Jury Hears Of O.J. The Killer, The Dad Prosecution, Defense Pull Out Stops In Summations To Jury

In dueling summations Wednesday, a prosecutor played O.J. Simpson’s recorded rage and the haunting pleas of his exwife, and Simpson’s lawyer recalled the too-tight evidence gloves, insisting: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

Johnnie Cochran Jr., displaying his flair for courtroom theatrics, at one point put on a dark knitted ski cap to rebuff a prosecution suggestion that Simpson wore a similar one as a disguise the night of the murders.

“If I put this knit cap on, who am I?” Cochran asked jurors. “I’m Johnnie Cochran with a knit cap on. From two blocks away, O.J. Simpson is O.J. Simpson.”

Known for his rapid-fire oratory, Cochran began slowly and quietly, reminding jurors of their duty under the law, apologizing for the trial’s length and telling them, “In the journey toward justice, there is no short cut.”

Echoing words spoken by Simpson last week while jurors were absent, Cochran told the jury: “O.J. could not, would not, did not commit these crimes.”

He picked apart the prosecutors’ timeline, saying there was no way Simpson could have murdered his exwife and her friend Ronald Goldman in the limited time prosecutors say.

Simpson, he said, is a man unjustly accused by overzealous police driven by their own egos.

“Because of their vanity, they implicated an innocent man and they never looked for anyone else,” he said.

He cited the “defining moment in the trial” as the day prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to try on the bloody evidence gloves and the defendant told jurors they were too small.

“Remember these words,” Cochran said. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

He repeated that and other phrases to jurors almost as a mantra.

Jurors were attentive to Cochran’s presentation but showed no reaction to the hat demonstration. By midafternoon, they appeared to be tiring.

At the start of the day, Darden used Simpson’s own voice against him, playing a 911 call that exposes Simpson’s fury and his ex-wife’s plea: “O.J., O.J. The kids are sleeping.”

As Simpson sat across the courtroom conferring with his lawyers, Darden depicted the football Hall of Famer as a spurned man, an obsessed ex-husband driven by inner demons to kill.

“O.J. Simpson is a murderer,” Darden said bluntly. “You have to look at all the evidence. … You’ll see that he did it and we proved it. We proved it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Darden, who was the second prosecutor to speak before the defense took over, focused on the violence that erupted periodically during the Simpsons’ relationship. Often speaking so quietly he could barely be heard, Darden described Simpson as a man with a “short fuse” that burned every day toward the climactic moment when he took up a knife and released his rage.

“I’m not suggesting he was consumed with jealousy every minute of every day,” Darden said. “I’m sure they had good times. … But always beneath the surface was this jealousy. There’s certain things that set him off, that set that fuse burning. In the afternoon, Cochran sought to resurrect Simpson’s image as a cheerful, doting father by showing jurors a home video of Simpson greeting his small son and his former in-laws at his daughter’s dance recital hours before the murders.

“He isn’t brooding or in a rage,” Cochran said. “He’s laughing, kissing his family members.”

He showed jurors a photo taken that night of a beaming Simpson with his daughter Sydney holding flowers he had brought her.

“Where’s the fuse now, Mr. Darden?” Cochran snapped. “He’s a proud papa.”

As the photo was shown, Simpson smiled slightly and sat like that proud father described by his attorney.