[CruzIzabella]

CNN

O.J. Simpson guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping



From Paul Vercammen
CNN Senior Producer

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Former gridiron great O.J. Simpson was found guilty Friday of all 12 counts in the armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas, Nevada, casino hotel last year.

Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart, 54, were charged with a dozen offenses stemming from the sports memorabilia heist. Stewart was found guilty of the same charges as Simpson.

Simpson sat quietly and showed little emotion at the defense table as courtroom clerk Sandra Jeter read the verdicts.

After the verdicts were read, deputies immediately handcuffed Simpson and led him out of the courtroom. Watch O.J. Simpson verdict being read »
According to the Associated Press, Carmelita Durio, Simpson's sister, sobbed as he was being escorted out of the courtroom. As spectators left the courtroom, Durio collapsed and paramedics were called, court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said.

Simpson and Stewart could spend the rest of their lives in prison for these convictions. Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass set sentencing for December 5. Watch O.J. Simpson being removed from court »

Simpson arrived at the Clark County Justice Center at around 10:50 p.m. (1:50 a.m. Saturday ET). Simpson told CNN's Ted Rowlands on the phone before the verdict was read that he was "apprehensive."

The jury of nine men and three women, none of them African-American, reached its verdict after 13 hours of deliberations Friday. Jurors heard from 22 witnesses over 12 days of testimony. Chief among the witnesses were seven of the nine people inside Room 1203 of the Palace Station Hotel and Casino for the September 13, 2007, confrontation.

The evidence included testimony from the two dealers, four co-defendants who cut plea deals and cooperated with prosecutors, and hours of often-profane, crackling, secretly recorded audiotapes.

Prosecutors alleged that the men, led by Simpson, burst into the room, flashed a gun and threatened memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley.

The men then filled two pillowcases with Simpson trinkets, signed Pete Rose baseballs and Joe Montana lithographs. Simpson's defense attorneys maintained their client was merely trying to retrieve personal photographs and other mementos that belonged to him.

Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified during the trial. Instead, their attorneys savaged the motives of the other witnesses.

Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, said Simpson was a target of investigators from the very beginning. The case "has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement," he added.

"Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney's office is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson," Galanter said.

Stewart was characterized by his lawyer, E. Brent Bryson, as the trial's forgotten player.

The most compelling evidence for all sides came from the audiotapes.
For the prosecution, conversations taped by collectibles middleman Thomas Riccio took jurors from the poolside planning to the profanity-laced hotel room confrontation.

Riccio, a chatty sports memorabilia dealer and convicted felon, made the rounds on network news shows immediately after the hotel room fracas. He admitted on the stand that various media outlets paid him $210,000.

The crucial evidence for the defense came from two audiotapes, a voicemail from a key prosecution witness who seemed willing to tailor his testimony for a price and tapes of Las Vegas police officers laughing and joking about Simpson's Los Angeles acquittal following his arrest.

Galanter told jurors the surreptitious recording captured police investigators in the hotel room after the confrontation. "They're making jokes. They're saying things like, 'We're gonna get him,"' he said.

Police were called to the hotel around 8 p.m. on September 13, 2007. Shortly after midnight, detectives visited Simpson at his hotel. He told them he was just trying to recover property that had been stolen from him.

"Why are they not in trouble?" Simpson asked about memorabilia dealers Beardsley and Fromong, according to police reports filed in the case. Both men testified for the prosecution, although Beardsley said Simpson did nothing wrong and was "set up" by the "rat Riccio."

Riccio, who was not charged in the case, testified that he didn't think twice about recording Simpson when asked for help retrieving what Simpson claimed was his property.

All four of the former co-defendants testified for the prosecution. Two of them tied Simpson to guns and threats.

Michael McClinton testified that Simpson instructed him to bring a gun and "look menacing" before they entered the hotel room.

Simpson has told police he had no idea the people with him were armed.
The testimony was laced with innuendo about unsavory activities by several of the witnesses, many with criminal records. Riccio and Beardsley feuded openly, calling each other names and questioning each other's sanity.

Aware that loose cannons on the stand could blow the case into mistrial purgatory, Glass refused to let David Cook testify. Cook, an attorney for the family of Ronald Lyle Goldman, searches for Simpson assets to satisfy the $33.5 million civil judgment against the former NFL star.

Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Goldman in a trial that ended 13 years to the day before the Las Vegas jury began its deliberations.

Regarding Glass' ruling, Cook told CNN: "If you read between the lines, I think she thought my appearance would bring up the Ghost of Christmas Past."

The case featured 19 male witnesses and just three cameo appearances from women. Swagger and testosterone ran rampant with hard stares from the witness stand.

As testimony neared its end, Glass, a former television news reporter, vented her frustration with the quibbling lawyers.

"I'm trying to get this trial back on track," she snapped. "I am surprised you haven't seen my head spin and fire come out of my mouth at this point in this trial."


© 2008 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[mplawssix]

I am the only one that finds this funny.
What a J.Ass!
Would have thought he would keep a low profile, but no, attention seeking was his game!!

[kKFB1BxX]

People in his kind of position can easily get a distorted sense of reality.

[provigil]

"I didn't know the guys with me had guns".


Mmm-hmm. I also bet you thought they were selling girl scout cookies?

While I agree with OJ that these guys did not deserve his stuff if they "stole" it, I would like to know what he defines as "stealing".


I also never know that his name was "Pete Rose" or that he played baseball...

I am glad he got all his lithographs back!

[inmeirulez]

Dear OJ,

As you go to prison, remember that it hurts less if you don't clench.

[shemadagaswer]

Dear OJ,

As you go to prison, remember that it hurts less if you don't clench.

.........

As my nearly 3 years of being a member of this great webforum, this has to be, the FUNNIEST comment I have ever read on WNY.

As for O.J. this guy literally got away with murder, and now he might spend life in prison for stealing some old football cleets and his college jersey? There is a God.

[AdipexAdipex]

The irony being, he couldn't afford high-class thugs because of the successful civil suit by his "alleged" victims relatives.

So, he was there in person with two guys that couldn't keep a story strait and he got hung for it.

[Lunims]

While I agree with OJ that these guys did not deserve his stuff if they "stole" it, I would like to know what he defines as "stealing".

The impression I got was that OJ had the stuff in storage and he quit paying rental on the storage, so it was sold off.

[sadgpokx]

yeah, that is a shame. So, how about those Jets?

[Sx1qBli0]

Just look at this way Juice you don't have to worry about the stock market like us free people

You just have to worry about getting cornered at getting your just due

No sympathy for you juice

[bomondus]

38 minutes ago -Judge Glass sentenced OJ to 16 years in prison for the kidnapping and robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...-opinions.html

[wepoiyub]

Emotional plea from Simpson, but to no avail.

[brandiweb]

Wonder if he'll figure out how to make a shiv when he gets inside?

It sounds like Simpson knows the smart thing to do is to make some friends ...

Simpson will spend his first three weeks in an 8-by-10 cell at High Desert State Prison, an all-male medium-security facility about 40 minutes from Las Vegas. While in county jail, his attorneys said, Simpson bought other inmates snacks from the commissary.
Hope he likes wide open spaces ...



This should make him feel welcome:

The institution opened September 1, 2000 and became the reception unit for Southern Nevada.

[Jerwittdergut]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ99V9G-G0c

[12ZHeWZa]

In other words, he went from sugar to crap, from ice cream to cow maneuer, and from smelling like a rose to smelling like a skunk!

He'll have plenty of time to think about all those things where he's going. Just couldn't keep his hands out of the cookie jar!

[teentodiefows]

His big mistake here was not paying for the cookie jar rental. I remember people saying a few years ago the he was running out of $.

[Les Allen]

I've also heard rumors to that effect.

Supposedly, both himself and Michael Jackson.

And while Michael Jackson seems to have changed his image and not make himself look so obviously suspicious about being around small children like he used to, Simpson just kept on defying the law! He thought that he was invinsible!

It's just amazing how the other supposed "killers" were never found!! Maybe they are out in the vast valley near the prison that will be his permanent home.

Maybe the prison guards will let him go out in the valley to look for the killers every now and then. Some might say that he was never humbled. Well, that day in court, he WAS humbled to his lowest of all lows, thinking that maybe he could give it one more try and make the judge feel sorry for him. It didn't work.

For almost thirteen years, I believed he was innocent. But when he never found the supposedly 'REAL KILLERS', I knew that he was just full of it!!

Then there was a report saying that he reverted back to his old ways, battering his then new girlfriend and then threatening and scaring the children. I wonder what they think of him now. In prison, he'll have no shoulder to cry on. No one that he can try to prove his supposed innocense to.

The high living that he's enjoyed for so many years has been reduced to ordinary living. But at least he'll have a permanent job making license plates. Haha!!