‘This is over. I can breathe again.’
Portsmouth jury acquits man of girlfriend’s 2019 murder
PORTSMOUTH — Luther Polston IV will never forget his arrest on that spring day in 2019.
He was riding with a friend in her minivan on Airline Boulevard in Portsmouth when he noticed a helicopter flying overhead and several police cars racing toward them. As one of the vehicles pulled next to the minivan, he saw an officer pointing a gun at him. The vehicle then swerved in front of the minivan, forcing it to stop. His friend’s two young children were strapped into their car seats in the backseat.
“They just swarmed all around us,” Polston said. “It was intense.”
Polston was taken to a Portsmouth police station for questioning. Detectives wanted to ask about the slaying of his girlfriend, Toni Isenburg, who’d been fatally shot in her home the week before.
Polston, now 36, admits he knew detectives wanted to talk to him and that he’d been avoiding them because a positive drug test violated his probation. After he denied any involvement in Isenburg’s death, he was sent to the Chesapeake jail on the probation violation charge. A little more than a year later, in July 2020, Portsmouth police filed multiple charges against him, including first-degree murder, burglary, conspiracy and two firearm offenses for Isenburg’s death.
He spent 1 ½ years in jail before a judge agreed to grant him bond.
He was allowed to work at his family’s wood trim business as he awaited trial, but not much else.
It all came to an end Tuesday when a jury in Portsmouth Circuit Court acquitted Polston of the two remaining charges he faced: first-degree murder and using a firearm to commit a felony. The judge had dismissed the other counts.
The jury deliberated for less than a half-hour, according to Polston and his family.
“When they said not guilty, all the negative air went away,” Polston said. “I was like, finally this is over. I can breathe again.”
A spokesperson for the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a message seeking comment on the case. Polston’s lawyer, Jason Barlow, declined to discuss it.
The case began in April 2019, when Isenburg was killed in the home she shared with a roommate near Bide-A-Wee Golf Course. The 30-year-old mother of three had been shot once in the head. She was found on her bed, with pillows and blankets piled on top.
Her roommate, Durrell “Slim” Jones, testified at a preliminary hearing in June 2021 that he forced his way into her locked room after she didn’t respond. Jones, who’s now deceased, also testified that he removed drug paraphernalia from the room, and showed her body to others through FaceTime video before calling 911.
He told detectives he saw Polston at the house the day before — when police believe she was killed. Because Jones is dead, the judge allowed transcripts of his prior testimony to be read during Polston’s trial.
Among the witnesses who testified for the prosecution this week was Polston’s childhood friend, Matthew English, who initially faced the same charges as Polston. English accepted a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to plead guilty to only the burglary count in exchange for his cooperation. English claimed Polston had admitted to committing the crime because he was angry that Isenburg had ended their relationship.
During an interview with The Virginian-Pilot this week, Polston denied that he and Isenburg had broken up, or that he had done anything to harm her. He believes
police zeroed in on him because he was the boyfriend and because he has a robbery conviction from when he was 18.
Polston and his family called police work in the case shoddy, and said his defense lawyer told jurors in closing arguments they should be upset by it and demand more from their police department. The defense also argued English lied about his friend’s involvement out of fear because detectives threatened to have him prosecuted for murder if he didn’t cooperate. Portsmouth police didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
“I never thought he did it,” said Polston’s stepfather, John Buquet, who’s been married to Polston’s mother for 30 years. “The ridiculous
part to me is that they continued to bring this case forward.”
Now that the trial is over, Polston said he wants to work on strengthening his relationships with his children, ages 6, 7, 8 and 9. He only spoke to them by phone when he was jail, he said, and was only allowed supervised visits while out on bond. He also hopes to reconnect with friends who cut ties with him after he was arrested and charged.
“I feel like I can finally start my life again,” he said as he sat at a table with his mother, stepfather and girlfriend. “I’d like to be able to go on vacation. I haven’t been able to go anywhere for a long time now.”