Anthony Wayne Smith Trial: Former Oakland Raiders DE Charged in Four Murders

Former Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith, currently awaiting retrial for a 2008 killing, was charged this week with three more Los Angeles County murders from several years earlier, prosecutors said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said a criminal complaint filed Monday includes Smith’s original 2008 charge of mudering of Maurilo Ponce, but additionally accuses the former athlete of the 1999 slayings of brothers Kevin and Ricky Nettles and the June 2001 death of Dennis Henderson, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Kevin and Ricky Nettles were shot to death in 1999. Dennis Henderson died in 2001, the result of being beaten and stabbed. The Press-Telegram notes Maurilio Pounce was shot twice in the head and eight times in the torso in 2008.

In addition to murder, Smith, 45, also faces special circumstances allegations of torture, several counts of kidnapping and robbery, according to the complaint. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

“This came as quite a surprise,” defense attorney Michael S. Evans, who represented Smith in his first trial, told the Press-Telegram, adding that his client would plead “not guilty to all the new charges.

The LA Times writes that Anthony Wayne Smith, the top draft pick of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1990, played with the team in L.A. and Oakland between 1991 and 1997 and recorded 57.5 sacks for the Raiders during that time period.

He is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned July 17 on the new charges.