme Court. Three witnesses testified for the defense: Joe Smith, Roy Timmons and Deborah Kilbourn.
On December 8, 2023, Justice Miller granted the defense motion and vacated Rhynes’s convictions, concluding that the recantations by Smith and Timmons gave at the hearing were credible.
“Having observed the demeanor of Mr. Smith and Mr. Timmons, the court finds the substance of their recantation testimony to be inherently believable and credible,” Justice Miller declared. “The lack of evidence in the case [against Rhynes], Mr. Smith’s and Mr. Timmons’s awareness of the need for evidence/information, and their willingness to lie, created the opportunity, and ultimately resulted in a life-changing conviction for the defendant.”
“However immoral, they had significant motive to lie at the trial in 1986; they have no reason to do so now, their only motive being to each clear their respective consciences,” Justice Miller ruled.
The judge noted the paucity of any other evidence—there was no physical or forensic evidence connecting Rhynes to the crime.
On December 19, 2023, Rhynes was released on bond. He had spent 37 years, four months and five days in prison since the date of his conviction. On January 8, 2024, the prosecution dismissed the case.
Jackson, Hammock, and Dicker remained in prison.
– Maurice Possley
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