Former Raiders Player Charged with Murder

A former professional football player who lived in Marina del Rey has been charged with murder for allegedly killing a 31-year-old Lancaster man more than two years ago, authorities announced Friday.

Anthony Wayne Smith, 43, and two other men were charged last month with murdering Maurilio Ponce on Oct. 7, 2008. All three suspects were arrested earlier this week. The other men who were arrested were identified as Charles Eric Honest, 41, of Los Angeles and Dewann Wesley White, 32, of Bloomington.

Honest appeared in Lancaster Superior Court on Thursday and his arraignment was put over until March 17, said Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake. Smith and White were scheduled to be arraigned Friday, but it was not immediately known if they had entered pleas.

Bail for Smith and Honest was recommended at $1 million each, while White’s was recommended at $1.05 million.

The defendants are charged with one count of murder. Prosecutors alleged that Honest also has a prior conviction for voluntary manslaughter in Torrance in 1996.

Ponce was beaten and shot several times before his body was dumped near the Antelope Valley poppy fields about 11 miles west of Lancaster, Blake said.  The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and filed on Feb. 16 as a felony complaint for arrest warrant after investigators presented evidence to Blake.

Smith played professional football with the Raiders between 1991 and 1998 and was a defensive end. He was living in Marina Del Rey at the time Ponce was killed.