Washington
04 October 2008
A jury in the western U.S. state of Nevada has found former American football star O.J. Simpson guilty on charges of robbery and kidnapping. The verdict comes 13 years after he was acquitted for the murder of his former-wife and her friend. VOA's Gabe Joselow reports from Washington.
O.J. Simpson showed no emotion as a clerk for the Clark County District Court in Las Vegas read the verdict:
"We the jury in the above entitled case find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson as follows: count one, conspiracy to commit a crime, guilty; count two, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, guilty; count three, conspiracy to commit robbery, guilty; count four, burglary while in possession of deadly weapon, guilty..."
Simpson and a co-defendant, Clarence Steward, were convicted on all 12 counts against them, including armed robbery, kidnapping and conspiracy.
The charges stem from an incident in Las Vegas last year, when prosecutors say Simpson and a group of men stormed into the hotel room of two sports-collectibles dealers and demanded they return items related to Simpson's football career.
Prosecutors said Simpson told two of the men in his group to bring guns. Simpson denied that allegation, and said he was only trying to reclaim items that had been stolen from him.
Simpson, 61, could spend the rest of his life in prison. He is to be sentenced in early December.
The defense can still file an appeal, but Stan Goldman, a law professor at Loyola Law School in California, says it is unlikely to reverse the verdict.
"The prosecution didn't have the strongest case in terms of the credibility of its witnesses, but it certainly had enough to survive an appeal, I think," he said.
Friday's verdict came 13 years to the day after Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his former wife and her friend, a sensational case featuring a police chase on a Los Angeles highway, bloody gloves and excessive media attention.
He was later found responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in a civil trial, and he was forced to pay $33 million to the victims' estates.