Former Raiders player pleads not guilty to four murders
Anthony Wayne Smith charged with murder and kidnapping
LANCASTER, Calif.—Former Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith pleaded not guilty today to murder charges stemming from four killings nearly a decade apart.
The 45-year-old ex-pro football player is charged with murder and kidnapping to commit another crime—robbery—in the Nov. 10, 1999, slayings of Kevin and Ricky Nettles; the June 25, 2001, killing of Dennis Henderson; and the Oct. 7, 2008, killing of Maurilio Ponce.
The criminal complaint includes the special circumstance allegations of multiple murder and murder involving the infliction of torture on the Nettles brothers and Henderson.
Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Smith.
Smith had been awaiting a retrial in connection with Ponce's killing when the three new murder charges were filed against him July 2.
A Lancaster Superior Court jury on April 18 deadlocked 8-4 in favor of finding him guilty.
The Nettles brothers were each shot, while Henderson was beaten and stabbed to death, according to Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney's Office.
Smith, the Raiders' top pick in 1990 out of the University of Arizona, went on to play professional football with the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders between 1991 and 1997. He was charged in February 2011, along with two other men, in connection with Ponce's killing.
Smith was charged with arson in the February 2003 firebombing of a Santa Monica furniture store—a crime that allegedly stemmed from a dispute over a few hundred dollars and a statue left at the store on consignment. But a judge dismissed the case against him in December 2004 after two juries deadlocked—the second 11-1 in favor of acquittal.
Smith subsequently sued a Santa Monica police sergeant, contending that he was falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted. A panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Smith's claim in a 2-1 ruling in October 2010.
Anthony Wayne Smith, the former defensive end for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders who was already awaiting retrial for the 2008 murder of Maurilio Ponce, is back in the spotlight after being charged with three additional murders. Wednesday he entered a plea of not guilty on all charges.
LANCASTER, Calif. — Former Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith pleaded not guilty today to murder charges stemming from four killings nearly a decade apart.
On Oct. 12, Lancaster Superior Court Judge Lisa Chung found sufficient evidence to require the 45-year-old ex-pro football player to proceed to trial in connection with the Nov. 10, 1999, slayings of Kevin and Ricky Nettles, the June 25, 2001, killing of Dennis Henderson and the Oct. 7, 2008, death of Maurilio Ponce.
LANCASTER, Calif.—A 34-year-old man—charged along with two other people, including former Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith, in an October 2008 killing—was convicted today of first-degree murder.
The Lancaster Superior Court jury deliberated about two days before returning its verdict against Dewann Wesley White, who is facing 25 years to life in state prison, according to Deputy District Attorney Taly Peretz.
LANCASTER, Calif.—Former Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith and two other men were ordered today to stand trial for the October 2008 slaying of a man in Lancaster.
Superior Court Judge Carol Koppel found sufficient evidence to require Smith, 43, of Fontana, Charles Eric Honest, 41, of Los Angeles, and Dewann Wesley White, 33, of Bloomington, to proceed to trial in the Oct. 7, 2008, killing of Maurilio Ponce.
LANCASTER, Calif. — A registered sex offender accused of using a cellphone camera to capture video up hundreds of women’s skirts in Lancaster and elsewhere in Los Angeles County was in custody and facing prosecution, authorities said.
