Tag Archives: O.J. Simpson

Homicides on Display in Las Vegas

An exhibit covering a century of ultra high-profile homicides and crime cases in Los Angeles opens today, Wed., March 3, at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.  

The first-time display is part of the training for 800 detectives that are learning all the in’s and out’s of proper crimesmanship at the California Homicide Investigators Association 2010 Conference put on by the Los Angeles Police Department. 

The provactive items include evidence, photos and video from the murder trials of Charles Manson and O.J. Simpson (“if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit”) as well as steamy evidence associated with the death of Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Black Dahlia slaying and more. 

Daring attendees can even get their own crime mug shots. 

The exhibit will be open to the public today and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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O.J. Simpson gives it another whirl

On August 3 the Nevada Supreme Court panel will hear oral arguments on O.J. Simpson’s bid to get out of Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada, pending his appeal to overturn a conviction in an armed Palace Station hotel room heist in Las Vegas. 

A three-member panel of Nevada’s only appellate court will hear 30 minutes of arguments in Las Vegas from Simpson’s lawyers seeking his release on bond and prosecutors opposing the request.  Simpson will not be there. 

Simpson, 61, was convicted of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon in the gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in September 2007.  He is serving nine to 33 years in prison. 

His 55-year-old co-defendant, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, is serving 7 ½ to 27 years at Northern Nevada Correctional Center for his role in the case. 

The judge panel also scheduled a separate oral bond hearing for Stewart, who was seeking to also overturn his conviction. 

Las Vegas Backstage Access has written numerous articles chronicling Simpson’s case.

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O.J. Simpson Memorabilia Headed to Court, Online Auction Block

The footballs, jerseys and framed photographs that put O.J. Simpson in a Nevada prison are now in the hands of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and then likely headed for the auction block.

Today, a court hearing dealing with the items confiscated from Simpson is scheduled in Santa Monica, California.

The items will most likely be auctioned on the Internet shortly to help satisfy a $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment against Simpson in 1997. 

Simpson’s attempt to retrieve the items by leading a handful of cohorts in a bungled stickup of memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas resulted in his being sentenced last year on armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges. 

Simpson is serving 9 to 33 years but on Monday he asked the Nevada Supreme Court to let him out of prison while it decides whether to overturn his conviction.

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O.J. Simpsons ‘Buddy’ Clarence Stewart Files Legal Appeal

Just two days after O.J. Simpson’s legal team launched their appeal of his felony convictions, one of his co-conspirators, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, has filed his own appeal looking to overturn his Las Vegas conviction on kidnapping and armed robbery. ClarenceStewart

While former NFL great Simpson claimed prosecutorial misconduct, Stewart claims he was not given a fair trial due to “spillover prejudice” because he was not given a separate trial from Simpson. 

Stewart also claims that audio recordings should not have been allowed into evidence but after that, his request coat-tails off of Simpson’s complaint by alleging the same juror and prosecutorial misconduct. 

Clarence Stewart is currently serving 7 1/2 to 27 years in a Lovelock Prison in Nevada. 

The other four original defendants, Michael McClinton, Walter Alexander, Charles Cashmore and Charles Ehrlich, all pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for their testimony regarding Simpson’s September 2007 confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.  All four were given probation.

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O.J. Simpson Files Appeal

Yale Galanter and Malcolm LaVergne, lawyers for convicted felon O.J. Simpson, have filed papers with the Nevada Supreme Court claiming, according to the brief, “The District Court committed numerous reversible errors, including, inflicting itself into the trial proceedings, chastising the attorneys in the presence of the jury, making rulings from the bench that were not based in the law and wholly without any authority.” OJSimpsonJail

In October 2008, Simpson and Clarence C.J. Steward were convicted on armed robbery and kidnapping charges in District Judge Jackie Glass’ courtroom.  The charges stemmed from a Palace Station hotel room hold-up where Simpson and several others claimed they were retrieving possessions that had previously been stolen from Simpson. 

District Judge Glass sentenced Simpson to 9 to 33 years in prison; he has been serving his time at the Lovelock Correctional Center northeast of Reno. 

District Attorney David Roger prosectued the case wtih Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Owens.  Roger is confident the guilty verdict will stand.   “Judge Jackie Glass and the members of the jury did a great job with this trial during which the jurors saw Mr. Simpson for the criminal he is,” Roger said. 

Simpson’s legal team claims that Simpson was denied a fair trial because Judge Glass limited questioning of potential jurors regarding personal biases about Simpson’s acquittal on double-murder charges in 1995.  They also claim there were errors in jury instructions, prosecutorial misconduct and that the kidnapping and robbery convictions were redundant. 

It’s not unusual for guilty verdicts to find their way to the appeals process and rather routine to claim misconduct and jury errors.  And from the night the verdict was announced most court watchers have been looking for the Simpson appeal to surface.  It can take 12 months or more to complete the appeals review so for now we will wait for the next chapter in the fallen hero archives of O.J. Simpson.

(Previous Las Vegas Backstage Access articles on February 22 and April 8.)

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Kato who? Uh, is he the homeboy of O.J. Simpson?

O.J. Simpson is cooling his heels in the Big House at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Northern Nevada, eating savory “mystery meat” while serving his nine-to-thirty-three-year term for his memorabilia heist that went terribly wrong at Palace Station.  But his house guest back in 1994 when he was charged with killing his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, was Kato Kaelin. 

Kaelin, now 50, testified at the 1995 murder trial and his life has been inextricably linked to the former football star ever since. 

Kaelin’s transition from real life reality to acting has been seamless.  He has been a Screen Actors Guild card-carrying katokaelinmember for 22 years.  A year before the killings, he had tested, albeit unsuccessfully, for a part in the film “Dumb and Dumber.”  

After the trial Kaelin was launched into faux stardom, going on a speaking tour and appearing in several TV reality shows and films.   For the past five year he has worked for National Lampoon in Los Angeles developing film projects.

Coming full turn, Kaelin now graces the Planet Hollywood stage in Las Vegas as a wedding crasher in “Tony and Tina’s Wedding.”   His character plays Tony’s house guest for five years, sleeping, fittingly, on the couch.

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Jailbird O.J. Simpson: Busted, Not Broke & Suffering

Unless his planned legal appeals go through, O.J. Simpson, 67, faces the prospect of spending at least 15 years and up to 33 years in jail.  Simpson, as it stands now, will be eligible for parole in 2017.oj

Simpson and Clarence “C.J.” Stewart were found guilty on 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from their October 2008 case that involved a Palace Station hotel confrontation in Las Vegas over sports memorabilia. Simpson contended the items had been stolen from him.

Simpson, a frequent Las Vegas nightlife visitor before his trial, sat quietly and showed little emotion at the defense table as he listened to the verdicts being read.

Some say the ruling provided fitting justice and a degree of family payback for the verdict that came 13 years earlier to the day when a Los Angeles jury acquitted Simpson of double-murder, in what many called the trial of the century, for allegedly killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. 

After the murder trial, Simpson was  then dragged into civil court, where the burden of proof wasn’t as strict, and was found guilty of wrongful death.  Although he was ordered to pay the estates of his victims $33 million, he has only paid the Goldman family $500,000 – the proceeds of an auction of his coveted Heisman Trophy.

Life is not woe and suffering for the gridiron star and actor.

Simpson has the dough- and plenty of it.  While cooling his heels in prison, he still continues to collect his NFL pension, Screen Actors Guild pension, and a private pension, all earning him, depending on the market conditions, anywhere from $15,000 to $60,000 a month, says his lawyer, Yale Galanter. 

The Goldmans and Browns can’t put a lien on Simpson’s money because all his pensions are protected from creditors by federal law.

Simpson now laments (?) and spends his leisure time at the Lovelock Correction Center, a small and relatively new prison located near Reno, Nevada.

Spartan existence you say?  Pshaw!  Simpson now benefits from such amenities as a television in his cell, although he lamented the lack of HBO, and is allowed to play checkers and cards with his fellow convict roomies. “If I have to be in prison,” Page Six recently quoted him as saying, “this is the place to be.”   

And he apparently loves the prison chow, getting back up to “fighting” weight- a whole lot better then his stay at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas where he lost 25 pounds eating ‘mystery’ meat.

Simpson never ceases to amaze and run out of rabbits to pull from his plush, velvet scull cap.

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