O.J. Simpson found guilty on all counts in Las Vegas kidnapping, robbery case

O.J. Simpson found guilty on all counts in Las Vegas kidnapping, robbery case
By NANCY DILLON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Saturday, October 4th 2008, 1:42 PM
Gluskoter/POOL
With his attorneys, Gabriel Grasso, left, and Yale Galanter, right nearby, O.J. Simpson is taken into custody after being found guilty on all 12 charges, including felony kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy in Las Vegas on Friday.
Now he's guilty.
Thirteen years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder, a Las Vegas jury convicted him of all 12 counts in a kidnapping and armed robbery case.
This morning's stunning verdict could put the former gridiron great away for life.
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Simpson, clad in a suit and tie, sat impassively as the verdicts were read aloud in quick succession by a court clerk. He was found guilty of counts including conspiracy, kidnapping, armed robbery, assault and coercion.
Judge Jackie Glass ordered Simpson held behind bars until sentencing Dec. 5. He was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs as his sister Carmelita Durio sobbed openly in the gallery.
Simpson's co-defendant Clarence (C.J.) Stewart was also found guilty of all counts.
The jury of nine women and three men - none of them African-American - began considering the case at 8:45 a.m. The panel spent 13 hours behind closed doors at a downtown Las Vegas courthouse - working through lunch and dinner - before announcing that they had agreed on the verdicts about 9:45 p.m. local time.
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On Oct. 3, 1995, a Los Angeles jury acquitted Simpson of the brutal 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman in the "Trial of the Century."
The athlete, anchor and pitchman was later ordered to pay $33.5 million in a wrongful-death civil judgment that remains largely unpaid.
Nevada prosecutors charged that Simpson, 61, and five associates had stormed into a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino in September 2007, brandishing guns, and took thousands of dollars worth of Simpson's memorabilia from a pair of sports collectors.
The group then stole as much as $100,000 worth of items, including Joe Montana lithographs and Pete Rose baseballs, from dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers argued that Simpson went to the hotel only to retrieve personal mementos that were stolen from him and that he was unaware his sidekicks were armed.
Four of the other men originally charged in the case have agreed to plead guilty and all took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of trial testimony that concluded Wednesday.
Neither Simpson nor Stewart, 54, testified in their own defense.