Former Virginia Tech football player Isi Etute was found not guilty of second-degree murder Friday in the 2021 death of Blacksburg native Jerry Paul Smith at the Montgomery County Court in Christiansburg, Virginia.
On May 31, 2021, Etute went to Smith’s Blacksburg apartment after meeting him on the dating app Tinder. However, Etute believed he was meeting a woman named “Angie Renee.” Etute had been to Smith’s apartment in April for oral sex. Etute had returned on May 31, and the prosecution alleged that once Etute discovered Smith was a man, he beat him to death.
Etute was represented by defense attorney Jimmy Turk, who argued that the then-18-year-old Etute acted in self-defense after seeing Smith reach for something toward, or under, his bed, where police later found a knife.