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Etute hearing in Radford is delayed

Mike Gangloff Sep 16, 2021

RADFORD — Traffic charges against former Virginia Tech football player Isimemen David Etute won’t be heard for months, attorneys said Thursday outside a Radford courtroom. ... “He’s got bigger problems,” city Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak said.

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In Montgomery County, Etute is charged with second-degree murder for the death of Jerry Paul Smith, 40, a restaurant project manager who was killed in his downtown Blacksburg apartment. Etute has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 23 in the county’s General District Court.

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Etute’s murder case has drawn wide attention because of the still-emerging nature of his relationship with Smith, as well as Etute’s potential as an up and coming Hokie player. According to Turk and a Montgomery County prosecutor who spoke at Etute’s bond hearing in June, Etute had arranged online to meet someone who he thought was a woman named Angie and in April had an encounter with the person that involved oral sex.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jason Morgan said at the bond hearing that Etute told police he went to Smith’s apartment for sexual activity. But when he discovered Angie was a man, Etute began punching, then “stomping” Smith, Morgan said. Smith’s teeth were knocked out, all of the bones in his face were broken, and he had cranial fractures, Morgan said.

In June, a spokesperson for Smith’s family described him as a proud, openly gay man. ... At the bond hearing, Turk said that Smith solicited Etute for sex.

Etute, of Virginia Beach, majored in human development at Tech, according to a statement the university issued in June. He was a 2021 signee from Frank W. Cox High School who enrolled at midyear and began practicing with the team during spring camp.

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Mike Gangloff
Mike Gangloff covers crime, breaking news and courts in the New River Valley. He can be reached at mike.gangloff@roanoke.com or (540) 381-1669.