Ex-Raider still in custody
LAX COURTHOUSE — A mistrial was declared Wednesday in the arson case against an NFL player accused of burning down a Santa Monica store to avenge a business deal gone sour.
Jurors split 7-5 in favor of Anthony Wayne Smith, saying evidence against the former defensive end was incomplete and too many questions were left unanswered by prosecutors. Smith, 36, will stay in custody until July, when a new trial date is expected to be set.
“I didn’t think there was a chance he did it,” said juror Bob Walker, 63, of Playa del Rey, a small business owner. “I didn’t think he would burn down those buildings over a few hundred dollars — but that’s where his background worked against him. That guy’s huge.”
Smith stands at 6’4” and weighs 320 pounds. He was charged with the February 2003 fire that gutted Simply Sofas and Lona Antiques on the 2300 block of Lincoln Boulevard after investigators found pieces of mail with his name and address inside the makeshift fire bombs used to ignite the blaze.
The fire was set days after Smith argued with the business owner over the value of a Washington Monument statue he left at the store to be sold on consignment.
For some jurors, the mail in the bombs was damning enough.
“I couldn’t imagine any other circumstance,” said juror Gary Oberstein, 58, a retired dentist.
During police interrogations and on the witness stand, Smith repeatedly said he had no idea how his mail ended up in the bombs. His lawyers suggested the papers may have been left outside of the store by day laborers hired to transport items between Smith’s office and a storage locker in Lancaster, and his condo in Marina del Rey.
Smith moved to Oakland with the Raiders in the mid- 1990s, but kept his address in the Marina and nonurgent mail was taken by an assistant to storage. He was in the process of sorting through boxes of old mail at the same time he had the dispute with Simply Sofas owner Marilyn Nelson, Smith claimed. At that time, he told the workers to throw away items from the back seat of the car to make room for some unsold items he was retrieving from the store. The workers may have inadvertently thrown away a box of Smith’s mail either in or next to a dumpster behind the store, lawyers suggested.
That theory didn’t hold for juror Melissa Schickler, a 19-year-old college student who lives in Manhattan Beach. She said she already was leaning towards a guilty verdict when the jury began deliberating. She confirmed her decision when she learned the exact definition of reasonable doubt.
Schickler and other jurors were shocked Smith has been in custody since July of last year. During deliberations, Schickler said several jurors said they wouldn’t feel comfortable giving jail time to Smith, a regular church goer and father of three young children.
Smith’s wife Teresa, somber but cordial, declined to discuss the case. With Smith in custody, Teresa has left her career as a lawyer to care for the couple’s children.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz, who polled many of the jurors, said there were a few key areas where more evidence could be presented, including questions about trash collection and the building’s alarm system, which wasn’t tripped when the fire broke out.
Nelson was dropped as a suspect early in the investigation largely because she was underinsured, prosecutors said. Merchandise lost in the fire was valued at $1.2 million and damage to the structure at $900,000. Nelson, 56, said she netted $2.8 million and profited more than $520,000 the year before the blaze.
Lawyers will meet in July to discuss when to re-try the case.
Smith, who wore a suit and tie during the seven-day trial, was held in a lockup facility while Judge Schwartz interviewed jurors. Smith later was brought back into the courtroom wearing a jail-issued orange jumpsuit so lawyers could agree on the July date. Afterward, as Smith was led away by bailiffs, he looked out at Teresa, put his hands together and kissed them.
Outside the courtroom, Houchin said he will ask the court in July to reduce Smith’s bail from $1 million to $100,000, something Judge Schwartz indicated he would consider. Houchin also said he would ask to have the case dismissed, but admitted it wasn’t likely.
“We’re certainly hopeful,” he said. “But it’s not the kind of thing you put your money on happening.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 10, 2004. Read the original PDF.