By: Las Vegas Now Staff
O.J. Simpson's fate was in the hands of a jury that began deliberating Friday whether the former football star and a co-defendant robbed two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a casino hotel room.
Simpson, 61, and a golfing buddy, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, 54, each face five years to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping, or mandatory prison time if convicted of armed robbery. They've pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including conspiracy, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon.
Simpson Case History - Stories, WEB EXTRA Videos, and more
Slideshow: O.J. Simpson Trail Courtroom Players
The jury was expected to deliberate through the day, and decide Friday afternoon whether to return on Saturday or take the weekend off, court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. Deliberations began 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles.
The Clark County jury of nine women and three men heard 12 days of testimony, capped by prosecutors' arguments Thursday that the Las Vegas case had its roots in the 1994 slayings. Prosecutor Chris Owens said Simpson planned — and Stewart helped carry out — a plot to retrieve personal items that Simpson lost after squirreling them away to avoid turning them over to Goldman's family to satisfy part of a $33.5 million civil wrongful death judgment levied in 1997 by a California court.
District Attorney David Roger Simpson called Simpson the leader of a conspiracy, and said none of the men with him cared about the memorabilia he was after. “He is the person who put these crimes together,” Roger said of Simpson. “He is the one who recruited these individuals to help him commit the crimes.”
Four men who accompanied Simpson, Stewart and a middle man to the Palace Station casino hotel for the Sept. 13, 2007 confrontation later pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Thomas Riccio, the man who arranged and recorded the meeting, testified under immunity from prosecution.
Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, told the jury the prosecution didn't prove Simpson was guilty in the criminal case that he said “has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement.”
“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's lawyer, Brent Bryson, presented Stewart as the trial's forgotten man. “I want to take an opportunity to introduce you to the other defendant in this case, Mr. Clarence Stewart,” Bryson said in closing arguments.
Since Sept. 15, the jury heard 22 often colorful witnesses — including seven of the nine people who were in the cramped hotel room. They've listened to numerous replays of secret recordings made before, during and after the alleged robbery.
Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified, and jurors were instructed not to consider that when judging the case. Two former co-defendants who said they brought guns did testify. Judge Jackie Glass kept a tight rein on the proceedings and rejected several mistrial motions. She read 41 legal instructions to the jurors and six alternates before lawyers began closing arguments.
Galanter told the jury that the incident got out of hand because of former co-defendant Michael McClinton, who admitted displaying a gun during the confrontation. “For whatever reason, Michael McClinton takes over,” Galanter said, “and when McClinton takes over, he starts yelling and screaming and giving people orders and telling people to bag stuff up. And O.J.'s saying, 'Don't take anything that's not mine.”'
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
 |
