O.J. Simpson attorney challenges audio recording
A defense lawyer tries to chip away at s recording taken by gunman Michael McClinton. Simpson is heard asking McClinton whether he pulled out 'the piece.'
LAS VEGAS — An attorney for O.J. Simpson tried this morning to undermine an audio recording in which the former NFL star asks whether a cohort pulled out "the piece" in a hotel hallway right before an alleged armed robbery.
Michael McClinton -- who testified last week that Simpson asked him to bring a weapon and "look menacing" at Palace Station Hotel & Casino -- says on tape that he "kept that thing in my pocket till we got inside that room."
"You're not talking about a gun, right, because the gun was in a holster. . . . You're talking about something else, right?" asked Simpson attorney Gabriel Grasso.
McClinton, who surreptitiously taped the conversation with Simpson, paused for several seconds.
"I can't recall," he said.
Whether Simpson saw McClinton and another admitted gunman draw pistols during the Sept. 13, 2007, encounter has become a major issue in the football great's armed robbery and kidnapping trial.
Simpson, who says he was getting back stolen personal mementos from two sports collectibles dealers, maintains that he didn't see weapons during the incident and never asked anyone to bring one.
Defense attorneys tried to chip away at McClinton's credibility. He is expected to be the prosecution's final witness.
Charles D. Jones, an attorney for Simpson codefendant Clarence Stewart, accused McClinton of telling someone that his preliminary hearing testimony was "tantamount to . . . an Oscar-winning performance."
In his statement to police, Grasso said, McClinton never claimed that the gridiron hero asked him and another man to arm themselves because Simpson needed "security."
Jurors -- who are allowed to submit written questions -- asked whether McClinton merely assumed Simpson wanted him to bring a weapon. "I didn't assume," McClinton said. "He asked me."
McClinton said he toted a .45-caliber Ruger. He stood up to show jurors how he brandished it at his side. Walter Alexander, who is also cooperating with prosecutors, said he tucked a .22-caliber Beretta in his waistband.
The auctioneer who set up the meeting, Thomas Riccio, had hidden a digital recorder in the hotel room. On that recording, McClinton is portrayed as the most aggressive of Simpson's five associates, barking orders and threats.
"Stand the [expletive] up before it gets ugly in here!" McClinton is heard saying. The other men, according to testimony, were packing hundreds of footballs, baseballs and plaques into pillowcases and boxes.
