Simpson Back in Court in Robbery Case

Posted by King Cricket

O.J. Simpson in Court for Hearing on Whether He Should Stand Trial for Alleged Vegas Robbery.

By KEN RITTER Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS Nov 9, 2007 (AP)

O.J. Simpson looks out the window as he leaves the Clark County Justice Center after the first day of his preliminary hearing, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Marlene Karas)

O.J. Simpson returned to a courtroom Friday for the second day of a hearing to decide if he should stand trial for allegedly storming a hotel room with five men and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint.

A justice of the peace is being asked to decide if Simpson, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart and Charles Ehrlich should face 12 criminal charges in the Sept. 13 encounter, which came off during Thursday’s testimony as a crime so ill planned that it almost became comical.

The former football star, wearing a dark suit and white shirt, entered through the courthouse’s main entrance, avoiding most reporters and photographers.

During the hearing’s second day, defense lawyers are expected to try to undercut the testimony of Tom Riccio, a California collectibles broker who said Thursday that he set up the meeting at which Simpson and the others, including two men with guns, burst into a hotel room and carried off hundreds of sports-related items Simpson said were his.

Riccio recorded the hotel-room confrontation on a digital recorder. The audio, played for the judge Thursday, provided a dramatic backdrop to his tale, with people heard screaming profanities and threats at two memorabilia dealers.

Also played was a voicemail Simpson left for Riccio after the confrontation.

“Hey Tom. It’s O.J. What are they talking about a gun? All I wanted was my stuff back again,” Simpson says on the 35-second recording. Simpson gritted his teeth and laid his gold-framed reading glasses on the defense table as he listened to his words.

On the recording, Simpson refers to hundreds of items taken from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley on Sept. 13 as his “stolen stuff.”

“Nobody had a gun, you know?” he says. “Ain’t nobody had any guns. They’re feeling guilty so they’re trying to make up something.”

Those calm words contrasted to the chaotic bellows, barked orders and curses heard during the six-minute recording of the confrontation in a room at the Palace Station Hotel Casino that ends with a single voice.