The 18-year-old was charged with the death of Blacksburg restaurant manager Jerry Paul Smith after allegedly punching and stomping the 40-year-old multiple times on May 31.
A Nigerian-American, Ismemen David Etute, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder for beating his Tinder date to death after discovering the woman named 'Angie' he's had oral sex with was a man.
The 18-year-old was charged with the death of Blacksburg restaurant manager Jerry Paul Smith after allegedly punching and stomping the 40-year-old multiple times on May 31.
According to a report by Daily Mail, Etute matched with Smith on Tinder but Smith's profile indicated he was a woman named 'Angie,' Etute's attorney James Turk said.
Later, the Nigerian-American, a linebacker at the basketball club Virginia tech, discovered the truth when they met again on May 31, 2021, at Smith's apartment.
Enraged, Etute landed blows on Smith and punched him on the face five times, court records say.
As Smith fell to the ground, Etute punched him five more times before stomping on him till he died.
Blacksburg police discovered Smith's body on June 1 in his apartment. The autopsy report has revealed blunt force trauma to the head as the cause of Smith's death.
It was gathered that all the bones in his face were broken and even his teeth were missing.
During a bond hearing last week, the Montgomery County General District Court was told Smith had multiple social media accounts where he posed as a woman named "Angie."
Etute was denied bail. According to reports, he had told police that Smith did not fight back.
"Nobody deserves to die, but I don't mind saying, don't pretend you are something that you are not," Etute's attorney, James Turk, told reporters outside of court on Wednesday. "Don't target or lure anyone under that perception. That's just wrong."
Etute also has a July 22 hearing in Radford, where he faces driving charges that stem from Memorial Day: he was driving a 2019 BMW SUV and was pulled over at 4 p.m. for reckless driving and failing to obey a stop sign according to court records.
The court has set September 23, 2021 as the date for Etute's preliminary hearing on the murder charge.