"I didn't ask anybody to do anything but stand behind me, have me yell at the guys and help me remove my things," Simpson told the judge.
Dist. Atty. David Roger and prosecutor Chris Owens -- who said they had never tried such a high-profile case -- argued that the robbery's origins could be traced to the $33.5-million civil judgment.
Simpson stashed things with friends to keep them from the family, which he had nicknamed "the Gold Diggers," but he grew frustrated when the items were not returned, prosecutors said.
On Friday, Simpson insisted that he was acting on behalf of his children, and said he had even told his former in-laws of his plans.
"In Mr. Simpson's mind . . . what he was doing truly was a retrieval of his own property," defense attorney Yale Galanter said. "What it was, was a highly emotional, stupid act that violated the law.
"Stupidity," he added, "is not criminality."
Glass rejected the defense's protestations -- and made it clear that her sentence was not payback for the double-murder acquittal that polarized Americans.
"When you take a gun with you and you take men with you in a show of force, that is not just a 'Hey, give me my stuff back.' That's something else, and that's what happened here," Glass said.
The evidence against Simpson, she said, was "overwhelming" because of surreptitious audiotapes -- made by cohorts who testified for the prosecution -- that captured the planning, execution and aftermath of the six-minute encounter. On one tape, Simpson casually talks about "the piece" -- the gun he purportedly asked an associate to bring.
"It is your own words, Mr. Simpson -- your own words that could be heard throughout those events that have brought you here to this seat in my courtroom," Glass said.
Simpson winced.
Glass sentenced codefendant Clarence Stewart, whom Roger described as less culpable than Simpson, to at least 7 1/2 years behind bars, with a maximum sentence of 27 years. State parole authorities had recommended the men serve at least 18 years.
Roger told reporters Friday that he twice had offered the men a plea deal -- once during the trial -- but that "Mr. Simpson wanted something just short of a public apology." His sentence, Roger said, is lengthier than what prosecutors had proposed.
Simpson, who is planning an appeal, will be eligible for parole in 2017.
