Prosecution Claims O.J. Abused His First Wife, Too

O.J. Simpson, accused of murdering his second wife after years of abuse, also hit his first wife, prosecutors alleged for the first time in court papers released Tuesday.

The documents also reveal Simpson called his first wife, Marquerite Simpson Thomas, on the day he was supposed to surrender on murder charges and told her he had been framed and wanted to kill himself.

The allegations were made in papers prosecutors filed in an effort to force Thomas to testify at Simpson’s trial. Thomas is resisting a prosecution subpoena on the grounds it was served improperly at her Fullerton, Calif., apartment.

“Not only can Mrs. Thomas prove prior acts of domestic violence by the defendant, but she can testify to the statements that the defendant made on June 17, 1994, the day of his arrest,” the papers say.

Simpson is charged in the June 12 knife slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Prosecutors are trying to introduce evidence of domestic violence during Simpson’s relationship with Nicole Simpson to support their contention that the murder was the culmination of years of abuse and degradation.