Starting with a disturbing childhood of violence, drug use at the age of nine and child abuse, Football was the only thing former Oakland Raiders player, Anthony Smith really loved. Smith has been described as ”absorbing and self-absorbed”.
After retiring in 1998, Anthony Smith, a former Oakland Raiders player, was first arrested for the murder of four people in 2011.
Smith was convicted in court last year for the kidnapping and murder of Ricky and Kevin Nettles. He also was convicted on charges for the 2001 murder of Dennis Henderson.
The Nettles brothers were found with their heads covered in duct tape. Then on June 24, 2001, Smith kidnapped Dennis Henderson, before beating and stabbing him to death in the back of a rental car.
Former Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Smith was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday (Jan. 22) for three murders dating back to 1999.
A Los Angeles County jury convicted the 48-year-old of three counts of murder. With special circumstances of torture, kidnapping and multiple murders back in November. This past week, he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
He was also accused of the murder of friend Maurilio Ponce, whom he lured to an Antelope Valley desert highway in 2008, where he was beaten and shot after a business deal went bad. A jury was unable to reach a verdict on the fourth charge.
The murders remained unsolved, up until 2011, when Smith was arrested without bail.
Smith was the No. 11 overall pick of the 1990 NFL Draft by the Raiders. During his NFL career, he recorded 57.5 sacks and 190 tackles, before retiring in 1998. He played with the Raiders until ’97, where he then abandoned his contract, and just never signed with another team.
There is no word on if Smith’s sentence starts immediately.
From a prosecutor’s point of view, Anthony Smith is a dangerous, lucky person. Mesmerizing, seemingly untouchable. Absorbing and self-absorbed. He can do wrecking ball; he can do teddy bear.
He’s a man with a temper who believes in his own victimhood. And he’s smart…enough. Any slipups, and there have been some whoppers, are countered by mind-numbing obfuscation during police interviews and charismatic appearances on the witness stand. (“He’s a pretty good witness,” one judge remarked.
“The D.A. didn’t shake him. He is able to handle pressure, possibly from playing sports.”) To friends and family, he’s sociable and generous, a family man with a dazzling smile and a loving heart.
A man whose talent bought him a dream life—multimillion-dollar NFL contract, mansion on a hill, marriage to Denise Matthews, a.k.a. Vanity, the former lead singer of Prince’s eponymous all-girl group—that somehow bled into the nightmare he now faces: a looming trial for the brutal murders of four men.
The popularity in Will Smith’s real-life movie Concussion draws attention to the odds stacked against black young men eager to get into the NFL amid futuristic health issues.
