Ex-Virginia Tech football player acquitted of murder in beating of gay man who posed as woman during sex act

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A former Virginia Tech football player was acquitted of murder charges Friday in the deadly beating of a man accused of pretending to be a woman during a sexual encounter after the two matched on Tinder. 

A jury in Montgomery County Circuit Court found 19-year-old Isimemen Etute not guilty of a charge of second-degree murder in the 2021 death of Jerry Smith, 40, of Blacksburg. The jury deliberated for approximately three hours before returning its verdict around 6:30 p.m., The Roanoke Times reported.

Prosecutors had earlier told the jury that Etute, then 18, became enraged and fatally beat Smith when he discovered Smith was a man. Smith, who identified as a gay man, presented himself in a profile on the online dating app Tinder 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. In taking the stand earlier in the week, Etute had testified that he felt "violated" when he discovered that the Tinder match he believed to be a woman was actually a man.

BODY FOUND IN FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA, WOODS INVESTIGATED AS HOMICIDE; NO ARRESTS ANNOUNCED 

Former Virginia Tech football player Isimemen David Etute hugs his defense attorney Jimmy Turk after closing arguments in his trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Christiansburg, Va., Friday May 27, 2022. (Matt Gentry/The Roanoke Times via AP)

Etute had testified that Smith reached for what Etute thought was a gun. Smith did not own a gun, but police reported finding a knife between the man's mattress and box spring.

Defense attorney Jimmy Turk argued that Etute had acted in