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.
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.
Vegas Backstage Access (VBA) 