A former Virginia Tech football player was acquitted of murder charges last Friday in the fatal beating of a man accused of posing as a woman during a sexual encounter after the two met on Tinder.
A jury in Montgomery County Circuit Court found Isimemen Etute, 19, not guilty of a charge of second-degree murder in the 2021 death of 40-year-old Jerry Smith, of Blacksburg. The jury deliberated for almost three hours before reaching a verdict around 6:30 p.m., according to The Roanoke Times.
Prosecutors had earlier told the jury that Etute, who was 18 at the time of the incident, became furious and beat Smith to death when he discovered Smith was a man pretending to be a woman. Smith, who identified as a gay man, presented himself in a profile on the online dating app as a 21-year-old emergency room physician named Angie Renee.
Smith performed oral sex on Etute, who later returned to the apartment to find out if his date was a man or a woman. Etute took the stand earlier in the week and testified that he felt “violated” when he found out that the Tinder match he believed to be a woman was actually a man.
Etute had testified that Smith grabbed what he thought was a gun. However, investigators said Smith did not own a gun but reported finding a knife between the man’s mattress and box spring.
Etute’s attorney, Jimmy Turk, argued that his client had acted in self-defense, whereas Smith had been “controlling the entire environment and the entire episode,” had “demanded that it be dark” and had hidden a knife under his mattress “in case there was something awry.”
During closing arguments, Turk described Smith as a “deceitful and dishonest man” who “defrauded young men for his own sexual gratification,” according to The Roanoke Times.
“Who is the real victim here?” the attorney said through tears. “This was a wicked sexual ruse.”
Etute said he punched Smith five times and kicked him to gain time to escape the apartment.
The prosecuting attorney, Montgomery County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Patrick Jensen, compared Etute, an “elite college athlete,” to Smith, who weighed 153 pounds, and recalled the testimony of medical examiner Dr. Amy Tharp, who testified Smith suffered a “brutal beating.”
After being found not guilty, Etute embraced his defense attorney in a bear hug and promptly exited the courtroom with his emotional family members. Smith’s family and prosecutors also left reportedly without taking questions from the media.
