Simpson found guilty

LAS VEGAS --- In a city where luck means everything, O.J. Simpson came out the big loser.

The 61-year-old Hall of Fame football star was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and 10 other charges for gathering five men a year ago and storming into a room at a hotel-casino, where the group seized several game balls, plaques and photos.

Prosecutors said two of the men with him were armed; one of them said Mr. Simpson asked him to bring a gun.

Mr. Simpson, the sports-idol-turned-celebrity-pariah, was handcuffed and led from the room with his co-defendant, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, 54. They could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

"There is justice," said attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented the family of his slain ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. "Justice was delayed, but in this case it was not denied. Now that he may spend the rest of his life in prison, the law, and not O.J. Simpson, will have the last word."

Still, many of those in the courtroom couldn't believe the verdicts. Mr. Simpson's sister, Carmelita Durio, fainted. The sister of Tom Scotto, whose wedding precipitated the hotel confrontation, wailed. His wife, Sabrina, wept.

Some observers said the case paled in comparison to the "trial of the century" in 1995, a yearlong opus in which Mr. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman.

A rapt nation followed that trial. But in Las Vegas, Mr. Simpson's fate played out in a small courtroom dotted with empty seats. Even the verdict came as most of America slept, oblivious to the irony that Mr. Simpson might spend the rest of his life in prison for what most perceived as a petty crime.

Mr. Simpson's Las Vegas defense tried to tell the jury that the two cases had nothing to do with each other, but it was a losing battle.

Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter said Saturday he felt bad for Mr. Simpson but even worse for Mr. Stewart, 54, who he said got dragged along in a campaign to convict Mr. Simpson.

"This was just payback," Mr. Galanter said. "They were on an agenda."

Mr. Galanter and Mr. Stewart's lawyers promised to appeal, in part because unlike the predominantly black jury that decided Mr. Simpson's murder case, this panel included no blacks. Neither Mr. Simpson nor Mr. Stewart testified.

Mr. Scotto, who wept in court, called it "a public lynching."

"Was this something to put someone in jail for the rest of their life for?" he said.

Mr. Simpson and Mr. Stewart will be held at the Clark County jail until at least Dec. 5, when they are scheduled to be sentenced.