Suspended Virginia Tech football player indicted on second degree murder charge

Momiji Barlow, news editor Oct 27, 2021

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, Isimemen Etute — a suspended Virginia Tech football player accused of killing a Blacksburg man back in May — was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of second degree murder.

Etute, 18, is accused of killing Jerry Smith, 40, who he met up with through the dating app Tinder, where Smith allegedly had presented himself as a woman with the name “Angie Renee.” Smith and Etute met up on April 10 and engaged in sexual activity, but Smith was reportedly posing as a woman both on the dating app and during the encounter.

On the night of May 31, Etute returned to Smith’s apartment in downtown Blacksburg to determine Smith’s identity and, according to Detective Ryan Hite, one of several witnesses from the Sept. 23 trial, groped Smith and shined a flashlight on his face to determine if he was male or female. Upon discovering Smith’s identity as male, Etute punched him in the face multiple times before leaving. Etute was arrested after Smith’s body was found by police on June 1 during a welfare check; a medical examiner ruled the cause of death as blunt force injuries to the head.

Etute was released around a week after his arrest on a $75,000 secured bond and has been under house arrest and electronic monitoring since then. The next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18 so that attorneys can work out a timeline for the case, according to the Roanoke Times.