Etute traffic charges resolved in Radford – Roanoke Times
RADFORD — Two Radford traffic charges, a footnote to former Hokie linebacker Isimemen David Etute’s murder case in Montgomery County, were quietly resolved Thursday.
Etute, 20, who was acquitted of second-degree murder at a May jury trial, did not appear at the hearing in Radford General District Court. The traffic violations have lingered since 2021, when they were filed earlier on the same day as the events that led to the murder charge.
On Thursday, Etute’s attorney, Jimmy Turk of Radford, who also defended the teen against the murder charge, spoke for him in a quick agreement that left Etute convicted of improper driving and with a $500 fine to pay.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak asked that a charge of failing to obey a stop sign be dropped, and a reckless driving charge be amended downward, with Turk entering a plea of not guilty for his client but stipulating that there was sufficient evidence for a conviction. Judge Erin DeHart approved the attorneys’ arrangement.
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Turk said last year that on May 31, 2021, Etute and some friends attended a Radford High School soccer game. City police stopped Etute afterward, as he was driving a 2019 BMW SUV.
That was at about 4 p.m., about six hours before Etute and two friends, also Virginia Tech football players, went to the downtown Blacksburg apartment of 40-year-old restaurant project manager Jerry Paul Smith.
Smith, who relatives described as a proud gay man, presented himself online as a woman. In April 2021, Smith and Etute connected on Tinder and had an encounter that included Smith performing oral sex on Etute, according to statements at Etute’s trial.
Etute left thinking that he had been with a woman but later began to wonder. On May 31, he returned to Smith’s apartment to see if he had been with a man. While his friends waited outside, Etute went into Smith’s apartment.
Testifying during his three-day jury trial, Etute said that in Smith’s bedroom, he discovered that Smith was a man. Smith then reached for what Etute thought was a gun, Etute said, and Etute responded with repeated punches and kicks.
Family members found Smith’s body the next day.
At the jury trial, Turk argued that Etute acted in self-defense. Etute admitted that he never saw a weapon, but insisted that Smith’s gesture of reaching instantly struck him as a deadly threat.
Investigators found a knife wedged between Smith’s mattress and box springs.