Former Oakland Raiders defensive end Anthony Wayne Smith has been found guilty on Thursday of killing three men and will be sentenced next month.
The 48-year-old was found guilty of the double murder of brothers Ricky and Kevin Nettles in 1999 and the 2001 death of Dennis Henderson, said a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Prosecutors said that Smith was posing as a police officer when he kidnapped the Nettles brothers in November 1999, before the siblings were found dead the next day.
Smith was accused of a fourth killing, that of Maurilio Ponce in 2008, but a mistrial was declared after jurors were deadlocked in a nine-to-three split at the end of the eight-day deliberations.
According to the LA Times, jurors also found special circumstance allegations that Smith committed kidnapping, torture and multiple murders to be true.
Smith's attorney, Michael Evans, is quoted by the paper as saying: "I am a true believer in the jury system, but I respectfully disagree with their decisions on counts one, two and three."
He confirmed that the decision will be appealed, but that he will first file a motion for a new trial on the grounds that the jury may have been confused by the law on the other murder counts.
Smith, who played American Football for the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders in the 1990s, is set to be sentenced on December 21 and faces three life terms in state prison without the possibility of parole.
Tom Nightingale
