Former Oakland Raiders defensive lineman Anthony Wayne Smith has been with charged with three unsolved murders, the LAPD announced today.

That makes the number of killings he's accused of committing four:

He's currently being retried in the 2008 homicide of Lancaster mechanic Maurilio Ponce.

Does this make Smith an alleged serial killer?

Cops today said the latest cases involve the “1999 double-murder of brothers Rickey Nettles and Kevin Nettles and the 2001 murder of Dennis Henderson.”

Cold Case special detectives made the links, the LAPD says, though they would not elaborate. The new charges against him reportedly include homicide, kidnapping, robbery and special circumstances enhancements of torture and multiple murders.

The Los Angeles Times got this much out of the District Attorney's office (we reached out to them too):

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said the Nettles brothers were kidnapped from a car wash business in Los Angeles in November 1999. Two people posing as police officers handcuffed the men with zip ties. The next day, the brothers were found dead, apparently tortured and shot with a 9-millimeter handgun, Gibbons said.

In June 2001, Henderson was kidnapped with Terry Ware in Los Angeles by several armed suspects, according to prosecutors. The men were placed in separate cars and driven away. Ware was released, but the following day, authorities found Henderson's body in the back of a rental car. He had been beaten, stabbed, tortured and robbed, Gibbons said.

Smith allegedly knew Henderson's brother and lived next door to him in Marina del Rey, according to prosecutors. Gibbons said she did not know the motive for the killings.

Ponce, by the way, was shot six times. According to a D.A.'s statement, he …

… was beaten and shot several times before his body was dumped near the Antelope Valley poppy fields about 11 miles west of Lancaster.

The first trial against Smith in that case ended in a hung jury.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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