LAS VEGAS — A jury convicted O.J. Simpson of armed robbery and kidnapping late Friday night, 13 years to the day after he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles.
Simpson and his codefendant, Clarence Stewart, were both convicted on all 12 counts. As the court clerk read "guilty" 24 times shortly before 11 p.m., Simpson grimaced and then nodded slightly, quickly regaining his composure.
From the gallery, his sister, Carmelita Durio, wept on a friend's shoulder.
Both defendants were handcuffed and taken into custody. Durio's weeping became wailing as marshals escorted Simpson from the courtroom.
The verdicts mean that Simpson, 61, faces a possible life sentence for a six-minute confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers last year at a down-market casino hotel. Sentencing will be Dec. 5.
The Las Vegas courtroom scene stood in marked contrast to the conclusion of Simpson's 1995 trial, when he smiled broadly and mouthed his thanks to the Los Angeles jury as the stunned families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman wept.
Neither of the victims in the Las Vegas case was on hand for the reading of the verdict.
The panel of nine women and three men -- none of them black -- deliberated more than 13 hours after listening to nearly three weeks of testimony. Their discussions had begun Friday morning.
The state court case here was marked by hours of secret audio recordings, alleged victims who professed to like Simpson and witnesses who tried to cash in on their ties to the former NFL star.
Prosecutors painted Simpson, 61, as masterminding the alleged robbery of two sports collectibles dealers in a hotel room last year. The Hall of Fame running back, the prosecution contended, rounded up five cohorts, told two of them to bring guns and ordered one of the armed men to brandish his weapon and "look menacing."
Simpson and Stewart, 54, were charged with a dozen crimes, including armed robbery and kidnapping, which carries a potential life sentence. Four of their former codefendants agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and testified for the prosecution.
Despite detailing an intriguing plot with colorful characters, the proceedings paled next to Simpson's months-long, televised "trial of the century" in the slayings of his ex-wife and Goldman. The 1995 case became a cultural flash point that drew huge courthouse crowds and polarized black and white Americans.
