LAS VEGAS – In a city where luck means everything, O.J. Simpson came out the big loser – and his unlucky number in a case full of bizarre twists was 13.
He was convicted of an armed robbery that happened on Sept. 13 and was found guilty on the 13th anniversary of his Los Angeles murder acquittal by a jury that deliberated for 13 hours after a 13-day trial.
Associated Press
O.J. Simpson is taken into custody after being found guilty on all 12 charges, including felony kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy.
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And then the lights went out.
In a courtroom where only the wracking sobs of Simpson's sister broke the silence late Friday night, darkness suddenly engulfed the participants and court marshals flipped on flashlights and shouted for everyone to stay seated.
Only the judge knew what had happened. It was 11 p.m. and the courthouse lights had shut down automatically.
“Timed out,” the judge said, a fitting epitaph for the story of O.J. Simpson that has long haunted America.
Seconds later, Simpson, the one-time sports idol turned celebrity pariah, was handcuffed and led from the room with his co-defendant, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart. It's possible they could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
It was a development hailed by Fred Goldman, the father of Ronald Goldman, who Simpson was cleared of murdering in 1995 along with his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson after a sensational yearlong trial.
“We're absolutely thrilled to see the potential that he could serve the rest of his life in jail where the scumbag belongs,” Fred Goldman told CNN on Saturday.
The 61-year-old Hall of Fame football star was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering five men a year ago and storming into a room at a hotel-casino, where the group seized several game balls, plaques and photos. Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one of them said Simpson asked him to bring a gun.
“There is justice,” said attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented the family of Nicole Brown Simpson. “Justice was delayed but in this case it was not denied. Now that he may spend the rest of his life in prison, the law, and not O.J. Simpson, will have the last word.”
Some disagreed and said the Las Vegas case paled in comparison to the famed “trial of the century” in 1995.
A rapt nation followed the Los Angeles trial. Tales of a gruesome murder, a bloody glove and celebrity defendant drew a media frenzy. In Las Vegas, Simpson's fate played out in a small courtroom dotted with empty seats. Even the stunning verdict came at time most of America was asleep, oblivious to the irony that Simpson might spend the rest of his life in prison for what most perceived was a petty crime, a tussle among dysfunctional middle-aged men.
Simpson's Las Vegas defense tried to tell the jury that the two cases had nothing to do with each other but it was a losing battle.
“I don't know that one trial cancels out the other,” said Loyola University Law Professor Laurie Levenson who attended Simpson's murder trial. “People will always be troubled by O.J. For the people troubled by the Los Angeles acquittal, this case will make small amends. Saying finally there is justice, at least from a legal perspective, is very crude way of looking at justice.”
She predicted that Stewart, 54, will have a strong chance for reversal on appeal because he was forced to stand trial beside Simpson.
“O.J. was toxic and he has been toxic since 1994 and this jury was just ready to clean up the mess,” Levenson said.
Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter said Saturday that he felt badly for Simpson but even worse for Stewart who got dragged along in the campaign to convict Simpson.
“This was just payback,” he said of the verdict. “They were on an agenda.”
Galanter and Stewart's lawyers promised to appeal, in part, because unlike the predominantly black jury that decided Simpson's murder case, this panel included no African-Americans. Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified.
Simpson's close friend, Tom Scotto, who wept in court, called it “a public lynching.”
“Was this something to put someone in jail for the rest of their life for? It's a total injustice. There was no justice served in that courtroom,” Scotto said.
It was Scotto's wedding that had brought Simpson to Las Vegas on that fateful week in 2007 and details of wedding plans, flowers, a cake and parties formed an ironic counterpoint to testimony about Simpson gathering up a posse that included two gun-toting men to confront memorabilia dealers who were peddling Simpson's personal property to the highest bidder.
The case was set in motion by Thomas Riccio, a collectibles broker who tried to bring in the FBI when he heard that two memorabilia dealers were planning to sell a trove of Simpson artifacts. Failing to get their attention, he helped set up a “sting” by promoting an anonymous buyer who turned out to be Simpson.
Riccio, who made money selling such things as Anna Nicole Smith's breast implant videos, saw a chance to profit by recording the confrontation between Simpson and collectibles dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.
He rented a cramped hotel room away from the Strip for the meeting and planted a digital recorder atop an armoire. Riccio then sold the recordings of the six-minute confrontation for $210,000 before turning them over to police eight days later. Although they couldn't be authenticated, the recordings became the heart of the prosecution case along with audio recorded by gunman Michael McClinton at two wedding parties.
The recordings were sometimes garbled, but Simpson's voice came through loud and clear: “Don't let nobody out of this room.” The words formed the basis of the prosecution's kidnapping charge.
The former football hero also was heard accusing the men of stealing his possessions. His lawyer would argue that Simpson was on a recovery mission to reclaim the artifacts of his life.
But District Attorney David Roger argued ownership was not a defense to robbery.
Kidnapping is punishable by five years to life in prison. Armed robbery carries a mandatory sentence of at least two years behind bars, and could bring as much as 30.
Simpson and Stewart were taken to the Clark County jail where they will remain until sentencing Dec. 5. They would then be sent to state prison.
Many of those in the courtroom couldn't believe the verdicts.
Simpson's sister, Carmelita Durio fainted. Scotto's sister, Sandra, wailed and Scotto's wife, Sabrina wept.
O.J. Simpson seemed resigned that his luck had run out.
He was prepared for the worst, his lawyer said. And in a conversation with an AP reporter on Thursday, Simpson implied as much, saying, “I'm afraid that I won't get to go to my kids' college graduations after I managed to get them through college.”
Associated Press Writer Ken Ritter contributed to this report.
