Simpson Trial Awaits Decision On Last Witnesses Prosecution Ends Rebuttal - Pending Ito Ruling On Defense List

Prosecutors may have called their last witness in the O.J. Simpson case on Monday. But then again, maybe not. As the Simpson trial nears completion, it is also approaching procedural chaos, for while People v. Simpson is often soporific, it is a case in which both sides are reluctant to rest.

Judge Lance Ito has yet to decide whether several more defense witnesses may testify, so prosecutors still do not know what more they must rebut.

The defense is girding to challenge the truthfulness of two important prosecution witnesses: Philip Vannatter, the police officer who led the investigation in the Simpson case, and Roger Martz, the toxicologist for the FBI who dented defense assertions that the police planted the incriminating blood found on two exhibits.

Prosecutors on Monday completed their questioning of William Bodziak, a footwear expert from the FBI, who reiterated his belief that only a single murderer walked about the crime scene. So soaked were the premises with the blood of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman, Bodziak said, that any second assailant could not help but step in it. “It’s impossible unless the person that committed the crime can fly,” he testified.

Simpson’s lawyers then began their rebuttal to the prosecution’s rebuttal by recalling their blood spatter expert, Herbert MacDonell. MacDonell testified that even were they drenched in blood, gloves that looked large on Simpson the sportscaster would not have shrunk enough to become tight on Simpson the defendant.

The police justified their warrantless search of Simpson’s estate last June, which netted a bloody glove, some bloody floorboards and a bloody sock, saying they feared that someone inside was hurt or in danger. But the defense maintains that two witnesses - a mob informer and a law enforcement agent - heard Vannatter declare over beers following court one day that it was really Simpson, the suspect, the police sought.

The informant, Tony (The Animal) Fiato, has been seen publicly with Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, Denise Brown, though Brown has denied having a relationship with him.

If Ito were to credit their testimony, the defense could conceivably succeed at something it had tried repeatedly to do: throw out the evidence police seized at 360 North Rockingham Ave.

Simpson’s lawyers also hope to recall Martz, who testified that his analysis of blood found on a sock retrieved from Simpson’s bedroom and on a gate behind Nicole Simpson’s house contained no signs of a preservative. Any blood that corrupt police could have used to spike those exhibits would have contained such a substance.