Ismemen David Etute, 18, is a freshman linebacker for Virginia Tech. His name is Nigerian, though he appears to be a US citizen and not a foreign student. He has been charged with the murder of Jerry Smith, a forty-year-old White male who friends describe as “openly gay.”
Etute has confessed to stomping on the man after meeting with him to receive oral sex. Etute alleges that Smith pretended to be a girl named “Angie” on Tinder and tricked him. Prosecutors say that Etute and Smith got together at least two times at Smith’s apartment. Etute had a sexual encounter with Smith, then returned a second time and broke every bone in the victim’s face.
It is unknown if Smith was really “catfished” or if this was a case of what law enforcement used to call “homosexual rage.” So-called “homosexual rage” is a murder in which the perp, who does not consider himself to be homosexual, murders a victim after having homosexual relations with that person.
Etute says he stomped on Smith and heard gurgling after discovering he was a man. However, he has only been charged with 2nd-degree murder.
Etute was quickly released from custody on a mere $75k bond. He walked out of jail Wednesday under an agreement that he will remain under “house arrest.” The media has accepted Etute’s claim of being “catfished” and no one is calling the murder a “hate crime” or referring to it as violence against the LGBT community.
