O.J. Found Guilty

Thirteen years to the day after being found not guilty in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, O.J. Simpson was found guilty on all counts in a Las Vegas court. He is set to be sentenced in early December.

Simpson was found guilty on several counts, including kidnapping, armed robbery, and a host of other charges. He was accused of robbing a couple of sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel-casino. Since Simpson is just over 60 years old, it is possible that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Co-defendant Clarence Stewart, also known as C.J., was also found guilty of all the charges against him. The Associated Press report said Simpson's sister collapsed after the verdict and had to be tended to by paramedics. Neither Simpson nor Stewart was granted a request to be released on bail, and both men were immediately taken into custody.

Judge Jackie Glass also denied a defense request for extra time to request a new trial. Simpson's defense was centered around the argument that he was merely trying to regain possession of personal items that were stolen from him. The AP report notes that the prosecution maintained that a crime was committed when Simpson tried to reclaim the items by force, whether he owned them or not.

Simpson's conviction could mean anywhere from 5 years to life for the kidnapping charge, and anywhere from 2 years to 30 years for the armed robbery charge. Four other men involved in the case agreed to plea bargain deals, according to the AP. Personally, I found this part of the AP story amusing: "One...was an alleged pimp who testified he had a revelation from God telling him to take a plea bargain."

One of the victims, Thomas Riccio, received more than $200,000 for his secret recordings of the events that transpired in the hotel room, the AP report says. The AP also stated that another victim, Alfred Beardsley, solicited news organizations and that Bruce Fromong, another victim, "...spoke of getting 'big money' from the case."

Arguably one the best lines came from Simpson defense attorney Yale Galanter, who said, according to the AP story, "...being stupid, and being frustrated is not being a criminal." I always love it when an attorney calls his client stupid.

In the end, though, the jury thought that Simpson was not only stupid, but that he was a criminal as well.