- He was
the charismatic celebrity...
- I'm the Juice.
- Acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend.
- Not guilty of the crime of murder.
- But O.J. Simpson's luck ran out
after a bizarre robbery in a Las Vegas hotel.
- 911 emergency.
- And it was all caught on tape.
Now exclusive revelations from people close to O.J.
about that armed confrontation.
- It was definitely O.J. pulling the strings.
- They was screaming.
I had no idea they had guns.
- Was Simpson the target of retribution?
- I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody.
- The whole thing was just a setup, from A to Z.
- To the recordings of the police saying,
"If California can't do it, we'll get him."
- Or was O.J. the victim of his own arrogance?
- It was a matter of ego, basically.
- If you're here to become famous,
this is not the case for you.
- I want to be a witness to the truth.
- After nine years in prison, Simpson is free.
- O.J. has a target on him.
- He's now famous as the guy who got away with two murders.
- I'm Soledad O'Brien.
This is "Mysteries and Scandals:
The Crimes and Punishment of O.J. Simpson."
O.J. Simpson, NFL Hall of Famer, movie star,
and perhaps the most celebrated American
ever to be accused of murder.
Yet, after being acquitted of a double homicide in Los Angeles,
Simpson wound up in prison
for robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas.
What really happened during the bungled sting in Sin City?
Was the sentence in Las Vegas retribution
for the verdict in L.A.?
Did O.J.'s punishment fit his crime?
- Police have damaging evidence linking O.J. Simpson
to the murder of his ex-wife.
- Most people probably know the story.
After all, it had everything-- celebrity, scandal,
a violent double murder.
On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson,
O.J. Simpson's ex-wife
and mother of his two young children,
was found brutally stabbed to death,
along with her friend Ron Goldman.
O.J. was the prime suspect.
- Somebody like O.J. that was in movies,
somebody that was so well-known
and so famous, so popular,
to see them fall and be charged with such a heinous crime,
it really touched people.
- The case of O.J. Simpson polarized Americans
and captivated the world.
- We have someone who's a major, major star.
- When you say the word "actor" and O.J.,
you kind of smile a little bit.
- We have a violent case, and then we have the dynamics
and the theatrics of what was occurring in court.
I mean, you can't even write this type of stuff.
- You must acquit.
- When I took his case on as counsel,
we became friends because I would go in
every morning before court,
and I would give him an appraisal--
where we were, where I thought we were going.
O.J. was a national hero,
but that trial so took him down in reputation
and public attitude--
something that tainted him.
- It was the trial of the century
because O.J. Simpson was a national hero.
People loved O.J.
He had crossed racial barriers.
He was a great football player, a great actor.
They never said, "Oh, he was black."
- I'm the Juice... Whatever that is.
- Could you please stand and face the jury?
- We, the jury in the above entitled action,
find the defendant, Orenja--Orenthal James Simpson
not guilty of the crime of murder
in violation of penal code section 187--
- I think the state of California didn't prove the case
beyond a reasonable doubt.
- I think everything having to do with O.J. henceforth--
People don't talk about him necessarily being
a football star anymore or a movie star.
They talk about the murders in L.A.
- The country was divided about whether Simpson
was a famously wealthy and abusive man
who got away with murder
or an innocent target of a racist system.
- There were several issues that became pivotal in the trial
that also touched people deeply.
One was race...
- God bless the...
- And there was also domestic violence.
O.J. had beaten Nicole
and had been arrested for it.
- The verdict crystallized the division.
Many African-Americans celebrated,
while many white Americans were dumbfounded.
- I think that his cases started a lot of conversation
about race and its impact in our communities.
- You were either Team O.J., and you were African-American,
or you were Ron and Nicole, and you were white.
- One year after the criminal trial,
the families of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman
continued to seek justice
and filed separate wrongful-death lawsuits.
During the civil trial, a jury found Simpson liable.
He wouldn't serve any jail time,
but a judge ordered Simpson
to pay damages of more than $33 million.
- They took everything he had from him--
from the civil judgment, and he had a lot.
- Simpson's Brentwood home and luxury possessions
were liquidated to help pay down the civil judgment.
- The Goldmans were going to seize every asset he had.
- Simpson's former sports agent, Mike Gilbert,
claimed O.J. asked him to help move his personal property
and sports memorabilia into various storage units,
allegedly to hide them from authorities.
Simpson claimed Mike Gilbert later stole
and sold many of his belongings to memorabilia dealers.
However, Gilbert denied the accusations.
- That was very painful for O.J.
He'd lost things like his mother's picture
or the Heisman Trophy
or a football-- some things of that sort.
- There was nothing left for O.J. in Los Angeles...
so in 1999, Simpson relocated to South Florida
with his younger children with Nicole--
Justin and Sydney.
- Look what they've been through.
These kids have been through unthinkable circumstances.
- For Simpson, the move was strategic.
Florida state law forbids the seizure of a person's house
to pay a civil penalty.
Federal law also protected
Simpson's $300,000-a-year football pension.
- O.J--the main reason that he went to Florida
was because the Goldmans could not touch his money there.
- After he settled in Miami,
Simpson's natural charisma attracted new fans.
- O.J. has an adoration for the spotlight.
It really is his oxygen.
He can't live without the attention.
- O.J. loved Florida, because he could walk down the street,
and people weren't mean to him.
People didn't yell at him.
He blended in better in Florida.
- He has the touch.
He can walk into a room, and within five minutes,
all the girls in the room
are around O.J. with their drinks,
and they're all laughing and having a great time
and wondering, "Wow, he's not so bad."
- O.J. is a tremendously affable, amiable guy,
and I think normal people tend to like him.
- Simpson was still a celebrity,
but he was no longer surrounded
by accomplished athletes and business tycoons.
- When O.J. lived in California,
he lived a very glamorous lifestyle.
O.J.'s life in Florida was a lot of partying,
a lot of strip clubs.
- One of Simpson's new friends was Tom Scotto,
a Florida body shop owner.
- It was around 23 years ago.
O.J. was putting out his garbage,
so my brother stopped and talked to him,
invited him to dinner,
and as soon as we sat down, we just clicked immediately,
and we were best friends ever since.
- For seven years, O.J. lived in Florida,
collecting his football pension and staying out of the news,
but if he assumed his troubles with the law were over,
he was mistaken.
In 2007, Simpson got a call from someone with information
that would change his life.
- This guy just wouldn't let up, and O.J. finally gave in,
and, you know, the rest is history.
- Coming up...
what made O.J. Simpson gamble
on a scheme with drastic repercussions?
- Did I think that something crazy might happen?
Definitely a possibility.
- 12 years after being acquitted
for the brutal slaying of his ex-wife and her friend,
O.J. Simpson was still famous,
even though his reputation was shot.
Nevertheless, O.J. was enjoying life in Miami, Florida,
until a trip to Las Vegas changed everything.
- Not that I think O.J. goes looking for trouble,
but trouble comes looking for O.J.
- In August 2007,
Simpson got a phone call from Tom Riccio--
a collectibles broker who worked
with the former athlete in the past.
- O.J. wanted to get back in the spotlight,
wanted to do a autograph signing.
I ended up doing a signing with him,
and it went really well.
He gave me his personal phone number and said,
"If something else comes up, let me know."
- Tom Riccio kind of came out of the woodwork
and started to call O.J.,
that he has--he knows where all the stuff is.
- Riccio informed Simpson
that a couple of memorabilia dealers
had some of his property that went missing.
These were items his former agent, Mike Gilbert,
allegedly hid in storage units.
- Beardsley contacted me.
Al Beardsley was a O.J. fanatic
and wanted to make a living dealing O.J.'s stuff,
and Al Beardsley faxed me a list.
- Tom Riccio told O.J. that there was family pictures,
very personal belongings.
That's what O.J. was after, was those personal belongings.
- Simpson claimed those items had been stolen from him.
Riccio offered to help Simpson get them back.
- O.J. was both angered and excited that a lot of his stuff
he'd been looking for for many years was back in his grasp.
He wanted it back. He came up with the idea to tell them
that we had a rich O.J. fan that wanted to buy the stuff
and that he would go there and try to get it back himself.
- Riccio told Simpson that his possessions
were going to be in Las Vegas.
- O.J. said, "I'm gonna be out in Vegas anyway.
"I got a wedding of a good friend.
"So let's do it in Vegas.
That'd be perfect."
- That decision triggered a surprising chain of events.
But would Tom Riccio turn out to be the hero
or the villain in this wild caper?
On September 12, 2007,
Simpson checked into the Palms Casino Resort
to attend the wedding of his close friend Tom Scotto.
- Well, I flew 36 people to Vegas for a 4-day event.
Every night was big dinners and nightclubs.
- According to court documents,
on the afternoon of September 13th,
Simpson invited Tom Riccio
to join him for a poolside gathering.
Riccio secretly taped their conversation.
- He was hooping it up to everyone--
"Oh, this is Tom.
This is the guy that's helping me get my stuff back."
- They openly talked
about the plans to go and retrieve his stuff.
- They would go to this hotel room
where the guys were trying o sell this stuff,
and O.J. would walk in.
It would be a big surprise to them,
because they would be expecting a dealer
who was gonna buy all this stuff from them.
So it was basically a sting.
- O.J. was supposed to show up,
yell at the guys, take stuff, and leave.
- Riccio was taping him without telling him,
which is a pretty suspicious circumstance.
What is Riccio to get out of this?
- Riccio had a plan to make some money.
In exchange for helping Simpson get his possessions back,
Riccio asked O.J. to sign copies
of the book "If I Did It" --
a hypothetical account of how Simpson
could have committed the murders
of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
The book was going to be released that day,
September 13, 2007,
with profits now going to the Goldman family.
Riccio tape-recorded Simpson
to guarantee O.J. kept his side of the bargain.
- O.J. was gonna exclusively only sign 200 of those for me,
so I wanted it documented that he agreed to that.
- After the poolside meeting with Riccio,
Simpson recruited five men
to help retrieve his personal property,
including O.J.'s golfing buddy C.J. Stewart.
- O.J. Simpson has his own squad of male groupies.
A lot of guys followed this guy.
He had that control with a lot of people,
and it was amazing to me.
- Michael McClinton,
an acquaintance of Simpson's who lived in Las Vegas,
also offered to help O.J.
- Michael McClinton owned a security company
and had a open-carry permit,
which allowed him to carry his gun.
- O.J. talked about hiring security to be in the room,
and he did say,
"I have it covered. I have it covered."
- They thought that there could be
some physical violence.
McClinton said it would be good on his résumé
to have helped Mr. Simpson with security,
and so he would help him for nothing.
- Later that day, Tom Riccio met up
with the memorabilia dealer, Al Beardsley,
at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino.
Beardsley invited another dealer, Bruce Fromong,
who brought a stash of O.J. collectibles.
The three men went up to Riccio's hotel room
to prepare for the meeting with the prospective buyer,
which Riccio planned to secretly record.
- I just thought it'd be a good idea to have a tape.
Did I know exactly what was gonna happen? No.
Did I think that something crazy might happen?
Definitely a possibility.
- Riccio, without O.J.'s knowledge,
set up the digital recorder in the room.
- Riccio instructed Beardsley and Fromong
to spread their memorabilia on the bed
to create a display for his client.
The items included signed footballs, jerseys, and photos.
Bruce Fromong claimed he acquired
some of the collectibles
from Simpson's former agent, Mike Gilbert.
However, Gilbert testified
that Fromong stole O.J.'s belongings
from a storage unit,
a charge Fromong vigorously denied.
- Now, whether the property was stolen from Mr. Simpson,
whether he gave it away for other purposes
is always going to be in dispute,
but for whatever reason, these people had this property.
- At about 7:30 p.m., Simpson and his cohorts
arrived at the Palace Station Hotel,
where they met Riccio in the lobby.
- It was, I think, the classic definition
of a motley crew.
- All of the men went up in the elevator.
They had difficulty finding the room, 1203.
The surveillance video is just them walking around,
trying to figure out where this room was.
- It was just really, really hard for even me to find.
The hotel was a big, weird maze.
We were just wondering how this was gonna work.
- They finally find the room.
- Riccio slid the card key through the slot.
- And it's still unbelievable today.
It's just unbelievable how this thing got set up.
- O.J. Simpson wanted his possessions back,
but how far would he go?
Why did the situation get so out of hand,
and how would Simpson's notorious past
come back to haunt him?
- Former football star O.J. Simpson was on a mission.
He was determined to reclaim personal mementos
that Simpson insisted were stolen.
That quest landed O.J. center stage
in a standoff between two factions--
on one side, the memorabilia dealers
who profited from Simpson's fame,
and on the other, a group of pals
who golfed or partied with Simpson
and now were helping to retrieve his possessions
from a Las Vegas hotel room.
- It was a matter of ego, basically.
He wanted to prove that he was better
and he could get his stuff back.
- As far as collectibles broker Tom Riccio knew,
the plan was for O.J.
to surprise the memorabilia dealers
and retrieve his belongings.
- I didn't think it was a crazy plan. I really didn't.
Hey, you have a buyer and then showing up and say,
"This is my stuff."
- Simpson, his five-man posse, and Riccio entered room 1203,
where memorabilia dealers
Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley were waiting.
- I opened the door, and I walked in,
and I noticed Beardsley
and Fromong looking up at O.J.
with shock, with their eyes popping out.
- Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley were startled
when they discovered that O.J. was the client.
- O.J. barged in with everybody else,
and he's screaming.
- Mr. Simpson, walking in last,
sees Mr. Fromong, I think, for the first time in years
and is immediately upset about that.
"How dare you take my stuff? How could you do this to me?"
So I think it was a little bit of a surprise
to see Bruce Fromong.
- Fromong and Simpson were old friends.
In the past, Fromong arranged
autograph-signing sessions for O.J.
- The first minute or so, they were apologetic.
They were like, "I'm sorry."
- Fromong and Beardsley are like,
"O.J., why you mad at us, man? We love you, O.J."
That kind of thing.
- C.J. Stewart claims memorabilia dealer
Bruce Fromong started reaching under the mattress.
- I grabbed him by the arm.
I hold him back, and the other guy,
I didn't know if he had a weapon or not,
and I just pulled them both together up against a wall
and say, "Look, come on, guys, calm down."
- According to court documents, Fromong didn't have a weapon,
but two of O.J.'s cohorts did.
- O.J.'s got goons with him,
and the guns came out.
- And it deteriorated.
- McClinton testified that he also gave his friend,
Walter Alexander, a gun
and made it very apparent to the victims that they had guns
and were there to retrieve O.J.'s stuff.
- McClinton and Alexander-- they was screaming.
I had no idea they had guns.
It was a scary moment for me, so out of fear,
I tried to do the best to make sure no one get hurt.
- I saw McClinton's gun. I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."
And I'm putting my hands down, like, "Calm down."
- I can't believe this, what just taken place.
I'm upset.
At the same time, everyone was being recorded.
They had no knowledge.
- There was a lot of yelling and screaming and directions
to grab the property and bag the property up.
- The confrontation lasted six minutes.
Simpson and his men left with nearly 800 items.
- They took everything.
A surveillance video shows them just carrying all this stuff,
walking down the hallway.
- I had a bad taste in my mouth that day
after the incident went down.
- O.J. and his gang left,
and Fromong and Beardsley were like, "Tom, you set me up."
And I was like, "I didn't know they were gonna bring a gun."
And I was like, "Hey, I have O.J.'s number.
We can work this out."
- Al Beardsley picks up the phone, calls 911.
- Bruce went downstairs to the front desk.
Bruce says, "I was just robbed at gunpoint by O.J. Simpson.
I need police."
Bruce Fromong says the front desk laughed at him
and did not take it seriously.
- Actually, O.J. called me a few minutes later,
and I go, "They're calling the police."
And he goes, "Tom, the main thing you need to remember
is there were no guns."
- That evening Simpson and his associates
dined at a restaurant.
Michael McClinton
secretly recorded their conversations.
Walter Alexander later testified
the recordings were to protect McClinton and himself
in case Simpson blamed them for bringing guns.
- Mr. Simpson says, "I never saw a gun,"
and asked the other gentlemen in the room,
"Did anybody have a gun?"
And at that time, everybody on those tapes said no.
- Back at the Palace Station,
the police arrived at room 1203.
- This was a crime scene.
Tom Riccio told me, "My recorder was in there.
I knew I had to get it."
- Even when the police arrived, I think up to three hours later,
it was still recording,
and those were the recordings of the police
making derogatory comments about Mr. Simpson,
saying, "If California can't do it, we'll get him."
- There was fingerprint powder all over the ceilings,
everywhere.
I had a little digital recorder up on the armoire.
I'm like, "Man, the cops--they got it."
And the guy goes, "Get your stuff and get out."
He turns for less than 30 seconds.
I reach up.
I had the recorder in my pocket,
and I'm like, "Cha-ching."
I had it.
- The following day,
Las Vegas Police questioned O.J.
in his hotel room.
He was not taken into custody.
- Given Mr. Simpson's previous history,
I think that maybe the police wanted to make sure
that they had all of their ducks lined up in a row
prior to arresting him.
I think they probably wanted to make sure
that they had it right.
- Two days after the heist,
Simpson attended the wedding of his friend Tom Scotto,
who knew about O.J.'s bungled sting operation.
- He stood up as my best man and just enjoyed himself,
Wasn't worried, wasn't scared.
- But police began arresting O.J.'s associates.
- The victims in this also knew
who had robbed them-- O.J. Simpson.
So tracking down his accomplices
was not that difficult for police.
- Detectives apprehended Simpson's associate
Walter Alexander
at the Las Vegas airport.
- And they're taking him downtown,
and he started calling names and addresses.
- According to the police report,
detectives obtained a search warrant
for the home of alleged accomplice Michael McClinton.
Authorities found two guns that matched the description
of the ones reportedly used during the heist.
- O.J.'s plan actually would have worked
if he didn't have the guys with guns.
You'd never hear of this if he'd have stuck to his plan.
- On September 16, 2007,
three days after the confrontation
in the hotel room,
Simpson once again dominated the headlines.
- I called O.J., and I said, "O.J., what is this?
"What's with an armed robbery?
You're involved in an armed robbery?"
He said, "No, no, I'm not."
And while I was talking to him,
there was a knock on his hotel-room door,
and the police came to arrest him.
- According to the police report,
during the ride to the station, O.J. was chatty and amicable.
Simpson told detectives he didn't commit a crime.
He just wanted his stuff back.
Later, O.J. confided to a friend that he wasn't too worried.
Big mistake.
- It was like a freight train coming at O.J.
- On September 19, 2007,
O.J. Simpson was arraigned in a Las Vegas courtroom,
charged with 12 felony counts,
including armed robbery and kidnapping.
- The former football star
pleaded not guilty on charges of...
- It was like a freight train coming at O.J.
It didn't matter if O.J. had tickets proving
that he was in Paris when this happened.
He was going down.
- After Simpson's arrest,
Tom Riccio tried to sell his audio recordings
of the botched heist to a celebrity gossip Website.
- At that point, we decided, "You know what?
Let's release the tape and see what we can get for it."
- Tom Riccio calls TMZ and says,
"I have the tapes
from the O.J. Simpson robbery in Las Vegas."
- I wanted $2 million.
TMZ says, "No, I'm giving you 150,000."
I decided to take the $150,000.
- I think Riccio set it up to make money by making a tape
and selling it, which he certainly did.
- Riccio pocketed the money,
and now the entire world heard what happened
in that Las Vegas hotel room.
- I'm sure that more than one person had a bright idea
of how to make a buck from O.J.'s situation,
and Thomas Riccio's the one who did it.
- A year later Simpson faced a judge and jury.
It was not going to be another trial of the century,
but the potential consequences for Simpson were severe.
- When you take a look at the people that were involved
in this crime,
it's a band of misfits with colorful pasts,
so it's easy to look at this robbery
and kind of scoff or laugh,
but this was an extremely serious crime.
- They charged everything that they could think of
in this case.
- Mr. Simpson was charged
with conspiracy to commit a crime,
conspiracy to commit kidnapping,
conspiracy to commit robbery,
robbery with a deadly weapon for both victims,
kidnapping with a deadly weapon for both victims,
and then coercion with a deadly weapon for both victims.
In the state of Nevada, you cannot use force
to recover any property.
When you use force to recover property, it's a robbery.
- And this matter is the state of Nevada vs. Simpson.
- On September 8, 2008,
Nevada District Court Judge Jackie Glass
presided over the case against O.J. Simpson.
- If you're here to become famous
because of your participation in this case and write a book,
quite honestly, folks, this is not the case for you.
- From the moment of his arrest
to the cops...
the judge, the prosecutor, the jury,
it was all about the Los Angeles case,
every second of it.
It was difficult to find jurors
who didn't already have their minds made up about O.J.
- Your decision in this case should be based upon
all of the evidence presented during the trial
and not based
on any preconceived prejudice or bias.
Anybody know of Mr. Simpson?
Raise your hands. Come on, raise those hands.
- It was all, you know, "Let's get O.J."
- Four of Simpson's accomplices accepted plea deals
in exchange for their testimony against him.
- Not only were charges dropped, they were given immunity
to say whatever they wanted to say during the trial.
- There was one target in this case.
It was O.J. Simpson.
- Clarence "C.J." Stewart remained loyal to O.J.
and was the only accomplice who refused to testify against him.
Stewart faced six felony counts
and was tried alongside Simpson.
- I say I'm trying to stand up for what's right,
do what's right.
I refused to lie on Mr. Simpson.
- Tom Riccio, who helped O.J. plan
the bungled sting operation,
was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.
- I refused to be a witness for the defense.
I refused to be a witness for the prosecution.
I want to be a witness to the truth.
- Riccio testified that Simpson was in charge of the operation,
and the prosecution submitted Riccio's audio recordings
as evidence.
- It's hours and hours of tapes
before, during, and hours after the robbery.
- The tapes revealed that he demanded
no one to leave the room.
That right then and there,
we have a kidnapping or a coercion.
I think clearly there were directions
being given by Mr. Simpson.
He was the ringleader of this whole operation.
- I mean, it was definitely O.J. pulling the strings.
- No one could deny that O.J. was saying to people,
"Don't anybody leave the room."
It pretty much proved the kidnapping.
- Memorabilia dealer Al Beardsley
surprised the court by empathizing
with the man he accused of armed robbery.
- Beardsley went on the stand and said, you know,
"O.J. should not be in trouble for this."
- Simpson was what? - He was emotional.
He was under-- I had no problem with him.
- While Al Beardsley was testifying,
he straight-up blatantly called Tom Riccio a rat.
- And Riccio was the rat
and the mastermind behind the whole thing.
- So was Riccio the rat or the good guy?
- Well, if having the tape makes me a rat,
well, then I'm a rat.
Who's the guy that called the police?
- Simpson's accomplices,
Michael McClinton and Walter Alexander,
also took the stand
and supported the prosecution's case
that the sting operation turned into an armed robbery.
- Mr. McClinton testified that Mr. Simpson said,
"Hey, can you come along and look menacing?"
as well as asking him to display his weapon.
Mr. Alexander also testified about conversations
he had with Mr. Simpson about needing security
and whether to bring a weapon or not.
- Asked me if we could watch his back.
Then he leaned forward, and it was like,
"Hey, do you think you can get some heat?"
- O.J. has always told me,
"They didn't tell me they had guns.
I didn't know they had guns."
- There's no mention of guns on the audio recordings
made before or during the robbery,
but don't forget accomplice Michael McClinton
also secretly recorded conversations at a restaurant
after the heist.
The prosecution claims Simpson could be heard
asking McClinton,
"You didn't pull the piece out in the hall?"
- Michael McClinton's tapes were more damning to O.J.
than even the Tom Riccio one.
There was a day during the trial
where people were dissecting what "piece" meant.
- It's very damning, because "piece,"
in the criminal world...
Almost always means a handgun of some kind.
- McClinton and Alexander were important
for showing that Mr. Simpson was the one who was in charge,
who set this up, who asked that the guns be brought.
- The trial lasted a month.
O.J. did not testify.
During closing arguments, the prosecution claimed
Simpson conspired to commit armed robbery and kidnapping.
The defense argued Simpson was a victim of his accomplices,
who had ulterior motives.
Simpson's attorneys also claimed he was targeted by police
who were out to settle the score
for the verdict in his murder trial.
As judgment day neared,
would O.J.'s luck finally run out?
For some, would justice finally be served?
- On October 4, 2008,
13 years to the day after a Los Angeles jury
cleared O.J. Simpson of a double murder,
a jury in Las Vegas reached a unanimous decision
that would change O.J.'s fate.
- 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...
- The minute I heard the first "guilty,"
I knew that was the end.
- Kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, guilty...
- I think the testimony of Riccio and the tapes itself
is really what convicted Mr. Simpson of those crimes.
- Guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, count 11.
- The jurors did say they didn't trust
none of the codefendants, but they trust those tapes.
- I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody,
and I didn't know I was doing anything illegal.
I thought I was confronting friends
and retrieving my property.
- O.J.'s plea to Judge Jackie Glass
fell on deaf ears.
- And I said to Mr. Simpson I didn't know if he was arrogant
or ignorant or both,
and during the trial, I got the answer...
and it was both.
I'm gonna sentence you as follows--
count one, conspiracy to commit a crime,
one year in the county jail,
count two, conspiracy to commit kidnapping,
a minimum term of 12 months, max term of 48 months in the...
- So Judge Glass sentenced Mr. Simpson to 9 to 33 years
for a case that anybody else who committed the same crime
would have gotten probation on that
if it was a first-time offense,
and I just thought it was a miscarriage of justice.
- Can you imagine going to prison
for stealing your own stuff?
- The irony in the end
was that there was a hearing in Los Angeles
over the possession of all the pieces of memorabilia,
and a judge ruled that they all belonged to O.J. Simpson.
- So did O.J. get what he deserved,
or was this a raw deal?
- The verdict in Las Vegas came down 13 years to the day
O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders in L.A.
People believe that Judge Jackie Glass
was punishing O.J. Simpson for the murders in L.A.
- It was unlucky for him, and he was in Vegas,
where numbers make the difference.
- This was not about retribution.
When you bring guns into a crowded hotel room,
who knows what could have happened?
The level of violence that could have occurred,
the gun could have gone off.
- There's no real conspiracy here or anything.
O.J. wanted his stuff back,
and it turned into an armed robbery.
That's all there is to it.
- I got caught up with one of the...
most hated guys in America.
- C.J. Stewart, the only codefendant
who didn't accept a plea deal,
was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 27 years.
- I was angry with myself.
I felt stupid.
- C.J. Stewart is the last guy that should have gone to jail.
Did the least, was probably one of the best guys there,
loyal to Simpson, and refused to turn on him.
- The Nevada Supreme Court agreed that Clarence Stewart
was suffering in prison
because he was attached to O.J. Simpson...
so Clarence Stewart was released
after just a few years.
- I was a forgotten man.
I didn't want to be the guy
that went to prison with Simpson
'cause I wouldn't take a deal.
- The Nevada Supreme Court rejected Simpson's request
for a new trial.
On December 19, 2008,
O.J. began serving his sentence
at Lovelock Correctional Center.
- I mean, this guy's used to being active,
playing golf every day.
Now he's cooped up in a small room.
So it really took a toll on him.
- He had been O.J. Simpson, the Juice, the greatest,
and now he was just another prisoner
with shackles on him.
- In July 2013, Simpson was granted parole
for good behavior on 5 of 12 convictions.
This meant Simpson was eligible for release.
On July 20, 2017, after nearly nine years in prison,
Simpson faced a parole board once again.
Coming up...
what's in store for O.J. Simpson?
- Maybe I am a little nervous
that he's gonna come and chop my head off.
- O.J. Simpson, inmate number 1027820,
served almost nine years for armed robbery, kidnapping,
and other felony charges.
On July 20, 2017,
Simpson faced the Board of Parole Commissioners
in Nevada.
It was a media circus,
as reporters from around the world
descended on the tiny town of Lovelock
to see if one of America's most infamous prisoners
would be set free.
- I've done my time.
You know, I've done it as well
and as respectfully as I think anybody can.
- We just want him to come home,
and I know in my heart
that he is very humbled...
in this situation.
- One of the victims in the case, Bruce Fromong,
made an extraordinary statement in support of O.J.
- And if he called me tomorrow and said,
"Bruce, I'm getting out. Will you pick me up?"
Juice, I'll be here tomorrow.
- I believe for the parole board
to hear from the victim
in this crime really played to O.J.'s favor.
- The members decided that his record in prison was impeccable
and they had no reason to keep him in.
- The four-member parole board
reached a unanimous decision.
- Mr. Simpson, I do vote to grant parole.
- Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
- If he would have stood up and pulled his pants down,
that parole board was gonna let him go,
and the reason they were gonna let him go
is 'cause even they knew his sentence was outrageous.
- On October 1, 2017,
70-year-old O.J. Simpson
walked out of prison after nine years behind bars.
- While he is being released from prison,
he's still on parole,
and any violation of parole
can send him right back up to prison.
- O.J. has a target on him.
There's gonna be so much extra scrutiny.
- I'd be pissed if I sat in prison
for nine years for something like this,
so maybe I am a little nervous
that he's gonna come and chop my head off.
- The whole O.J. story
has been just an incredible tragedy from beginning to end--
a tragedy for the people that were killed,
a tragedy for the Goldman family
and the Brown family.
- So what will the fallen hero do with the rest of his life?
Simpson suffers from some health ailments,
and he still owes tens of millions of dollars
from the civil lawsuit.
Can O.J. find some redemption?
- The camera is no longer his best friend.
You know, he may have to weigh whether it's better for him
to live a quiet life
or whether he won't be able to resist it
and will want to get back in the game.
- His fame has endured, but instead of being famous
for having broken the 2,000-yard rushing mark,
he's now famous as the guy who got away with two murders.
- O.J.--he likes playing king...
and he's not gonna change.
- No one in pop culture has experienced
a more profound fall from grace than O.J. Simpson,
from football hero and Hollywood celebrity
to disgraced ex-convict.
So what happens next?
Will O.J. stay out of the spotlight he loves so much,
or will he always be the face of infamy?
For more on "Mysteries and Scandals,"
go to oxygen.com.