O. J. Simpson close to tears as he is sentenced to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapMany believe that he got away with double murder, but O. J. Simpson could not get away with a botched hold-up in a Las Vegas hotel room.
And so yesterday, 13 years after he was acquitted of the gruesome murders of his ex-wife and her friend – the result of a televised trial complicated by racial tensions and the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots – he was sentenced to a maximum of 33 years in prison. In total, he will serve ten sentences – some concurrently, some consecutively.
Legal analysts said that Simpson, 61, would not become eligible for early release for at least nine years. Simpson plans to appeal on several grounds including the fact that his jury was all-white. His codefendant and former golfing companion, Clarence Stewart, was given broadly the same sentence.
Wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, his hair flecked with grey and his hands chained, Simpson almost broke down as he begged the judge for leniency. “I stand before you today sorry, somewhat confused . . . I feel apologetic to the people of the state of Nevada, I’ve been coming here since 1959, I never got into any trouble.”
The judge accused Simpson of wanting to prevent the memorabilia from falling into the hands of the Goldman family, who won a civil lawsuit against Simpson over the death of Ron Goldman, the murdered friend of the football player’s wife, Nicole.
“I don’t care what (anyone) says now,” she said. “Guns were brought. At least one was drawn. The potential for harm to occur was tremendous. If the gun had gone off, not only could someone have been hurt, but some tourist walking down the hallway could have been hurt.”
Goldman’s father, Fred, whose family were also given the rights to Simpson’s 2006 bookIf I Did It, a hypothetical account of murdering his wife, was at the hearing. “If our efforts for all these years of pushing him drove him to commit armed robbery in Vegas, great!” he said
