A sports memorabilia dealer O.J. Simpson is accused of stealing from told a Las Vegas courtroom Thursday that the former football star burst into a hotel room with a gun and carted off hundreds of items.
Simpson and two others face a dozen charges ranging from kidnapping to armed robbery to assault with a deadly weapon, stemming from a mid-September incident at the Palace Station hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
O.J. Simpson, right, and lawyer Yale Galanter attend Thursday's hearing.
(Justin Sullivan/Associated Press)
He appeared Thursday at the opening of a two-day hearing to determine if enough evidence exists to try the former athlete. Three of Simpson's former co-defendants have made plea deals and are also expected to testify against him.
Bruce Fromong, one of the two dealers Simpson is accused of stealing from, said Simpson and the others burst into the hotel room "in a military fashion" on Sept. 13.
"O.J. was screaming, 'This is all my s---. This all belongs to me. You stole this from me. Let's pack up. Let's get out of here,"' Fromong said.
He said the alleged incident lasted about six minutes, saying the intruders left after stuffing hundreds of items into hotel pillowcases.
Simpson attorney Gabriel Grasso suggested Fromong sought to make money at Simpson's expense.
Fromong acknowledged that he has gone to the online auction site eBay in an effort to peddle items he has dubbed as "identical to the items O.J. stole from me!" and called a TV show from his hospital bed when he had a heart attack days after the alleged break-in.
No guns, Simpson maintains
The Florida-based Simpson, who had been in Las Vegas for the wedding of a friend, maintains that he and his colleagues had only gone to confront the two dealers to retrieve items he claims had been stolen from him by a former agent.
He has also said that he didn't ask anyone to bring along weapons and that no guns were involved in the encounter.
However, his former co-defendants have claimed otherwise.
If convicted of kidnapping, Simpson could receive up to a life sentence in
prison with the possibility of parole.
A conviction for armed robbery could also carry a mandatory prison sentence.
Police were stationed at barricades and officials blocked off the streets around the courthouse in advance of Thursday's hearing.
Tabloid staple since ex-wife's murder
The Heisman Trophy winner, ex-NFL star and actor, who now lives near Miami, has been a tabloid staple since his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were killed in 1994.
Though he was acquitted of their murders, Simpson was later found liable in wrongful death civil actions in both deaths.
The Goldman and Brown families won a $30-million US settlement against Simpson in 1996.
However, the Goldman family has been actively trying to track down various Simpson assets over the years as part of the settlement, and claims it is still owed millions of dollars.
Goldman's family recently published If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer, a ghost-written account of the murders purportedly co-written by Simpson.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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