Nigger Wife Murderer OJ Facing 12 Charges and Life as Aryan Brotherhood's Bitch

http://www.newsmax.com/us/o.j._simpson/2007/11/08/47693.html

O.J. Due in Vegas Court on 12 Charges

Thursday, November 8, 2007

LAS VEGAS -- When O.J. Simpson returns to a courtroom to face armed robbery

charges, the former football star will also be facing years of doubts and

questions about his acquittal on murder charges more than a decade ago.

A Las Vegas justice of the peace will be asked to determine after a two-day

hearing starting Thursday if there is enough evidence to take Simpson and

two co-defendants to trial on charges that they robbed two sports

memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room.

In Simpson's mind, according to a close friend, the charges are rooted in

Simpson being found not guilty in the 1994 slayings 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, Fla., auto body shop owner.

The men arrested in the Sept. 13 incident were brought together by Scotto's

wedding.

Simpson and co-defendants Clarence "C.J." Stewart and Charles Ehrlich face

12 charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly

weapon, conspiracy and coercion. A kidnapping conviction could result in a

sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery

conviction could mean mandatory prison time.

"He's taking this serious," Scotto said. "It is serious."

No one disputes that Stewart, Ehrlich and former co-defendants Michael

McClinton, Walter Alexander and Charles Cashmore went with Simpson and

California collectibles broker Tom Riccio to meet memorabilia dealers Alfred

Beardsley and Bruce Fromong in a casino hotel room.

Simpson has maintained that he wanted to retrieve items he claimed had been

stolen from him by a former agent, including the suit he wore the day he was

acquitted in Los Angeles.

The case is likely to pivot on Simpson's contention that he didn't ask

anyone to bring guns, that he didn't know anyone had guns and that no guns

were displayed.

Three of Simpson's co-defendants have pleaded guilty or agreed to do so and

are expected to testify against him.

Cashmore, 40, a journeyman laborer, said McClinton displayed a gun.

Alexander, 46, of Mesa, Ariz., told police after his Sept. 15 arrest that he

and McClinton carried guns, but that he kept one in his waistband while

McClinton displayed his as Beardsley and Fromong were frisked.

"O.J. said `hey, just bring some firearms,'" Alexander said, according to a

transcript of his tape-recorded statement to detectives.

McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas, who later turned two handguns over to police

and surrendered his concealed weapons permit, is expected to bolster that

account.

Nevertheless, the prosecution's case has certain weaknesses, including some

unsavory witnesses.

Of the eight men who were in the room with Simpson, six have run afoul of

the law before, with convictions for arson, theft, cocaine trafficking and

assault among them.

Moreover, Simpson's lawyers have argued that the men who turned against him

lied to win generous plea bargains for themselves.

"He's got a bunch of people making up anything they can make up, just to get

out of trouble," Scotto said.

Simpson and the others are likely to be bound over for trial "because the

burden of proof is such that all they have to show is that some evidence

suggests a crime occurred," said Tom Pitaro, a veteran Las Vegas defense

lawyer who teaches trial advocacy at the Boyd School of Law at the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger and prosecutor Chris Owens

declined comment on their plans for the hearing.