Simpson Sentenced to at Least 9 Years in Prison

By STEVE FRIESS - NY Times - Dec. 6, 2008

LAS VEGAS — Four times, in a halting, broken voice, a humbled O. J. Simpson said Friday, “I’m sorry.” Yet for all his compunction about the September 2007 raid and armed robbery at a casino hotel for which he was convicted of 12 felonies, Mr. Simpson also continued to insist he had done nothing illegal.

And so Judge Jackie Glass of Clark County District Court, facing down the man acquitted in perhaps the most-watched murder trial of the 20th century, scolded Mr. Simpson for his arrogance and stupidity and sentenced him to a minimum of nine years in state prison.

Simpson was convicted of 12 felony charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery, stemming from the incident at the Palace Station Hotel-Casino. Mr. Simpson and five men, at least two of whom carried guns, stole a trove of sports memorabilia worth thousands of dollars from two collectibles dealers.

In remarks leading up to the sentencing, Judge Glass repeatedly insisted that neither she nor the jury had been influenced by the 1995 trial in which a Los Angeles jury acquitted Mr. Simpson in the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman.

Mr. Goldman’s father and sister did attend the trial, and said they were pleased by the outcome. “There’s never closure; Ron is always gone,” the father, Fred Goldman, said on the courthouse steps. “What we have is satisfaction that this monster is where he belongs, behind bars.”

Four of Mr. Simpson’s accomplices pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Simpson at the trial here, which played out like a very low-key echo of his circus-like trial in Los Angeles in 1995.

While many legal experts said they did not think the case would have gone to trial had it not centered on Mr. Simpson, a noted Las Vegas criminal defense lawyer, Dayvid Figler, said he was surprised and impressed that Judge Glass did not go harder on him. “This sentence is not out of line with someone who would be in a similar position as Simpson with those charges having gone to trial,” said Mr. Figler.

Lawyers for Mr. Simpson and Mr. Stewart said they would appeal the convictions on several grounds. They argue that jury selection was manipulated to produce a panel with no African-Americans and that one juror claimed on a questionnaire not to have a strong opinion about the 1995 trial but said in post-trial interviews that Mr. Simpson should have been convicted 13 years ago.

“This isn’t the end for this legal team,” Mr. Galanter said. “This is the beginning. There’s a long way to go. We’re not going to leave any stone unturned.”

Mr. Simpson was found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages to the victims’ families totaling $33.5 million. Little of the civil judgment has been collected, and the Goldman family, which has vigorously pursued Mr. Simpson’s assets, is expected to push for hearings to determine who owns the Simpson-related items seized in the raid.