Former football star O.J. Simpson was released from jail after posting bail in connection with the armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors at a Las Vegas hotel, but still faces charges that could put him behind bars for life.
As the ex-NFL star made his US$125,000 bail on Wednesday on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery, legal experts were questioning: Could a former football star who beat a double-murder rap really do hard time for a crime that sounds like a bad movie?
Police have laid out a case that makes Simpson the leader in an armed holdup of sports memorabilia collectors, and they arrested a fifth suspect in the case on Wednesday. Some of the facts -- including a curious recording of the confrontation -- do not seem so clear-cut.
PHOTO: AP
Legal experts say that issues such as who had rightful ownership of the goods and the reputation of witnesses in the sometimes less-than-reputable world of memorabilia trading could cloud the prosecution's case.
Simpson has insisted he was merely retrieving items that were stolen from him earlier.
Alfred Beardsley, one of the collectors who says he was robbed at gunpoint by Simpson and several other men, told NBC's Today show before Simpson's hearing that he did not think an audiotape made at the scene was accurate. Beardsley was arrested on a parole violation on Wednesday.
The other victim, Bruce Fromong, was recovering from a heart attack in hospital. The man who arranged the meeting between Simpson and the two collectors, Tom Riccio, has a criminal record.
A key difference with the 1995 murder trial is that there are plenty of witnesses this time who place Simpson at the scene, including hotel video surveillance. Simpson has made no secret he went to the hotel room intending to take the memorabilia and told the press that a man who came with him brought a truck to cart away the goods.
"It's not like the murder case involving his ex-wife and Ron Goldman, where Simpson had a completely different story in which he said, `I wasn't there,'" said Doug Godfrey, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "A prosecutor only has to show intent. And the intent is, `Were you acting in concert with someone with a gun to take property from someone?'"
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