Vanity married Raiders star Anthony Smith, later convicted of triple murder

A YouTube video titled “Vanity Married a Future Triple Murderer,” by the channel Black History Unfiltered. Its description frames Denise Matthews, known as Vanity, as Prince’s protégé, the face of Vanity 6 and a movie star who nearly died, turned to Christian evangelism, and married former Raiders star Anthony Wayne Smith before his triple-murder convictions became public.

Smith, a 1990 top draft pick for the Los Angeles Raiders who played defensive end, was convicted November 5, 2015, of three murder counts after eight days of jury deliberation, according to the AP and the Los Angeles Times. The victims were brothers Ricky and Kevin Nettles, killed in 1999, and Dennis Henderson, killed in 2001. Jurors found true the special-circumstance allegations of kidnapping, torture and multiple murder. They deadlocked on a fourth murder charge tied to a 2008 death, and a mistrial was declared on that count. On January 22, 2016, a judge sentenced Smith to life without parole, CBS News reported.

The channel’s description places Vanity’s 1994 overdose and near-death hospitalization at the center of her later path. Doctors gave her three days to live, the Welland Tribune reported in material the channel lists among its sources. She recovered, renounced her earlier image and began working as an evangelist. In a 1993 Jet interview she spoke of her father: “For 15 years, he beat me badly... I wish I could see my father in heaven, but I won’t. He’s in hell.” A 1993 interview captured her view of the stage persona Prince shaped: “Prince created the whole Vanity 6 image. It bothered me at the time. I lied and said it was the image I wanted... I wanted the old Diana Ross image.” On first meeting Prince she recalled, “I didn’t know who he was, and he kept following me. I thought he was gay...”

Vanity told Ebony magazine the decision that led her to Smith: “The Lord told me that I would go down to L.A. and minister to him.” They met in late February 1995. She proposed three days later. they married in April 1995, Jet reported that year. The marriage ended in 1996 because of his volatile behavior. After the separation Smith was arrested for domestic violence against another woman.

Matthews died of kidney failure on February 15, 2016, in Fremont, California. She was 57. The death came weeks after Smith’s sentencing. Prince died two months later, NPR reported.