OJ Simpson is facing life behind bars after being found guilty yesterday of robbery and kidnapping.
Simpson,who was infamously cleared of the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in the sensational 1995 ‘Trial of the Century’, looked stunned and shook his head as the verdict was read out.
His daughter sobbed and his sister fainted as the 61-year-old Naked Gun star was immediately handcuffed and led off to prison.
The jury in Las Vegas convicted Simpson on 12 counts of kidnapping and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint at the Palace Station hotel and casino last September.
It was exactly 13 years after a predominantly black jury acquitted him on the murder charges.
The Las Vegas jury had deliberated for 13 hours and Simpson’s lawyer Yale Galanter said: ‘Thirteen hours of deliberations, 13 years to the day since the last verdict. It’s eerie. Either it is a coincidence or someone is sending a very powerful message. OJ is extremely upset and extremely emotional.’
Simpson’s sister Carmelita Durio was treated by paramedics in the courtroom after her collapse. His eldest daughter Arnelle wept openly and later left the courtroom through a side door, refusing to talk to reporters.
His lawyer immediately announced he would appeal. He said: ‘I don’t like to use the word payback but I can tell you that from the beginning my biggest concern was whether or not the jury would be able to separate their very strong feelings about Mr Simpson and judge him fairly and honestly.’
Prosecutors told how Simpson and five associates stormed into a hotel room brandishing guns and took thousands of dollars worth of memorabilia from two sports collectors.
Simpson and co-defendant Clarence ‘CJ’ Stewart, 54, a golf partner, claimed they were trying to reclaim personal items, including autographed footballs and sentimental photographs, that had been ‘stolen’ from Simpson.
But four of the men with Simpson in the hotel room testified against him in exchange for reduced sentences.
Neither Simpson nor Stewart gave evidence during the three-week trial.
Simpson was sensationally cleared of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife and Mr Goldman but later lost a wrongful-death civil action and was ordered to pay £19million to the Goldman and Brown families.
Mr Goldman’s sister Kim recently told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We still haven’t got a penny.’
She added that her family would be pleased if OJ were to be found guilty in Las Vegas.
She said: ‘It would be nice to get some small measure of justice after all these years.
Nothing will bring my brother back but just knowing OJ is behind bars would give my family some semblance of closure.’
Simpson’s best friend, Thomas Scotto, said last night: ‘He was expecting to be convicted of something but this was a big shock. On the car ride to hear the verdicts OJ told me he was worried. Then he called his kids to say “I love you”. I don’t think anyone is prepared to go to jail on the spot. He’s in shock, we all are.’
Mr Galanter said the fact that there were no black people on the jury would be the basis for an appeal. Simpson is due to be sentenced on December 5.
He faces 15 years to life on two counts of first-degree kidnapping as well as a minimum of at least another ten years in prison on the other charges, which include armed robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary and coercion with a deadly weapon.
Yesterday’s verdict made headlines across America but did not attract the outrage of the 1995 verdict.
And unlike the first trial, where jurors posed for the cameras afterwards and several went on to write books about the case, the jurors in the Vegas case left the courtroom refusing to speak to the Press.
Simpson moved to Miami after his murder acquittal because Florida law protected his pension and home from being seized by the Goldman family. He wrote a controversial book called #If I Did It in 2006, setting out how he might have murdered his wife. The book was withdrawn by HarperCollins shortly before publication after a public outcry.
In August last year a Florida bankruptcy court gave the rights to the book to the
Goldman family, who published it under the title I Did It: Confessions Of The Killer.
Kim Goldman said: ‘OJ is someone who thinks he is above the law. Well, perhaps he will realise he is not.’
for post links, Sara.
