A jury deadlocked Wednesday in the murder trial of former Los Angeles Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith.
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The Lancaster Superior Court panel announced it was split 8-4 -- with the majority favoring guilt -- after nine days of deliberations, according to defense attorney Michael S. Evans.
Smith, 44, of Fontana, is accused in the Oct. 7, 2008, killing of 31-year-old Maurilio Ponce, who was beaten and shot several times before his body was dumped near the Antelope Valley poppy fields, about 11 miles west of Lancaster, Calif.
"He was not involved in this," Evans said.
Smith was the top pick of the Los Angeles Raiders 1990 and played with the team in L.A. and Oakland between 1991 and 1997.
Co-defendant Charles Eric Honest, 42, of Los Angeles, was convicted last week of second-degree murder and is set to be sentenced tomorrow, according to Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney's Office.
A third man, Dewann Wesley White, 33, of Bloomington, is awaiting trial.
The three were charged in February 2011 and arrested the following month.
