O.J. Simpson attends his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Centre September 26, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Picture: AFP OJ Simpson attends his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Centre September 26, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. File Picture: AFP
OJ Simpson’s former sports agent says he confessed to his ex-wife’s murder while high on a cocktail of drugs and drink.
The sportsman turned actor, who died on April 10, aged 76, from prostate cancer, avoided jail in 1995 when he was cleared in criminal court of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her 25-year-old friend Ron Goldman, but was found liable of their deaths in a civil case brought by the families in 1997, in which he was also ordered to pay $33.5 million (R630 million) in compensation.
Simpson’s ex-sports agent Mike Gilbert opened up about the late athlete’s alleged confession to the murder of Nicole in his 2008 book ‘How I helped OJ Get Away With Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of Violence, Loyalty, Regret and Remorse’.
Gilbert said in the book Simpson confessed to killing Nicole on the night of June 12, 1994, after he had taken a sleeping pill prior to smoking marijuana and drinking beer in his home in Brentwood, California.
He added that Simpson mumbled: “If she hadn’t opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she’d still be alive.”
Gilbert went on: “Nothing more needed to be said. O.J. had confessed to me. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Nicole – who was found in a pool of blood – was stabbed so fiercely in the attack that medical examiners said she had almost been decapitated.
Simpson was acquitted after the ‘Trial of the Century’ saw his defence lawyer Johnnie Cochrane coin the phrase: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” after Simpson’s hand appeared not to fit into the blood-stained glove found on his property the day he was arrested on suspicion of murdering Nicole and Ron.
Gilbert says in his book that he gave Simpson tips on how to swell his hands so they wouldn’t fit into the infamous bloody gloves.
Simpson was represented by a defence team dubbed the ‘Dream Team’ as it included top lawyers Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian and Alan Dershowitz alongside Johnnie Cochran.
They argued DNA evidence in the case wasn’t properly handled by laboratory technicians and claimed the Los Angeles Police Department tainted the investigation.
After less than four hours of deliberation, the jury found Simpson not guilty of two counts of murder.
In 2008, Simpson was arrested on charges of robbery and kidnapping and convicted and imprisoned for 33 years. He was subsequently released in 2017.
Sarene.Kloren@IOL.co.za
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