KTLA

Former Raiders Player Sentenced to Life Without Parole for 3 Murders

A bailiff uncuffs former Raider Anthony Wayne Smith, center, after he arrived in court with his attorney Michael Evans, right. (Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los AngelesTimes)

A former defensive lineman with the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders was sentenced Friday to three consecutive terms of life without parole for the murders of three people.

Anthony Wayne Smith, 48, was convicted in November of three counts of first-degree murder in the 1999 murders of brothers Ricky and Kevin Nettles and the 2001 murder of Dennis Henderson, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Jurors also found the former defensive lineman guilty of special circumstance allegations of torture, kidnapping and multiple murders, the release stated.

Anthony Wayne Smith is shown at Antelope Valley Branch court on Dec. 21, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)

On Nov. 10, 1999, prosecutors said Smith kidnapped the Nettles brothers from their car-wash business in Los Angeles while posing as a police officer. Both men were tortured and killed, according to court testimony.

On June 24, 2001, Smith abducted Henderson in Mar Vista and then beat and stabbed him to death, according to evidence presented at the four-week trial.

A mistrial was declared on a fourth murder charge involving the 2008 death of Maurilio Ponce.

A decision on whether to retry that charge had not been announced.