Former Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith, awaiting retrial on a 2008 murder charge, has been charged with three other murders in Los Angeles County.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office confirmed the charges to the L.A. Times on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, the criminal complaint accuses Smith of being responsible for the killings of Kevin and Ricky Nettles on Nov. 10, 1999 and the killing of Dennis Henderson on June 25, 2001. It also alleges that the victims were tortured, and Smith is also accused of kidnapping Nettles and Henderson to commit a robbery. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
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"This came as quite a surprise," defense attorney Michael S. Evans, who represented Smith in his first trial, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which cited City News Service in reporting the story earlier.
According to Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, the Nettles brothers were kidnapped from a carwash in Los Angeles on or about Nov. 10, 1999. Two people posing as police officers handcuffed the men, who were found dead, apparently tortured and shot with a 9-millimeter handgun.
Then, on or about June 25, 2001, Dennis Henderson and Terry Ware were kidnapped somewhere in Los Angeles by several armed suspects. Ware was released, but the following day, authorities found Henderson's body in the back of a rental car. He had been beaten, stabbed and allegedly tortured and robbed, Gibbons said.
Smith allegedly knew Henderson's brother and lived next door to him in Marina del Rey, according to prosecutors.
Smith is being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned July 17 on the new charges, according to Gibbons.