*Former Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith was officially sentenced on Friday (Jan. 22) for the murders of three men in 1999 and 2001.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Smith was sentenced to serve three consecutive life terms in prison for the killings.
The ruling come months after the 48-year-old athlete was found guilty in November by a Lancaster, CA jury in the 1999 double killings of brothers Ricky and Kevin Nettles and the 2001 death of Dennis Henderson.
Adding to the guilty verdict, jurors in that case found true special circumstance allegations that Smith committed kidnapping, torture and multiple murders were true. The Times notes that a mistrial was declared after the jurors were deadlocked the 2008 killing of a fourth man, Maurilio Ponce, at the time of the verdict.
Smith’s conviction marks the latest in a downward spiral for the top draft pick, who played with the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders in the 1990s. Although he prospered in the decade with signing a four-year, $7.6-million contract extension with Raiders after his third season, Smith opted out of his contract in 1997 and didn’t sign with another team.
Since ending his NFL career, Smith encountered legal trouble that resulted in him being charged with firebombing a furniture store in Santa Monica. The firebombing was reportedly over a dispute with the store’s owner about money and a consignment item, the Times reports adding that the case was dismissed after two juries were deadlocked on a verdict.
Prosecutors in Smith’s case stated he posed as a police officer when he kidnapped the Nettles brothers at their carwash business on Nov. 10, 1999. The brothers were found dead the next day of gunshot wounds. According to authorities, the brothers’ bodies displayed evidence of torture.
Smith’s criminal activity continued in 2001 when he kidnapped Dennis Henderson in Mar Vista, CA. Prosecutors went on to reveal that Henderson’s body was found the next day in the back of a rental car as it showed that he had been beaten and stabbed to death.
Smith’s attorney Michael Evans weighed in on his client’s conviction, saying he planned on appealing the court’s decision as well as file a motion for a new trial.
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