Former Virginia Tech Linebacker Isimemen Etute was found not guilty in the 2021 beating death of 40-year-old Jerry Paul Smith who posed as a 21-year-old woman on Tinder and enticed the football player to perform oral sex in an encounter on April 10.
Etute claimed he acted in self-defense when he confronted Smith about his gender one month after their first encounter. The older man allegedly reached for a weapon which caused Etute to fatally punch and kick the man five or six times to get away.
Two of Etute’s teammates accompanied him to Smith’s apartment for the encounter but both men waited outside while events unfolded. Police officers did discover a knife under Smith’s mattress near the place where the confrontation allegedly took place in Smith’s apartment.
Etute took the stand to testify in his own defense. “I felt violated,” Etute said, of discovering Smith’s identity. “I was just in shock, in disbelief that someone tricked me and lied to me.”
Smith was an openly gay man but represented himself on Tinder as a 21-year-old emergency room physician named Angie Renee. Etute’s defense attorney Jimmy Turk described Smith as a “deceitful and dishonest man” who “defrauded young men for his own sexual gratification.”
Etute was suspended from Virginia Tech and the football team after a grand jury indicted him for second-degree murder in June.
A statement at the time read in part, “Blacksburg Police have announced the arrest of a Virginia Tech student in connection to the death of a Blacksburg resident early Wednesday morning. The student arrested is Isimemen Etute of Virginia Beach, Virginia, a freshman majoring in human development. Etute has been charged with second-degree murder.”
“In the case of a felony arrest, the university has the authority to place a student on immediate interim suspension,” the statement continued. “In addition, Etute, a member of the football team, has been suspended from the team, effective immediately. Blacksburg Police continues to lead this ongoing investigation, and the university will assist law enforcement agencies working the case in any way it can.”
Etute’s family released a statement Saturday indicating his intent on resuming his football career.
“Isi is now focused on picking up where he left off in his pursuit of a college degree and love for the game of football.,” the family said. “Isi says this process gives him trust and faith again in life. He further says it has only helped him become much smarter, wiser, and stronger, with a new outlook on life in his journey moving forward.”
To that end it is being reported he has entered the transfer portal.
What do you make of the jury finding him not guilty?
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