O.J. Simpson convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery, faces life in prison

Accused of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a casino hotel room, Simpson was pronounced "guilty" to all 12 charges, including conspiracy, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon, by a panel of jurors in the Clark County District Court and now, he and his friend Clarence "C.J." Stewart, each face mandatory minimum penalties of five years in prison but could end up with life terms.

Sentencing is scheduled for December 5. Simpson, who was "deeply disappointed" and "extremely upset and extremely emotional" with the verdict, is expected to appeal. Yale Galanter, his lead attorney, made clear that the selection process, which ended with no blacks in the jury, was one of the issues they would challenge.

The verdict came after the jury of nine women and three men heard 12 days of testimony and deliberated for 13 hours. Five of the 12 jurors said that they disagreed with the verdict. Jury questionnaires released on Saturday showed that some of them felt that the media hype and publicity surrounding the trial made it difficult for them to concentrate on the case on hand while others said they disagreed with the 1995 verdict that cleared Simpson of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles. However, all jurors said they could set aside their feelings and decide the case based on facts.

Prosecutors alleged Simpson planned - and Stewart helped carry out - a plot to retrieve personal items and memorabilia of Simpson's that the prosecution charged he had given away to two sports- memorabilia dealers to avoid handing them over to Goldman's family - which would have satisfied part of a $33.5 million civil wrongful death verdict levied in 1997 by a California court. In 1995, Simpson was acquitted in Los Angeles of criminal charges that he murdered his ex-wife and her friend.

Four men who accompanied Simpson, Stewart and a middleman to the Palace Station Casino hotel for the Sept. 13, 2007, confrontation, later pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Thomas Riccio, the man who arranged and secretly recorded the meeting, testified under immunity from prosecution.

During the closing arguments of the trial, the prosecution said Simpson recruited a pack of burly men to pull off an armed robbery and kidnapping in a Las Vegas hotel room, but Galanter said his client was a victim of witnesses with ulterior motives and police who were out to get him.

Galanter acknowledged that attempting to steal back personal items from the memorabilia dealers at gunpoint is not the right thing to do. "Doing this on your own, going into this room, trying to recover stolen property, is not right. It's just not," he said.

"But being stupid, and being frustrated is not being a crook," he argued.

Galanter said his client became a target for prosecutors because of who he is, because of his past.

"This case has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement. You know that. I know that," Galanter told the jury.

"Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money - the police, the district attorney's office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson. He has always been the target of this investigation, and nothing else mattered," he added.

Galanter reminded the jury of a surreptitious recording of police investigators in the hotel room after the incident. "They're making jokes. They're saying things like, 'We're gonna get him,'" he said.

However, in the prosecution's rebuttal, attorney Chris Owens downplayed that recording.

"It's just amazing that it wasn't worse than what was said on there," Owens said. "Anytime you involve something with celebrity like this, it's typical for anybody to start talking about jokes and things of that nature, but you got to hear all of that."

Police and prosecutors were, in fact, careful and waited to get facts, Owens said.

"Mr. O.J. Simpson as a victim?" he scoffed. "He tends to think of himself as a victim."

Urging the jury to convict Simpson, Owens said Simpson was arrogant for thinking he could commit a crime "against the dignity and the peace of the state of Nevada."

"The kind of arrogance...that would make them think they could come in and get away with this kind of crime and that nobody would report it and they thought they could spin it that, 'It's all OK; It was my stuff,'" he said.

The prosecutors also said the question of ownership of the stolen items was irrelevant.

"When they went into that room and forced the victims to the far side of the room, pulling out guns and yelling 'Don't let anybody out of here!' - six very large people detaining these two victims in the room with the intent to take property through force or violence from them - that's kidnapping," prosecutor David Roger said.

The prosecutors said two of the men with Simpson were armed and one of those men said Simpson asked him to bring a gun.

Meanwhile, the families of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, feel that justice has finally caught up with the disgraced 61-year-old former American football star.

The families of the two victims of the brutal 1994 double slaying believe that Simpson had tried to hide the items to avoid meeting a $33.5 million liability ruling in a civil lawsuit brought against him over those killings.

"Our family would like to thank everyone across the country for their thoughts and prayers as we work through many mixed emotions," said the Brown family. "Our focus is on the children Sydney and Justin (of O.J. and Nicole Simpson), whom we deeply love and cherish, and ask for the understanding of privacy at this time."

Fred Goldman, the father of Ronald Goldman, said his family is "thrilled to see the potential that he could serve the rest of his life in jail where the scumbag belongs."

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home. Suspicion fell on Simpson. However, Simpson's lawyers argued that racist police had planted evidence and on October 3, 1995, he was acquitted. Later, a civil jury held him liable for the killings in a wrongful-death lawsuit.