Anthony Smith bursts into tears while discussing fire
LAX COURTHOUSE — A former LA/Oakland Raider and alleged arsonist burst into tears on the witness stand Friday while recounting how a house fire claimed the lives of his stepmother and stepsister.
“I’m sorry,” said Anthony Wayne Smith, 37, on trial for allegedly setting fire to a Santa Monica antique and furniture shop last year in a rage-filled act of revenge.
The earlier house fire was particularly emotional for the soft-spoken Smith because his stepfather also was badly injured. Smith never knew his biological father, and his biological mother died when he was 3 years old.
Smith became a suspect in the February 2003 fire that gutted Simply Sofas on Lincoln Boulevard after investigators found his name and address printed on partially burnt documents stuffed inside the firebombs used to ignite the blaze. Smith has maintained his innocence but has not been able to explain the documents.
Defense attorneys hope the ear-lier house fire will help explain Smith’s emotional response to the Santa Monica Police Department Sgt. Robert Almada has testified that after showing Smith the partially burnt papers found inside the firebombs, Smith hung his head, began to cry and said, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Smith claims he responded that way because Almada told him firefighters were hurt battling the blaze.
However, no firefighters were hurt while containing the fire, which consumed an estimated $1.2 million in merchandise and caused $900,000 in structural damage.
Lawyers are expected to make closing arguments in the case today before handing it to the jury of 11 women and one man. A jury trial in the case ended in mistrial last summer after jurors split 7-5 in favor of Smith, with many saying the evidence wasn’t sufficient for a conviction.
Prosecutors maintain Smith set the fire in a rage-filled act of revenge after arguing with store owner Marilyn Nelson over the value of items he left at the store to be sold on consignment. Smith, who retired from the NFL in 1999 to work on a wholesale liquidation company he started, said Nelson told him an item had been broken when in fact she had sold it, but he denied fighting with Nelson.
Although defense attorneys haven’t provided a clear explanation for how Smith’s documents wound up inside the firebombs, they have suggested a possible alternative explanation: Hired day laborers working for Smith mistakenly threw away a box of Smith’s documents while making space in his car to pick up unsold consignment items from Simply Sofas. The real arsonist could then have used the personal documents to start the blaze, lawyers suggested.
Though Smith didn’t offer investigators that alternative when he was initially questioned, taped police interrogations taken before Smith’s arrest show he did offer to take a polygraph test, on the condition he be released if he passed the test. Almada refused, saying he couldn’t guarantee Smith’s release.
Smith was arrested in July of 2003 after the second interrogation and has been in custody ever since. Smith, a former defensive end who said he earned $13 million playing in the NFL, is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
Michael Evans, Smith’s attorney, has raised questions during the trial about the financial motives of Nelson, who was quickly dropped as a suspect in the fire. The security system was not set the night of the fire, and a manager for ADT security on Friday testified there had been no calls for service on the system in more than a year. Nelson had said she didn’t set it because it wasn’t working properly.
Also testifying Friday was Smith’s wife, Teresa, who provided an alibi for Smith. In the first trial, she said Smith normally slept with her through the night, and she didn’t believe the night of the fire was any different.
On Friday, Teresa Smith said she remembered the night of the fire specifically, because she woke the next morning, Feb. 13, 2003, to take her son to a music class and go with her husband to her hair appointment in preparation for Valentine’s Day. She said she woke three or four times the night of the fire to breast feed the youngest of her three children and each time Anthony Smith was in bed with her.
Teresa Smith began to weep at one point during her testimony when Evans asked her if she loved her husband and her family. Evans went on to ask Teresa Smith, a lawyer, if she was lying to protect her husband.
“As an attorney, as an officer of the court, I know what it means to commit perjury,” she said. “I would not testify for my husband if I had to lie.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 13, 2004. Read the original PDF.