An Ansonia man accused of murdering a relative outside a Derby bar in May rejected an offer Wednesday that would have seen him serve about 30 years in prison.
Cordaryl Silva, 25, appeared briefly before Judge Frank Iannotti at Superior Court in Milford, where Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Charles Stango revealed the offer.
“In light of Mr. Silva’s mild criminal history, his youthful age, and the circumstances under which this all took place, the state was going to consider on the lower side of the range for murder, which would be in the 30-year-range,” Stango said.
Silva faces a single charge of murder in connection with the May 12 shooting death of Javon Zimmerman, a distant cousin, in the parking lot outside RJ’S Cafe in Derby.
Six days after the killing, police picked up Silva on an unrelated probation violation charge and held him in lieu of $250,000 bond. Detectives built a case against Silva while he was being held in jail and charged him with murder June 18.
According to the warrant, bad blood had been simmering between Silva and Zimmerman in the weeks leading up to the shooting.
Both had connections to an organized group who sold drugs in the Valley, police alleged.
Police believe the animosity was linked to Silva’s belief that Zimmerman’s family had stopped giving money to his jailed brother to use in a prison commissary.
Two witnesses had identified fingered Silva as the shooter, the warrant said. Silva told detectives he had feared for his life on the night of the shooting, but he stopped short of confessing to pulling the trigger.
Click here to read more about the warrant.
In court Wednesday, Stango said his offer took the circumstances of the shooting into account. He said he wanted to at least give Silva a chance to get a lesser sentence than the prison time he’d be exposed to if convicted of murder — 60 years behind bars, 25 of which would be mandatory.
Stango said that if plea negotiations had gotten further than they did, he might have considered some sort of split sentence with a certain amount of special parole “where he’d be monitored for the majority of his adult life, but, under the circumstances, maybe have a life.”
“I’m not trying to say this is an insignificant number we’re talking about,” Stango added. “For someone so young, I wanted to give him an opportunity to consider that and make his own decision.”
Silva rejected the plea offer. His attorney said afterward Silva seems set on taking the case to trial.
Judge Iannotti quizzed Silva to make sure he knew what the implications of rejecting the offer were.
“Should you have accepted a plea agreement, you would have had the majority of your life left, I believe,” Judge Iannotti said. “You have the absolute right to have a trial, that is your right, as long as you understand that if you do not win the trial, you do face up to 60 years in prison, 25 years mandatory minimum. Do you understand that?”
“Yes,” Silva replied.
Judge Iannotti then ordered the case put on the courthouse’s trial list.
Outside the courtroom, Silva’s family declined to comment.
Silva’s lawyer, Lawrence Hopkins, said his client rejected Stango’s offer before any specifics could be negotiated.
“We were just speaking generally, and there was no movement on the part of my client, so we never got any further than that,” he said.
Previous stories:
Case Against Derby Murder Suspect Continued
Derby Murder Suspect Was Working With Ansonia Police Prior To Killing
Defendant Waives Hearing In Derby Murder Case
