‘A Killer’ In Simpson Courtroom Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Says Defendant ‘Lied And Lied’
Pointing at a shaken O.J. Simpson, a lawyer for the parents of the football legend’s slain ex-wife and her pal declared Tuesday, “There is a killer in this courtroom!”
Jurors watched, riveted, as attorney Daniel Petrocelli painted the once-beloved ex-athlete as an egotistical liar and jealous madman who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman “in a blind rage” June 12, 1994.
“The crucial pieces of evidence are the voices of Ron and Nicole speaking to us from the grave, telling us, telling all of you, there is a killer in the courtroom!” he boomed.
The dramatic presentation kicked off closing arguments in Simpson’s wrongful-death civil trial.
Petrocelli used the word “liar” over and over when talking of Simpson, spitting it out almost tauntingly. “He’s lying, he’s lying, he’s lying,” Petrocelli said at one point. “And he got caught, got caught, got caught.”
Simpson seemed agitated by the repeated accusations; he clenched his jaw, muttered aloud and beckoned his attorneys into huddles.
Petrocelli peppered his words with striking images, mixing pictures of a smiling Nicole and Goldman with grisly crime scene photos.
“Ron Goldman will never get to open his restaurant,” Petrocelli said. “Nicole Brown Simpson will never see her children grow up because on a Sunday evening in 1994, these two vital people - their lives came to a sudden end in a few moments of one man’s rage.”
Invoking Simpson’s testimony and allegations of spousal abuse, Petrocelli launched into a litany of questions. “What kind of man, confronted with a bruised and battered picture of Nicole, says, ‘I take responsibility for those injuries, but I didn’t slap her. I was just defending myself’?” Petrocelli asked.
“What kind of man says his wife was lying on that (911) tape when she says she was afraid?” he asked.
“What kind of man would try to ruin the lives of innocent people just doing their jobs … accusing them of committing perjury?” he asked, referring to the defense’s theory of a police frameup.
One by one, Petrocelli answered his own questions.
“A guilty man. A man with no remorse. A man with no conscience,” he said. “This man is so obsessed with trying to salvage his image that he’ll come into this court and will smear the name and reputation of the mother of his children while she rests in her grave.
“This man has lied and lied and lied in this case.”
The defense is slated to offer its final statement today, and the case could go to the jury Thursday.