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ON THE Defensive

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Whenever linebacker Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens sacks a quarterback, he warns, “I’ll be back.”

Few doubted him before Monday, when the former Miami All-American was charged in the early morning slayings of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub about six hours after the Super Bowl.

Lewis, 24, was considered one of the NFL’s brightest young stars.

He has led the Ravens in tackles in each of his four seasons and has been selected to play in the Pro Bowl three times. He was scheduled to start for the first time in Sunday’s game at Honolulu.

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“He’s the best middle linebacker in pro football,” former New York Jet coach Bill Parcells has said, echoing the feelings of many in the league who praised Lewis for his unbounded on-field aggression.

Lewis’ future, in fact, seemed limitless. After leading the NFL in tackles in 1997, he signed a four-year, $26-million contract extension that made him the league’s highest-paid linebacker.

Last season, with Lewis the centerpiece of a young linebacking crew that also included Pro Bowl pick Peter Boulware, the Ravens ranked second in the NFL in defense and won eight games, one a 41-14 rout of the AFC champion Tennessee Titans in which Lewis had 13 tackles.

But Lewis’ season was marred by a brush with the law that occurred only days before the Dec. 5 game against the Titans.

According to Baltimore police, Lewis was accused of punching a woman in a bar and then leaving the scene. He was served a criminal summons in response to a complaint by Katrice Sherree Parker.

According to the police report, Lewis and Parker, also 24, became involved in a dispute shortly before 1 a.m. on Nov. 30 at the Windsor Mill Inn. Parker called police and ultimately filed a complaint.

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Lewis was charged with second-degree assault. His trial had been set for Feb. 9.

Lewis, who proclaimed his innocence in the November incident, now has a much more serious issue on his hands, of course.

He appeared in an Atlanta court Tuesday, his hands shackled in front of him, on two counts of murder. No bail was set and he will remain jailed until a preliminary hearing Feb. 24.

The murder charges carry life in prison or the death penalty, if prosecutors pursue it.

The victims--identified as Jacinth “Shorty” Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24, both of Decatur, Ga.--were stabbed repeatedly during a fight about 200 yards from a bar where a post-Super Bowl party had emptied into the street.

According to witnesses, six men fought and argued with the victims before fleeing in a black limousine, firing at least five shots as they drove away. Police found the limousine a few hours later.

Lewis’ attorney, Max Richardson Jr., said his client is innocent.

“We’re taking the position that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Richardson said outside court. “From what I’ve gathered from law enforcement officers, they know Ray didn’t kill these unfortunate victims.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in today’s editions that police were holding Lewis’ limousine driver under guard in an Atlanta hotel room while they hunted for others in the player’s entourage.

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Detectives said they were gathering information for murder warrants on at least two more men who were with Lewis in his limousine Monday morning, but they would not identify the men, the paper said. It said one officer believed that they were not active NFL players.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue declined comment, but Gene Washington, the NFL’s chief disciplinarian, called Lewis’ arrest “devastating.”

“We’ve had a tough year as it goes anyway with the Rae Carruth situation,” Washington told One-on-One sports radio network in Chicago. “We certainly, for his own good, hope that it’s not true, and for the good of the NFL.”

Lewis is the second NFL player in less than a month accused of murder. Carruth, a Carolina Panther receiver last season, was charged with murdering his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time of the drive-by shooting.

The Ravens said they have not taken any action against Lewis and have not spoken with him.

Asked if the team was considering releasing Lewis, Raven spokesman Kevin Byrne said, “Until due process of the law is completed, that will not be addressed.”

Born in Bartow, Fla., Lewis grew up in a single-parent household along with a younger brother and three younger sisters.

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At Miami, he finished second in the voting for the Butkus Award, given to the nation’s top linebacker, before leaving school after his junior season. He was drafted by the Ravens in the first round in 1996.

Lewis, who told the Baltimore Sun in 1998 that he became a church deacon when he was 9 and envisions a future as a Baptist minister, is an unmarried father of two sons who live with their mother, Tatyana McCall, in Orlando, Fla.

He is not unfamiliar with violence.

He owns a stack of T-shirts bearing the likeness of best friend and former Miami teammate Marlin Barnes, who was slain in 1996, and wears one each day on the field.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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