Walk-ons Trimble, Rody guilty of reduced charge in explosive prank
Suspended Virginia Tech walk-on football players Josh Trimble and Brian Rody were found guilty of an amended charge of misdemeanor destruction of property in Montgomery County General District Court on Thursday, nearly two months after being arrested.
Trimble, 20, and Rody, 19, had their charge reduced from manufacturing and detonating an explosive device. They entered a not guilty plea on the amended charge but were found guilty by the judge, who gave them a 30 days suspended sentence and ordered them to do 100 hours of community service.
The two were arrested Dec. 2 and charged with a Class 5 felony. Police were called to a Blacksburg residence after getting a report of an explosion near an occupied apartment. Their attorney, Jimmy Turk, said the incident involved a soda bottle and other materials and was a “prank” the two were playing on a female friend. They were released from Montgomery County Jail the following morning on $2,500 secured bonds.
Both Trimble and Rody were suspended indefinitely from the football team, per university policy. Now that the felony charge is resolved, any reinstatement would be up to athletic director Jim Weaver.
Trimble, a redshirt freshman linebacker from Ashburn, played in 11 games last year, getting most of his work as a special teams gunner. He made 13 tackles and recovered a fumble on a muffed punt against Florida State.
Rody, a quarterback also from Ashburn, joined the team in 2011. He redshirted last season and worked on the scout team.
Reporter Tonia Moxley has the full story in the newspaper here.
January 24, 2013 - 6:03 PM
100 hours is quite a sentence. I recall washing police cars for a similar “crime” in the mid 80′s. I only got 20 hours. Wonder how Weaver will address their possible reinstatement.
Same as always – it’s not a felony, they’re good to go. That’s why Jimmy Turk earns his money. Plea bargain to a misdemeanor, and that’s all that matters for now.
Turn the page…
This really doesn’t sound all that serious, these are the types of things that kids like this do all of the time. Doesn’t sound malicious at all. With Turk there really isn’t much to worry about; the guy from Tech that we read about the other day, the one that will be deported….. Maybe Turk could handle his case as well, the guy is a miracle worker.
Good for these college kids who pulled a stupid, but somewhat dangerous prank. They should not have been charged with a felony to begin with, but you can blame that on the world we live in today, post 9/11 and the mass shooting at Tech. I blew up plenty of pumpkins on people’s front porches with M80′s when I was a teenager and that was just as stupid and dangerous, but if caught I would not have been charged with a felony. Thankfully this judge had some commonsense, and did not want to ruin two kids lives with a felony rap for a prank. In 1972, I was residing in AJ and my room was directly across the hall from the bathroom. My roommate threw a M80 in a toilet and it caused a mess. He was caught by the RA and he had to pay for the damages and chat with one of the Deans. He was not charged with any crime, but again that was long before numerous mass shootings. To all those who posted that these boys were felons – shame on you. I also wonder if any of you have ever driven a vehicle under the influence or have kids who talk or text on their cell phones while driving – far more dangerous activities. Think about it and I hope these boys will learn a lesson, be reinstated to the team and contribute to a winning season!
Is Jim Weaver still a Tech employee??
Yes, Weaver is still around and is about due for another big raise.
Do the Hokies retain Jimmy Turk for football player shenanigans?
This should have never been charged at all. A dang soda bottle with foil and a certain liquid. Haven’t we all done this one as a science experiment?
Sounds like the old mentos in the diet coke trick. Not exactly grounds for jail time.
Spring and Tech Football cannot get here gast enough! GO HOKIES!!
Barry,
The Turkish person you refer to was a former student and had nothing to do with athletics. Reference to him is not relevant to a sports BLOG.
These were not football shananigans, they were typical pranks common with kids! Just because these two characters were football players they made the news. Being an athelete and especially a football player can be a perk and a curse. We talk about these kids being pampered throughout their athletic careers and some are definitely so. But these two pulled a prank that you see demonstrated (as acceptable and harmless) on television all the time. So what example would they follow otherwise? I suspect this might have been a classic case of a soda bottle and a few menthos thrown in to create a messy, sticky bottle rocket propelled by the CO2 in the soda. It was likely not an explosive device in terms of lighting off a big firecracker. (who knows?).The whole thing should have been thrown out of court or never got that far in the first place. Our society today won’t let a kid be a kid anymore. So sad. I have taught plenty of young college students that have probably pulled much worse stunts over the years. I know I did at that age. Some suffer and others are excused. As someone said there are many things kids (and adults) do that need attention. Drinking probably ruins more young lives than anything else we see on campus. It is next to impossible to convince a kid not to do it, believe me I have tried many times. It is extremely frustrating to watch a kid destroy themselves by this abuse. Texting and talking while driving comes in at a close second as a hazard to the public. We need more focus on these issues and not worry about kids with bottle rockets clogging up our court system. Go Hokies! Hell, go Hoos for that matter!
Hokiesports shows Steinspring as tight ends/offensive tackles coach. So Grimes is coaching what’s left of the offensive line? This is an explosive situation.
The Turkish issue is relevant because discussion here encompasses VT’s continuous crime stories in the media, whether it be sports related or not.
Sorry Andy.
Barry, go blow it out of your orifice. IF you are a GT fan, go there to a GT blog and have at it. You are a troll, your only intention on this blog is to provoke and incite. You almost never have anything of value to contribute. I suspect you are no GT fan at all. I suspect you have chip on your shoulder because of the abundance of coverage given VT in the Roanoke Times. You are likely a fan of one of the smaller colleges around here…or perhaps not really into anything but disruption.
If I were Andy, your posts would stop appearing. You probably have something snarky in your repertoire concerning the April 2007 shooter too, don’t you? Well, say it boy!! I am sure that the Football program had something to do with it according to you.
Andy, again, I apologize. I have had it with Barry.
The explosive device was probably more powerful than our offense last year. Maybe it can block next year.
Andy-I think you wrote earlier the coaches are introducted today so maybe we will find out. I’m curious about Charles Gardner’s question above (is Stinespring still coaching tackles too?) Also wondered if Morehead was a grad assistant or regular coach at Standford? I didnt see him listed as a recruiter for Stanford on rivals.com when his name first surfaced. I wondered if Kevin Sherman left to ensure employment b/c the new OC would decide if he was to be retained or if the plan was to replace him all along. I thought he had done a good job recruiting and produced 6-7 NFL receivers in recent years. Change of culture maybe, fresh ideas? Just wondered.
#2 – CR I think you are way over the top here. Just like #4, 8, 9 and 12 I played with fireworks as a kid. Friends would bring them back from trips south (I lived in a state where they were illegal) and we would blow stuff up. I also learned to mix various household chemicals with an eye to shooting a rocket to the moon.
I also painted a guy’s house red in a halloween prank (I was 12), egged a guy’s car (at 13) and walked around shooting out street lights at 14. Then there were the chinese fire drills and a riot at a basketball game.
Need I go on? Really?
What I notice more and more is that our standards rise all the time. When the cops caught me as a kid, they said “Go home before we have to tell your father”.
My two stepsons got stopped for traffic related and other minor stuff (in the 16-18 year old frame) and got hauled downtown in handcuffs. I compare that to when their mother was driving drunk, at age 21, and the cop followed her home to prevent her from having an accident and no citation was issued.
Now I am not defending drunk driving at all, but times have really changed and I believe society is much less tolerant today of childhood misdeeds than ever before.
More tech football players in trouble. Big news! Add them to the list of shame that spews out of Blacksburg
More relevence for Barry.
http://www.redstate.com/brookhaven/2012/07/09/crime-will-destroy-georgia-tech%E2%80%99s-elite-educational-status/
So no one knows exaclty what the “explosive device” was but everyone is ready to let these men off easy. Sounds like Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt, is a like Miss Cleo. She “knew” the intent of these men, it was only a harmless prank, no intent to harm, yada yada yada.
Will the next students who do the same thing get off easy?
Football players get in trouble (could be felons) and of course get off easy.
And you guys play if off because “we all have done it before”. What BS. The preferred treatment of atheletes continues.
#18 Zman, you really disappoint me. I thought you had the mental faculties to not be such a knee jerk apologist. Obviously, I was incorrect in that assumption. You’re that hypersensitive? Really? Aren’t you a grown man? My mistake.
‘Way over the top’? Seriously? Wow, you’re almost as weepy as some of the others on here who only want to see cheerleading comments. If you weren’t so eager to slap out at what you often wrongly label dissent, you might understand I didn’t criticize.
If you are able to type through the tears, take the time to tell me one thing I said that was inaccurate in the post above.
Jimmy Turk is the attorney for VT football players. Other than Marcus, name a Hokie football player that’s been arrested and had other representation in the last decade. He is well known for doing so, you’re pretending that is false?
The charges were pled down from felonies to misdemeanors. Who’s talking about ‘the good ole days when we were young’, except the apologists, without ANY reason to even get into that?
Who wants to pretend the players won’t be reinstated as a result of the charges not being felonies, per the letter of the code of conduct?
Seems to me that you, Zman are the one way over the top. Or do you not understand why I typed the words – ‘TURN THE PAGE’ at the end of my post? No, you’re too busy looking for boogeymen who say mean things – more correctly, things you wrongly think are mean – about Frank’s program.
Get over it, and grab another box of tissues.
#15—From the description of your rant, it appears you are the one that might need to be looked at for possible connections to April 2007. I am a very calm, informed blogger that presents the facts and some predictions for the Hokies; I provide the other side of the scale and it isn’t always popular. Like Bud Foster’s defense giving up 99 points in three games against Clemson. It is a fact and bears thought, it is not just stirring up the pot. But sitrring the pot can help folks be objective about their team. Andy can remove my messages any time he deems necessary but I do like the fact that he allows differing opinions. Not everyone on here disagrees with me….you do, Scott, Zman, definitely Jerry and a few others. I defer.
Come on Baby from Ivy. Whatcha have to say? You’re the crime expert. we’re waitin…..
Barry is a moot point. He steretypes entire groups of people (VT students and atheletes and administrators) by the action of a few. He is a bigot.
Still Learning, your example isn’t a very good one. your link is an article about crimes against GT students, not crimes by GT students. I’m guessing your intent though is to show that this type of behavior occurs at pretty much all universities at similar frequencies. Based on my experiences in other locales, I’d agree with that.
#25…You are missing the point entirely, but you do appear to have experience in the bigotry dept.
I have not missed anything. You are the one passing judgement on people you don’t know. You are missing the point.