Breaking News

New details emerge as Virginia Tech football player Isi Etute remains jailed after bond hearing

Mike Niziolek 40 min ago

CHRISTIANSBURG — Virginia Tech football player Ismemen David Etute was granted bond Wednesday morning in Montgomery County General District Court, but will remain in jail after the commonwealth filed an expedited appeal. ... Etute was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on June 2 in the death of Jerry Paul Smith, a Blacksburg restaurant worker.

Judge Randal Duncan set a secured bond of $75,000 with Etute set to be released to live with his family in Virginia Beach. The only restriction Duncan put in place was that Etute have no contact with the victim family. ... The appeal puts Etute’s release on hold for up to five days with both sides hoping to have Circuit Judge Mike Fleenor hear the appeal either Thursday or Friday.

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Commonwealth's Attorney Jason Morgan argued against bail, and revealed new details about the case based on statements Etute gave to the police. ... According to those police statements, Etute visited the victim's apartment on April 10 for oral sex after he was matched up with someone named "Angie" on Tinder. Etute returned to the apartment May 31 to engage in sexual activity and discovered the person he was matched up with was a man.

Etute told the police he punched the victim five times in the face and continued punching them when the person hit the ground and "stomped" on them. He heard "bubbling and gurgling" as he left the apartment, but didn't call the police. ... According to the autopsy, all the bones in Smith's face were broken, his teeth were missing and he had multiple cranial fractures. The medical examiner's office had previously revealed that Smith had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

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Family of Blacksburg homicide victim trying to come to terms with his death

Mike Niziolek Jun 4, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Jerry Paul Smith didn’t like to leave his family hanging. ... The 40-year-old Blacksburg resident was always quick to return a phone call from his immediate family. They began to suspect something was amiss when Smith didn’t answer repeated phone calls on Tuesday.

That concern didn’t prepare them for the call they received from the Blacksburg Police Department later that night to inform them that Smith had been found dead in his apartment in the 100 block of North Main Street in downtown. ... The state medical examiner’s office has since said that Smith died from a blunt force injury to the head and listed the manner of death as homicide.

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Smith has a lengthy legal history, with charges over the years in Montgomery, Loudoun and Fairfax counties, including driving under the influence, reckless driving, public intoxication and filing a false police report, as well as charges that were dismissed. But the family didn’t know anything about that, the spokesperson said. ... “We know nothing,” the person said. “I’m going to be honest with you. We know nothing about that. There’s been nothing said to us about it by the police or anything.”

The family spokesperson described Smith as a proud, openly gay man with a passion for working in the restaurant industry. In recent years, Smith worked at Centro Taco Bar, Black Hen and D.P. Dough in downtown Blacksburg. ... “He was so proud,” the person said. “Everybody knew he was a gay man. He did not like women. He was very proud of who he was.” ... The family hopes he wasn’t targeted because of that. ... “Regardless of what he did, he did not deserve this,” the spokesperson said. “He was maybe 112 pounds soaking wet. He wasn’t a threat to nobody. He wasn’t a threat to a fly. He wasn’t a dangerous person. Nobody has a right to take someone’s life. Whatever happened should not have happened.”

Staff writer Mike Gangloff contributed information to this report.