O.J. Simpson cohort pulled a gun at meeting, auctioneer testifies
At the former football player's robbery-kidnapping trial, the man who set up a meeting where Simpson confronted memorabilia dealers said the situation escalated when an associate took out a weapon.
LAS VEGAS -- An auctioneer who brokered the meeting where O.J. Simpson confronted two memorabilia dealers testified today that a Simpson cohort "pulled out a gun . . . and it got crazy from there."
"There was a time he pointed the gun at me . . . it was a scary situation," Thomas Riccio said in a recounting of the Sept. 13, 2007, incident at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino. The gunman, later identified as Michael McClinton, was "hopping around with the gun in his hand, barking orders," Riccio said.
Simpson, meanwhile, was yelling at the memorabilia dealers, Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, Riccio said. Simpson believed the pair were selling personal mementos taken from his trophy room and his mother's storage unit, Riccio said.
Some of Simpson's five associates stuffed hundreds of collectibles into boxes and pillowcases, Riccio said. The encounter lasted about six minutes. Riccio said some of the items taken by Simpson's associates were collectibles unrelated to Simpson, even though the ex-NFL star told those in the hotel room that he didn't want to retrieve items that didn't belong to him.
"This is overkill," Riccio testified. "Big time overkill. They didn't need to do it this way . . . they certainly didn't need to bring guns."
Simpson, 61, and codefendant Clarence Stewart, 54, are charged with a dozen crimes. The most serious -- kidnapping -- carries a potential life sentence.
This morning, jurors heard a conversation between Riccio and Beardsley secretly recorded shortly before the incident. Riccio testified that it was typical for him to surreptitiously tape business deals in case anything went awry.
In the recording, Beardsley described the items Simpson wanted as "stuff O.J. personally loves."
Among the personal items, Beardsley described during the recording, were "thousands and thousands and thousands of negatives" from Simpson's first wedding and from his childhood -- "when he had rickets" and his mother made him "homemade braces . . . cause he couldn't walk."
"When O.J.'s mother died, they put all her stuff in storage," Beardsley said, explaining the items' origin. There was a family rift and "they got tired of paying the, uh, storage bills."
Jurors also toured Room 1203 today, where the alleged robbery occurred. The 12 panelists and six alternates were bussed to Palace Station, where guests milled about the hallway. Simpson did not go; Stewart did.
No pair of jurors spent more than 30 seconds examining the room. Juror No. 12 measured the distance between the bathroom and a chair in the back of the room with her feet. Alternate No. 5 touched the top of the armoire where Riccio secretly tape-recorded the incident.
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