From the Las Vegas Review-Journal comes more bad news for any fans of the Juice. I guess sometimes what happens in Vegas can land you in prison:
O.J. Simpson was given a sentence Friday that will have him serve nine to 33 years in a Nevada state prison; co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart will serve 71/2 to 27 years. Each faced up to life in prison with the possibility of parole for their Oct. 3 convictions on 12 criminal counts that stemmed from a Sept. 13, 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers.
Two felony counts of coercion with use of a deadly weapon were dismissed. These are the remaining charges and sentences Simpson and Stewart faced, and what they received: Each received two concurrent sentences of 15 years, with an additional 1-6 years each for use of a deadly weapon. They are eligible for parole after five years on the kidnapping counts. OJ's Statement to the Judge:
Verbatim transcript of O.J. Simpson statement before sentencing: Your honor, I stand before you today sorry. Somewhat confused. I feel like apologetic to the people of the state of Nevada. I’ve been coming to Nevada since 1959. I worked summer jobs for my uncle in '60 and '61, and I’ve been coming ever since, and I’ve never gotten into any trouble. People have always been fine to me.
When I came here, I came here for a wedding. I didn’t come here to (inaudible). I didn’t come here to reclaim property. I was told it was here. When he told me that Monday, that the stuff was in Nevada when he heard nobody was going to be in Nevada, I called my kids. I talked to my sisters. I called the Brown family and I told them I had a chance to get some of our property back. Property that over the years we’ve seen being sold on the Internet. Uhh. We’ve seen pictures of ours that were stolen from our home going into the uh tabloids. We’ve called the police and asked what to do. They’ve told us what to try to do, but you can never find out who was selling it, and this was the first time I had an opportunity to catch the guys red-handed who had been stealing from my family. I knew these guys. I did think Mike Gilbert was, would be there and I know as they’d told me the two guys there that he was the one who did it. But I have no hatred for Mike Gilbert. In the past as we know as you heard on the tape, Mike Gilbert tried to set me up in a porn video, tricked me into a room with hidden cameras and they still wrote in the newspaper and tabloids, they still had cover stories that OJ did it even though there was no porn video. Even though I didn’t participate in it. I think 'Hey Mike.’ I yelled at him. And I think 'Hey’ just like I yelled at Bruce and Beardson (cq) and I’ve forgiven them. We’ve talked about it, Beardsley and I the next day, and uh Bruce and I hugged, have talked about it. His kids called me the next day. We’ve apologized to each other. The only person I asked I requested to help me here was Mr. Stewart. I did request it. I needed his car I asked him if he had some guys that could help me remove these things from the room. I didn’t ask anybody to do anything but to stand behind me allow me to yell at these guys and then help me remove those things. If they didn’t allow me to remove them, we would call the cops on them. I felt that they were wrong. They had internal orders and they had internal (inaudible) some of these things that were both garnishable and things that were not garnishable. I didn’t want them to yell at them like they misinterpreted (inaudible) in the previous trial, said that I didn’t ask them to yell at anybody. Unfortunately they did and I believe it was my fault because I brought them there. I knew the character of a couple of the guys that were there and it was my fault that they were there. But in no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anyone. I spoke to Bruce before I left the room. He told me what was his and I called him when I got to the car and said exactly what do you have, I want to send it back to you. I talked to the police officers. I volunteered immediately to come back, show them what was taken and tell them what took place before anybody talked to police. I was the first guy that volunteered to do it. And I heard on the tapes they thought I was stupid for doing it. But I didn’t want to steal anything from anybody. I don’t think anybody dare said that I wanted anybody else’s stuff, just my own. I wanted my daughter who Miss Brown gave her her mother’s wedding ring. Stolen. You know my kids had pictures. My oldest son is married now and has his own family and he wants the picture in the Oval Office with Gerald Ford when he was 5 years old. Stolen. All of these things were gone. My family knew what we were doing. And I don’t want to hurt Bruce. I didn’t want to hurt any of these guys. I know these guys. These guys have eaten in my home. I’ve done book reports with their kids. I’ve sung to their mothers when they were sick. You know I wasn’t there to hurt anyone. I just wanted my personal things and I realize that was stupid of me. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to steal anything from anybody and I didn’t know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property. so I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it. Look, all the other guys except Mr. Stewart volunteered they wanted to go. Mr. Stewart was the only guy that I asked would he come to help me. All the rest of them, when they found out they volunteered. 'Come on let us go.’ One of them wanted to be the security guy. He claimed he was a security guy. But I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. I didn’t mean to steal from anybody. Thank you.
____________________________________________________________________________
For more than 13 years, he has been widely regarded as the man who got away with murder.
But this morning, O.J. Simpson was punished for other crimes: last year’s kidnapping and armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at Palace Station.
After hearing a statement of remorse from Simpson, whose voice quavered as he spoke, District Judge Jackie Glass imposed a sentence that will keep the former football star behind bars between nine and 33 years. “I’m not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else,” the judge told the packed courtroom before announcing her decision. “I want that to be perfectly clear to everyone.” Simpson, 61, and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, 54, were convicted in October of all counts in the robbery case. Immediately after the verdicts were read, Simpson and Stewart were handcuffed and taken into custody to await today’s hearing. Glass sentenced Stewart this morning to between 7 1/2 and 27 years. Simpson, who plans to appeal his convictions, surprised the judge and other onlookers by making a statement at his sentencing hearing. He said he made the trip to Las Vegas last year to attend a wedding — not to reclaim property. But his plans changed when he learned the dealers possessed family heirlooms that he had unsuccessfully tried to recover in the past. “This was the first time I had an opportunity to catch the guys red-handed who had been stealing from my family,” he said. Simpson apologized, saying he did not know his actions amounted to crimes. He also said he asked Stewart to come along and help him. Glass said overwhelming evidence at the trial assured her that Simpson knew what he was doing when he entered the small hotel room where the robbery occurred. The trial also showed her that Simpson is both arrogant and ignorant, she said. “It was clear to the court that you believed you could do in Las Vegas what you couldn’t do elsewhere — you could get your stuff back,” the judge said, adding that the ownership of the items remains in question. Glass noted that the incident, which involved the use of at least one gun, was captured on audio tape. “That was actually a very violent event,” she said. During the trial, jurors heard hours of secret audio recordings that were made before, during and after the Sept. 13, 2007, incident. “Everything in this case was on tape,” Glass said. She said judges rarely have such “overwhelming” evidence before them when imposing a sentence. The Nevada Division of Parole and Probation had recommended a minimum sentence of 18 years for Simpson, who was acquitted of murder in 1995 in the Los Angeles slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was found liable for the killings in a civil case and later wrote a book titled “If I Did It.” Members of the Goldman family were present in Glass’ courtroom this morning. On Oct. 3, exactly 13 years after the acquittal, a Las Vegas jury convicted Simpson and Stewart of robbing Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong in a Palace Station hotel room. In court this morning, defense attorney Yale Galanter said Simpson’s acts “were beyond stupid.” But, he added, “Stupidity is not criminality.” The lawyer said Simpson’s behavior did not spring from an evil mind, and he had no intent to injury anyone. Galanter said even Simpson’s strongest detractors would have to agree that the case presented some “highly unusual circumstances.” Most of the property taken during the incident had Simpson’s name on it, the lawyer said, and Simpson acted without stealth. Galanter asked Glass to impose the minimum penalty, which would have given Simpson a chance at parole after six years. “He didn’t go into a bank and rob somebody,” the lawyer said. Stewart read a prepared statement at the hearing. He apologized and asked for the judge’s mercy. The defendant said he has successfully raised four children and has no prior criminal convictions. His attorney, Charles Jones, described Stewart as a good man who merely intended to help a friend. “He is a person who likes to try to help people if he can,” Jones said. The lawyer also said Stewart was unarmed and had “minimal participation” in the incident. Fromong watched the sentencing hearing on a news crew’s television outside the Regional Justice Center. He said the sentences imposed on both defendants were fair. “I hope people don’t consider this retribution for 1995,” he said, echoing the judge’s words. “This had to do with what happened in 2007.” Fromong said he had no opinion about what penalty Simpson deserved. “I wasn’t here to judge O.J.,” he said. “I was here to tell the truth.” He said he chatted with Simpson for about 10 minutes after testifying at the trial. The pair then shook hands and parted ways. “I have no bad feelings toward O.J.,” Fromong said. During the 3 1/2-week trial, Simpson’s lawyers portrayed him as a man who simply sought to recover game-used footballs, plaques and other cherished family heirlooms that had been stolen from him a decade ago. Prosecutors, on the other hand, painted a picture of a ringleader who orchestrated the armed stickup to exact revenge against his estranged former agent and the man Simpson believed had stolen his property.