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OJ 'requested firearms'
18/10/2007 13:14 - (SA)
Las Vegas - OJ Simpson wanted armed men with him when he confronted two sports memorabilia dealers, according to a co-defendant who has agreed to plead guilty and testify against the former football star.
"OJ said 'Hey, just bring some firearms,"' Walter Alexander told police, according to a transcript of his tape-recorded statement obtained by The Associated Press.
Alexander told police after his arrest on September 15 that he and another man showed up with guns at Simpson's request, then headed with him into a casino hotel room to retrieve collectibles that Simpson said belonged to him.
Simpson told Alexander the guns were just for show, "so that these people know that, you know, we're here for business", Alexander quoted Simpson as saying.
Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said on Wednesday that Simpson's position remains that there were no guns brought to the room and he did not tell anyone to bring guns.
"There was no reason for Mr Simpson to tell anyone to bring guns. He was going to see people he knew," Galanter said, adding that Alexander's statement was untrustworthy because "he was negotiating for a get-out-jail-free card".
Alexander, 46, told police he carried a .22-calibre handgun in his waistband and Michael McClinton, who gave him that gun, pulled a larger pistol from a holster and displayed it in the room.
'Calm down, put them guns down'
Police have alleged that McClinton impersonated a law enforcement officer during the alleged robbery.
McClinton went into the room "being Mr Tough Guy", Alexander said, adding that McClinton's behaviour "made things a lot worse than they probably would've been".
Alexander characterised Simpson as talkative during the confrontation and apparently surprised by McClinton's aggressive actions and saying, "Calm down, put them guns down". McClinton responded that he needed to make sure memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley weren't armed.
"I mean, Juice had told him just to carry the gun, not to, you know, take it out, just to show it," Alexander said, using Simpson's nickname from his National Football League days. "But now he brought the gun out and he was like, you know, 'Up against the walls, up against the walls."'
But in a tape recording made in the room by Thomas Riccio, the man who arranged the meeting, "Nobody reacts to a gun. Nobody says, 'Put that gun away,"' Galanter said.
Alexander's 45-page account, which is provided in court documents turned over by prosecutors to defence attorneys, raises the legal stakes for Simpson.
"If it's true, it hurts OJ tremendously," said Edward Miley, lawyer for co-defendant Charles Cashmore, who also has agreed to a plea deal.
'He's on the hook, if they can prove it'
"It puts him at the scene where he knew there were firearms," Miley said of Simpson. "Under conspiracy law in Nevada, he's on the hook, if they can prove it."
Lawyers for McClinton and co-defendants Clarence "CJ" Stewart and Charles Ehrlich did not immediately respond to messages left on Wednesday. McClinton's lawyer, Bill Terry, has said McClinton, 49, works in the security industry and had a valid concealed weapon permit.
Simpson, McClinton, Stewart and Ehrlich are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on November 8 on nine felonies and one gross misdemeanour charge, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. A kidnapping conviction carries the possibility of life in prison with parole.
Simpson, 60, of Miami, faces one additional felony charge of coercion stemming from allegations that he took Fromong's cellphone.
Alexander's lawyer, Robert Dennis Rentzer of Tarzana, California, said he believed Alexander "was truthful with police in everything he told them". He declined additional comment.
In his statement, Alexander said he thought Simpson and Riccio waited until Alexander and McClinton, whom he calls "Spencer", arrived with the guns at the Palace Station hotel-casino before Simpson went into the room to confront Beardsley and Fromong.
"It's like they didn't wanna go to the meeting until me and Spence showed up with the heat," he said.
- AP
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