LAS VEGAS — Neither side in the courtroom disputed that O.J. Simpson and five associates marched into a hotel room in September 2007 intent on getting back the former NFL star's footballs and plaques.
But during closing arguments Thursday in Simpson's armed robbery and kidnapping trial here, jurors were presented with conflicting accounts of most everything else about the alleged crimes.
Throughout the four-week trial, prosecutors argued that Simpson was the mastermind of a brief, chaotic robbery. Simpson's defense attorney, meanwhile, maintained his client was the victim of opportunist acquaintances and overzealous prosecutors and police.
"This case has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement," said defense attorney Yale Galanter in his 90-minute closing remarks.
Simpson and codefendant Clarence Stewart are charged with a dozen crimes in connection with the six-minute altercation at Palace Station Hotel & Casino. Prosecutors say they took up to $100,000 in collectibles at gunpoint from a pair of memorabilia dealers.
Four former codefendants -- two of whom said they were armed at Simpson's behest -- testified for the prosecution. Simpson maintained he never saw a gun or asked anyone to bring one to Room 1203.
In a one-hour presentation, Dist. Atty. David Roger played snippets of secretly recorded conversations.
Simpson spoke on the recordings about getting back stolen mementos with "the boys," whom he wanted to "look menacing." Simpson, Roger said, also asked two associates to "bring some heat" -- one of the few exchanges not captured on tape.
During the trial, jurors repeatedly listened to the resulting encounter, in which Simpson associate Michael McClinton could be heard shouting at others in the room to stand up "before it gets ugly in here."
Roger said that "intimidation, force, violence -- those are just a few of the adjectives of things that happened in that room."
Several witnesses in the room testified that the Simpson told them afterward that "there were no guns."
But in a conversation after the incident, which McClinton surreptitiously recorded, Simpson is heard asking whether McClinton had pulled out "the piece" in the hotel hallway.
Roger argued that it made little legal difference whether the items originally belonged to Simpson. In a "civilized community," Roger said, people go to police or file a lawsuit to retrieve purportedly stolen goods.
