Simpson Hearing Enters Day 2
O.J. Simpson returned to a courtroom Friday for the second day of a hearing to decide if he should stand trial for allegedly storming a hotel room with five men and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint.
A justice of the peace is being asked to decide if Simpson, Clarence "C.J." Stewart and Charles Ehrlich should face 12 criminal charges in the Sept. 13 encounter, which came off during Thursday's testimony as a crime so ill planned that it almost became comical.
The former football star, wearing a dark suit and white shirt, entered through the courthouse's main entrance, avoiding most reporters and photographers.
During the hearing's second day, defense lawyers are expected to try to undercut the testimony of Tom Riccio, a California collectibles broker who said Thursday that he set up the meeting at which Simpson and the others, including two men with guns, burst into a hotel room and carried off hundreds of sports-related items Simpson said were his.
O.J. Simpson's Vegas Misadventure
Riccio recorded the hotel-room confrontation on a digital recorder. The audio, played for the judge Thursday, provided a dramatic backdrop to his tale, with people heard screaming profanities and threats at two memorabilia dealers.
Also played was a voicemail Simpson left for Riccio after the confrontation.
"Hey Tom. It's O.J. What are they talking about a gun? All I wanted was my stuff back again," Simpson says on the 35-second recording. Simpson gritted his teeth and laid his gold-framed reading glasses on the defense table as he listened to his words.
On the recording, Simpson refers to hundreds of items taken from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley on Sept. 13 as his "stolen stuff."
"Nobody had a gun, you know?" he says. "Ain't nobody had any guns. They're feeling guilty so they're trying to make up something."
Those calm words contrasted to the chaotic bellows, barked orders and curses heard during the six-minute recording of the confrontation in a room at the Palace Station Hotel Casino that ends with a single voice.
"We were just robbed at gunpoint, man," a man says toward the end of that recording. "We were just robbed at gunpoint by O.J. Simpson."
"The gun component is critical here because it would increase Simpson's prison time if he ultimately is convicted," says CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "That's why he's already claimed that he had no idea that guns would be used to as he put it 'get back his stuff.'"
Lawyers for Simpson, Stewart and Ehrlich lost a last-minute bid Thursday to get a judge to exclude the audio. They opened Friday's second day of the hearing by cross-examining Riccio, who sold a copy of the recording to a tabloid Web site before handing it over to police.
Prosecutors allege Simpson, Stewart, Ehrlich and three other men who have taken plea deals conspired to rob Beardsley and Fromong and then say no guns were used.
Photos: O.J. Busted In Vegas
"The hearing so far is not so much a dress rehearsal as it is a recited outline of what the trial is likely to look like from the prosecution's side of the fence," said Cohen. "Simpson and his lawyers are sitting, watching, listening and mostly staying silent as the DA puts on a streamlined case to establish probable cause that a crime was committed."
Former co-defendants Michael McClinton, Walter Alexander and Charles Cashmore are expected to testify that Simpson asked for guns to be brought along to show they were serious about taking the items.
Fromong and Riccio were the first of eight witnesses prosecutors say they expect to call before the hearing ends.
Simpson has maintained in interviews and through his lawyers that no guns were displayed, that he never asked anyone to bring guns and that he did not know anyone had guns.
Simpson, 60, and Stewart and Ehrlich, both 53, face armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges. A kidnapping conviction could result in a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery conviction could mean mandatory prison time.
Fromong testified Thursday he had expected to meet with an anonymous buyer on Sept. 13, when Simpson arrived with others "in a military invasion fashion."
During cross-examination by Simpson attorney Gabriel Grasso, Fromong acknowledged that at the same time the dealers were calling police to report they had been robbed, he and Beardsley also were calling a syndicated TV show to try to make money from the experience.
Fromong also acknowledged that he has gone to the online auction site eBay to peddle memorabilia items he has dubbed "Identical to the items O.J. stole from me!"
He waffled about whether he has been shopping a book deal about the experience, but confirmed he has discussed the idea. At one point, he joked that he'd like Jack Nicholson to play him if a movie is made.