Former troubled Jacksonville Jaguars star linebacker Telvin Smith is in trouble again, this time arrested on the Fourth of July a day after a landscaper said he fired a gun when he tried to offer him his services while finishing up a neighbor’s yard.
Smith, 34, remained in jail by the early afternoon July 8 in lieu of $75,000 bail on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, jail records show.
His Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest report contains several redactions to portions involving a gun, but the landscaper confirmed in a brief phone interview that he fired two shots.
“He threatened me to leave, and then I turned around and he fired as I was leaving,” Dillon Roach, 27, said.
The report states that officers were called to Smith’s Queen’s Harbour gated community about 4:45 p.m. on July 3 where the landscaper had been cutting his neighbor’s grass. Roach said he asked his customer about the home owner next door about approaching him since his yard appeared to be overgrown with palm fronds and in need of servicing. He advised, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Roach told the Times-Union the yard was open so he walked up. As he continued about 40 yards, the suspect, later identified as Smith, got out of his Mercedes-Benz GL 350 SUV in the driveway and told him to get off his property and did something that was redacted in the arrest report.
He told police he immediately turned around and started to walk back to his truck with his hands raised in the air.
“The suspect then stated, ‘You have three seconds to start running,’” the report said. “The victim continued walking away from the residence, when he heard the suspect begin to countdown, ‘Three, Two, One.’”
The neighbor’s wife said she heard a loud bang and went out to look for her husband. He told her about their landscaper wanting to ask Smith about cutting his lawn. He said he saw him running toward his truck and heard him say something that was redacted from the report.
Roach told police he finished his work at other homes before the holiday weekend and then decided to report what happened. He said he also checked property records to determine the home owner and also searched social media.
Additional officers arrived and Smith complied with orders to come out, the report said. One firearm was located inside a holster under his shirt. Another handgun was in plain view of the Mercedes as was one live round of ammunition in the doorway of the home and an additional spent shell casing on the ground in front of the garage door.
What did Telvin Smith post on Instagram?
The arrest report includes two lines noting an Instagram video posted by Smith afterward. Part of it is redacted in the report, but here’s some of what he said rather emphatically.
“I’m sitting in here in my car, you understand me. This guy just walked from around, he didn’t come in front of my house here, do you understand me? This guy came from up the side of my house and almost lost his life, just damn near two minutes ago! Do you understand me? This man, driving by, in this truck (pointing to him leaving), just almost lost his life!
“And this is what I want people to understand: I have no will in me to hurt any man or any woman or any child, but if you come on my property or if you step out of line with me, man, your life will be taken,” Smith continued in a loud and aggressive tone. “I will try and give you a pass, but I promise you, I promise you, I have said people are threatening and have threatened my life. I have said, the police have come here. And I’m making this video on Instagram because I hope he called them.”
He said if If he comes around again, “I promise you that man will not be walking off.”
What else did the landscaper say about Telvin Smith?
Jacksonville Jaguars team owner Shad Khan (center) and head coach Doug Marrone stand united arm-in-arm with players Brandon Linder (65) Marcedes Lewis (89) and Telvin Smith (50) on the sideline during the singing of the American national anthem before kick-off against the Baltimore Ravens in an NFL game Sunday, September 24, 2017 in London, U.K.
When asked if Roach thought Smith might have felt threatened by him coming onto his property, he told the Times-Union it was clear he was just a yard worker.
“I got a landscaping shirt on, I got boots on. Obviously he knew I was a landscaper because he’d seen the mowers on the back of my trailer,” he said.
In addition to the neighbors, he said another witness was a crew member in his truck.
He also said he didn’t know he was a former Jaguars player.
“I don’t follow football anymore, I used to but I haven’t in a couple of years.”
He said the whole thing was “very unfortunate that’s for sure.”
What happened in Telvin Smith’s prior arrest?
The Jaguars star linebacker pleaded no contest to a single charge of child abuse in 2021 following his April 29, 2020, arrest on suspicion of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, court records show. According to a warrant in the case, Smith had sex on multiple occasions with an underage girl.
The plea was in exchange for three years of probation and adjudication withheld, which means he was not formally convicted of a criminal offense. Smith had to undergo psychosexual counseling and have no with the victim or her family or any female younger than 18 who wasn’t related, according to terms of the agreement.
Before the legal troubles, Smith had abruptly announced he was stepping away from football in 2019 to focus on his health and family. The Valdosta, Georgia., native was a key player on the Florida State Seminoles’ 2013 national championship team.
Smith’s latest case is scheduled for an arraignment on July 24. He has been assigned to the Public Defender’s Office, which has previously stated does not comment on pending cases per policy.
(This story has been updated with Smith’s Instagram response.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ex-Jacksonville Jaguars, FSU star Telvin Smith arrested on July 4