BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
A federal inmate serving time at the United States Penitentiary Big Sandy is facing a murder charge in the October 2024 killing of another prisoner.
A grand jury in Ashland returned an indictment Feb. 26 charging Daviian Dwane Roberts, 35, of Midland, Texas, with the Oct. 15, 2024, killing of Michael Smith inside the high-security prison in Martin County.
Prosecutors allege Roberts killed Smith with malice aforethought, a charge that, if proven, carries a potential sentence of any term of years or life in prison.
The murder charge comes just weeks after another federal indictment accused Roberts of violence inside the same prison.
On Jan. 22, a grand jury charged Roberts with three counts of assaulting federal correctional officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon. That indictment alleges that he assaulted and injured correctional officers Travis Jones, Aaron Blevins and Tyler Jude, March 4, 2025. Each of those counts carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The recent allegations add to a lengthy federal criminal history.
In June 2009, Roberts was sentenced to 27 months after a conviction in Texas of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Three years later, on Nov. 12, 2012, he received another sentence in Texas. This time for Hobbs Act robbery and for brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. Court records show the judge imposed 57 months on the robbery count and 84 months on the firearm count. The court ordered the terms to run consecutive to each other and to the 2009 case, for a total of 141 months in prison.
On April 8, 2021, a federal court vacated the firearm conviction and resentenced Roberts to 115 months on the remaining robbery count.
After his release to supervision, Roberts violated the terms twice. On June 9, 2022, a judge revoked his release and imposed a sentence of 12 months in federal custody, followed by 24 months of supervised release. Just over a year later, on July 6, 2023, the court revoked supervision again and sentenced him to 24 months in prison with no further supervised release.
Roberts’ arraignment on the murder charge is April 1 at 11:30 a.m. in the U.S. Courthouse in Ashland.
An indictment is an accusation only. Individuals are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.