United States v. Khriy Simon

── United States v. Khriy Simon ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date: April 24, 2026 Category: General USCA4 Appeal: 24-4266 Doc: 35 Filed: 04/24/2026 Pg: 1 of 9 UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 24-4266 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. KHRIY SHERROD SIMON, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. William L. Osteen, Jr., District Judge. (1:23-cr-00355-WO-1) Submitted: March 31, 2026 Decided: April 24, 2026 Before WILKINSON and WYNN, Circuit Judges, and TRAXLER, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. ON BRIEF: Louis C. Allen, Federal Public Defender, Ira Knight, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Ames C. Chamberlin, Assistant Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Randall S. Galyon, Acting United States Attorney, Laura Jeanne Dildine, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 24-4266 Doc: 35 Filed: 04/24/2026 Pg: 2 of 9 PER CURIAM: After a three-day trial, a jury convicted Khriy Sherrod Simon of detaining and searching the person and property of another while impersonating a Special Agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 913. The district court sentenced Simon to 33 months’ imprisonment. On appeal, Simon challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction and the district court’s exclusion of out-of-court statements as hearsay. We affirm. I. On March 29, 2023, A.K. drove herself and her friend A.S. to PetSmart in Greensboro, North Carolina. A.K. was driving her black Honda Civic with a missing front bumper. As she was parking, Simon pulled up behind her in a way that blocked her ability to drive away. Wearing a mask and a bullet-proof vest, Simon approached the Civic in an aggressive manner, screaming and cursing at A.K. through the open window and ordering her put the car in park and put her hands on the dash. According to the trial testimony, Simon announced himself as a DEA agent multiple times and told the women that they and the car matched descriptions of suspects involved in a homicide and drug offenses. Simon took their IDs, made them get out of the car, and then searched the interior of the car and the trunk. He instructed the women to wait while he called his “boss,” who later showed up at the scene driving a black Dodge Charger with tinted windows. After Simon talked to the boss, Simon returned to the women and told them they were not the suspects and were free to leave. The women reported the incident to police after they were released. 2 USCA4 Appeal: 24-4266 Doc: 35 Filed: 04/24/2026 Pg: 3 of 9 Simon’s defense was that he worked with several bail bondsmen as an informant to help them locate fugitives, and that he had been instructed to be on the lookout for fugitives driving a black Honda Civic missing its front bumper. Simon contended he identified himself not as DEA, but as BEA, which he believed meant bail-enforcement agency or agent. The “boss” Simon brought to the scene was Remus Brown, t