PRO ATHLETES AS ROLE MODELS?

Anthony Smith doesn’t exactly fit the bill

Pro athletes have long been designated as role models for our country’s youngsters. Unfortunately, a goodly number of them can’t stay out of trouble. Those who can’t keep their pampered noses clean are often involved in barroom brawls, illegal drug use, driving under the influence of alcohol, wife beatings, rapes, etc. The Oakland Raiders professional football team, in particular, has been known for the high number of players that have gotten involved with the law. Anthony Smith has even outdone noxious O.J. Simpson – Smith is accused of four murders, O.J. committed only two.

FORMER RAIDERS PLAYER ANTHONY SMITH PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO 4 MURDERS

Los Angeles Daily News
August 1, 2012

LANCASTER - Former Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith pleaded not guilty Wednesday 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.