Tearful Simpson offers apology at sentencing

LAS VEGAS – This was not the O.J. Simpson of old.

His wrists shackled, eyes reddened and husky voice cracking, the fallen football star – who famously was acquitted of double murder in Los Angeles – was sentenced Friday to up to 33 years in prison for robbing a pair of memorabilia dealers. He will be eligible for parole in nine years.

Surprising even Judge Jackie Glass, Simpson delivered a tearful, five-minute apology to a packed courtroom down the street from the casinos and pawnshops of downtown Las Vegas.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it,” Simpson said, a moment that may have marked the end of a saga that has gripped the nation for years: Simpson’s journey from gridiron icon to social pariah after the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. A civil jury in 1997 found Simpson liable in their slayings.

Simpson, 61, told the judge that he went to a down-market Las Vegas hotel on Sept. 13, 2007, to recover family heirlooms – including his slain ex-wife’s wedding ring – to pass down to his children.

“This was the first time I had an opportunity to catch the guys red-handed who had been stealing from my family,” said the NFL Hall of Fame running back, dressed in navy jail garb, his hair graying at the temples.

“In no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anybody. I just wanted my personal things,” he said. When Simpson finished, his shoulders slumped and his face fell.

Simpson’s broken demeanor and words of regret Friday capped a trial that had stripped him of much of his remaining sheen.

The former Heisman Trophy winner, Hertz rent-a-car pitchman and sports commentator was accused of leading a rag-tag band of men – two carrying handguns – to confront dealers hawking mementos from him and other sports stars.

“I didn’t ask anybody to do anything but stand behind me, have me yell at the guys and help me remove my things,” Simpson told the judge.

District Attorney David Roger and prosecutor Chris Owens – who said they had never tried such a high-profile case – argued that the robbery’s origins could be traced to the $33.5 million civil judgment.

Simpson stashed things with friends to keep them from the Goldman family, whom he had nicknamed “The Gold Diggers,” but grew frustrated when they were not returned, prosecutors said.

On Friday, Simpson insisted he was acting on behalf of his children and said he had even told his former in-laws of his plans.

“In Mr. Simpson’s mind … what he was doing truly was a retrieval of his own property,” defense attorney Yale Galanter said. “What it was was a highly emotional, stupid act that violated the law.

“Stupidity,” he added, “is not criminality.”

Glass rejected the defense’s protestations – and made clear that her sentence was not “payback” for the double-murder acquittal that polarized Americans.

“When you take a gun with you and you take men with you in a show of force, that is not just a ‘Hey, give me my stuff back.’ That’s something else, and that’s what happened here,” Glass said.

The evidence against Simpson, she said, was “overwhelming” because of surreptitious audiotapes – made by cohorts who testified for the prosecution – that captured the planning, execution and aftermath of the six-minute encounter. On one tape, the football great casually talks about “the piece” – the gun Simpson purportedly asked an associate to bring.

Glass sentenced co-defendant Clarence Stewart, whom Roger described as less culpable than Simpson, to at least 7 1/2 years behind bars, with a maximum sentence of 27 years.

Simpson, who is planning an appeal, will be eligible for parole in 2017.