Three sentenced for jail fight

By Linda Cicoira

Three county jail inmates were sentenced last week in Accomack Circuit Court for their part in an August 2021 fight “that went too far.”      

Northampton Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Thornton, the special prosecutor for the cases, said inmates in Cellblock E followed a self-imposed system of order until the victim in the fight, 30-year-old Derek Michael Robinson, of New Jersey, was put into the block and didn’t go along with the rules.

Robinson threw the first punch, but a video showed the others beat and kicked him for eight or nine minutes and Robinson had to be taken to the hospital.

The defendants were convicted of unlawful wounding. Twenty-two-year-old Traquan Terrell Timmons, of Tasley, was sentenced to five years in prison with all but a year and six months suspended. Forty-one-year-old Corbin Kenji Drummond Jr., of Atlantic, was sentenced to five years with all but about 11 months, the time served, suspended. Dijon Ryheem Smith, of Fredericksburg, was the initial inmate in the fight with Robinson. He was sentenced to three years and six months with all but a year suspended for unlawful wounding and 12 months with half the term suspended for assault and battery. Smith’s sentences were set to run consecutively.

Robinson was previously described by a defense attorney as a high-ranking gang member who threatened to kill the others. Hewas later charged with murder and robbery in Philadelphia.