Judge questioned jurors’ capability during first trial
By GENEVA WHITMARSH Daily Press Staff Writer
LAX COURTHOUSE — An ex-NFL player accused of setting fire to a Santa Monica furniture and antique store won’t face a jury for another month due to changes in his legal representation.
Michael S. Evans will defend Anthony Wayne Smith, 37, in a jury trial scheduled for Oct. 12. Smith’s former lawyer, David Houchin, didn’t return calls Thursday. “(Smith) fired one lawyer and hired another,” said Deputy District Attorney Larry Droeger. “That’s the raw way of putting it.”
The trial date, originally set for Sept. 9, was pushed back to allow Evans to familiarize himself with the case, he said.
“I don’t know if I’d say (Houchin) was terminated, but I was retained, and the judge has given me some time to get ready for trial,” Evans said.
Smith, a standout defensive end for the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1990s, has been in custody for nearly two years for the February 2003 blaze that gutted Simply Sofas on Lincoln Avenue.
The trial scheduled for Oct. 12 will be Smith’s second, following a mistrial in June.
Prosecutors alleged during the first trial that Smith set the fire in a rage-filled act of revenge after arguing with the store’s owner over the value of a statue he left with her to be sold on consignment.
Investigators were led to Smith by partially burnt pieces of mail bearing Smith’s name and address, which were found stuffed inside the makeshift bombs used to ignite the blaze. The fire destroyed $1.2 million worth of merchandise and caused $900,000 in property damage.
Although the jury split 7-5 in favor of acquitting Smith, the judge pointed to weaknesses in the prosecution’s case and said a conviction against Smith would be a strong possibility at a second jury trial. He refused to reduce Smith’s $1 million bail.
During the first trial, an investigating officer apparently mistakenly played segments of a taped police interrogation that didn’t relate to the charges and was considered prejudicial.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz also said three of the jurors were “functionally unable to handle their oath as a juror.” One of the jurors, he said, believed a malfunctioning fire alarm had been set by aliens, while two of the jurors suggested that the investigating officer had set the alarm off.
Deputy District Attorney Jean Daly, who handled the case during the first trial, told the court earlier this year that new evidence had come forward that strengthened the people’s case. The exact nature of that evidence is unknown, though lawyers said it consisted in part of interviews with witnesses who rebutted Smith’s alternate explanation for how his documents wound up in the bombs.
At trial, Smith’s lawyers suggested the pieces of mail were left in an alley behind the store by day laborers and might have been picked up by a third party who started the fire. When the Raiders moved to Oakland, Smith said he kept a local mailing address, and several boxes of nonessential mail were taken by an assistant to storage. The day laborers were hired by Smith to help move boxes and other items between his storage space in Lancaster and his condo in a Marina del Rey. Smith said that when he retrieved items from Simply Sofas, the laborers might have mistaken a box of mail documents in the back seat for trash.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 10, 2004. Read the original PDF.