Former Raiders Player Pleads Not Guilty to Murder

A former professional football player who lived in Marina del Rey and two other men pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder charges in the 2008 killing of a Lancaster man, authorities said.

Anthony Wayne Smith, 43,  a former defensive end with the Raiders, was charged along with Charles Eric Honest, 41, of Los Angeles, and Dewann Wesley White, 32, of Bloomington, CA, in the Oct. 7, 2008, slaying of 31-year-old Maurilio Ponce. A preliminary hearing for all three defendants has been scheduled for May 19 at the Antelope Valley Courthouse to determine whether there is enough evidence for them to stand trial, said Shiara Dávila-Morales, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Ponce, of Lancaster, was beaten and shot several times before his body was dumped near the Antelope Valley poppy fields about 11 miles west of Lancaster, authorities 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 prosecutors. All three defendants were arrested in early March.

The defendants are each charged with one count of murder. Prosecutors say that Honest has a prior conviction for voluntary manslaughter in Torrance in 1996. Honest had an alias of "Cheese" and White also was known as "Vicious," according to charging documents filed with the court.

Smith, who was born in North Carolina, played college football at the University of Arizona and was the Raiders top pick in the 1990 draft and the 11th player chosen overall. He played for the Raiders in Los Angeles and Oakland from 1991 to 1998. He was living in Marina del Rey at the time Ponce was killed.