OJ to find out if he is to face trial for armed robbery

Shamed American football star OJ Simpson is in court again today for a crunch hearing to decide whether he will go on trial for the second time in his life.

More than a decade ago he was acquitted on murder charges in a high-profile court case.

He is expected to learn today whether he will face trial over an alleged armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel. Simpson was allegedly part of a gang who stormed into a room and took hundreds of items from two memorabilia dealers.

According to a close friend today’s court appearance is, in Simpson’s mind, rooted in his 1995 acquittal.

The hearing in Las Vegas began yesterday and was expected to last two days. Two men who were in the Las Vegas hotel room during the alleged robbery by Simpson gave eyewitness accounts in court yesterday.

Thomas Riccio, a memorabilia dealer who captured the events on a digital recorder, said he set up the meeting that ultimately led to felony charges against Simpson.

He later sold a copy of the recording to a tabloid website before handing it over to police. Like another witness, Bruce Fromong, Riccio said he hoped to make money off Simpson.

It was only Simpson, Riccio said, who didn’t want any money. He just wanted to retrieve memorabilia from his football career that his family could have as keepsakes.

“A lot of people forget the fact that OJ was one of the greatest football players,” Riccio said.

“These things are heirlooms.”

Simpson, 60, and two co-defendants face armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges stemming from the September 13 confrontation at the Palace Station Hotel Casino in which police say the group, including two men with guns, burst into a room and took hundreds of items from Fromong and fellow memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley.

Simpson maintains the items were stolen from him and that he and the others had mounted a “sting operation” to retrieve them.

Riccio was the second of eight witnesses prosecutors said they expect to call during a preliminary hearing to determine whether Simpson and the others should stand trial.

The hearing was scheduled to last two days, although it could go longer if testimony is not concluded.

Riccio said the plan to recover Simpson’s memorabilia was concocted after Beardsley contacted him last August to say he had “thousands” of collectibles he wanted to sell, including a signed picture of the late FBI director J Edgar Hoover with Simpson and the suit Simpson wore when he was acquitted of murder in 1995.

Beardsley was described by Fromong as a Simpson “groupie” and by Riccio as an “OJ fanatic”.

“When OJ talks about this guy he says, ’He’s a nut. He wants to buy my underwear’,” Riccio said, causing even Simpson, who sat stoically through most of the hearing, to laugh.

Riccio said after he told Simpson what Beardsley said he had, the former football star said: “I’ve been looking for this stuff for years.”

He not only wanted it back, Riccio said, but was interested in staging a reality show documenting the recovery. But when he told FBI agents in Los Angeles about their plans, Riccio said, they “put their heads in their hands” and refused to get involved.

FBI documents obtained by The Associated Press last week confirm the agency was told of the plan by Riccio three weeks before it happened.

Riccio said he and Simpson changed the plan several times, finally deciding to grab the memorabilia by luring Beardsley to Las Vegas when Simpson would be there to attend a friend’s wedding.

One of Simpson’s friends, Charles Ehrlich, was recruited, Riccio said, to play the part of a millionaire memorabilia buyer who would check out the material before Simpson walked into a hotel room and demanded it back.

That plan fell apart, Riccio said, because Ehrlich couldn’t pull off the role. He described him as “an edgy white dude, like some guy you might know from New Jersey” who was not cool enough to masquerade as a millionaire.

Simpson, Ehrlich and a third defendant, Clarence CJ Stewart, face 12 charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and coercion.

Others who took part in the raid on the hotel room have pleaded guilty to lesser charges and are cooperating with authorities. Riccio has not been charged.

A kidnapping conviction for Simpson could result in a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery conviction could mean mandatory prison time.

According to a close friend, Simpson believes the charges are rooted in the former football star being found not guilty in the 1994 killings of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

“He believes he’s being tried for that now,” said Tom Scotto, 45, a North Miami Beach, Florida auto body shop owner who flew from Florida with Simpson for the hearing and sat in the courtroom gallery with some 100 spectators.

Seated nearby was Simpson’s older sister, Mattie Shirley Simpson Baker, 64, of Elk Grove, California.

Simpson arrived in court surrounded by a contingent of lawyers and about a dozen uniformed officers. Dressed in a grey suit, white shirt and matching striped tie, he didn’t stop to talk or make eye contact as he made his way into the courthouse and through a metal detector.

Fromong testified that he ended up in on the deal when Beardsley told him about it and he brought along his own Simpson memorabilia, plus other items he thought he might sell, including lithographs of football great Joe Montana and items autographed by baseball stars Duke Snider and Pete Rose.

He said Simpson and his associates took those items as well as his mobile phone, although Simpson promised to return what wasn’t his.

As the time to meet drew near, Riccio said Simpson did little to keep his plan a secret, discussing it openly beside the pool at the luxurious Palms Hotel as people approached him for autographs.

“I was a little bit uncomfortable because he was quite loud about what we were going to do and there were all these hundreds of strangers,” Riccio said.

Some people tried to talk Simpson out of it, Riccio added, but the former football star was adamant.

“He made it clear, I have my boys here, we’re going to take care of it,” Riccio quoted Simpson.

By the time Riccio headed for the Palace Station Casino Hotel, where Beardsley and Fromong were to meet Simpson in a ground-floor hotel room, Riccio had become nervous enough to buy a digital recorder that he hid in the room.

When the group arrived, he said, Simpson was the last to enter, adding: “Beardsley’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw his hero walk in, OJ.”

Then, Riccio said, everything went haywire. Someone drew a gun, people started screaming threats and profanities and Simpson eventually ordered the men to take what was in the room and leave.

The hearing concluded for the day with Riccio’s recording being played.

Fromong had testified earlier that the men burst into the hotel room “in a military invasion fashion”.

“OJ was screaming ’this is all my s***.

“This all belongs to me. You stole this from me. Let’s pack up. Let’s get out of here,” Fromong said.