Former Raider's DE Anthony Smith, whose first trial for murder ended in a mistrial, has been charged with three additional murders nine years prior to the murder of which he now stands accused. He was accused in Lancaster (about 70m N of Los Angeles) CA on Monday.

Smith's first trial deadlocked with the jury hung 8-4 in favor of conviction. He was accused along with two other men, Dewann Wesley White and Eric Honest in the murder of a 31 yr. old auto mechanic, Maurilio Ponce on 7 October, 2008. Honest was found guilty of second degree murder on 19 April of this year.

Smith was linked to the murder of Ponce by cellphone tracking, which placed him which placed all three men in the vicinity of Ponce's murder. It is alleged that Smith made a phone call to Ponce that lured him to the site of the murder.

The new charges carry with them a set of "special circumstances" including torture and robbery which makes Smith eligible for the death penalty.

This comes on the heels of former Patriot and Colts LB Eric Naposki's former paramour, Nanette Packard-McNeal receiving a life sentence for murder, a crime for which Naposki now serves time in a California prison, a case profiled on the CBS program 48 Hours.

To paraphrase the late, great Richard Pryor, "I see either one of the [guys] in my neighborhood I'm just gonna shoot 'em"