TINDER FOOTBALL KILLER’S COMEBACK: Teen Star Who Beat Date To Death Back On Pitch
A college US football star is to play again after he was acquitted of the murder of his male Tinder date who allegedly posed as a woman.
Isimemen Etute, 19, had admitted beating 40-year-old openly gay Jerry Paul Smith to death when they met for sex in 2021.
But he told the court he had acted in self-defence and thought he had been meeting a 22-year-old woman called Angie Renee.
![](https://news.realpressglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Newsflash-TinderDateUsa-011-1018x1024.jpg)
Earlier this year a jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder.
Now Etute is to return to football after agreeing to enroll at Iowa Western Community college where he is expected to turn out as a linebacker.
Etute was a freshman college player when he first matched with “Angie” on Tinder.
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He told the court they had met in April last year when Smith gave him USD 50 to receive oral sex.
A month later, the footballer went to Smith’s apartment where he was told ‘Angie’ would only meet him in the dark.
A detective at the trial said that Etute groped Smith to verify his gender and was horrified when he realised ‘Angie’ was a man, while Etute told the court he feared for his life when he saw Smith reaching for the mattess.
![](https://news.realpressglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Newsflash-TinderDateUsa-031-1024x578.jpg)
A knife was later found hidden inside the bed.
Smith died of multiple injuries after Etute punched and kicked him repeatedly.