LAS VEGAS — A weary and beaten-looking O.J. Simpson was put away Friday for at least nine years — and perhaps the rest of his life — for an armed robbery in a hotel room, bringing a measure of satisfaction to those who believed the football star got away with murder more than a decade ago.
The 61-year-old Hall of Famer listened stone-faced, his wrists in shackles, as Judge Jackie Glass pronounced the sentence — 33 years behind bars with eligibility for parole after less than a third of that.
Moments before, Simpson made a rambling, five-minute plea for leniency, simultaneously apologizing for the holdup as a foolish mistake and trying to justify his actions.
He choked back tears as he told her: “I didn’t mean to steal anything from anybody … I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it.”
The judge said several times that her sentence in the Las Vegas case had nothing to do with Simpson’s 1995 acquittal in the slaying of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
“I’m not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else,” Glass said.
But Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, and sister, Kim, said they were delighted with the sentence.
“We are thrilled, and it’s a bittersweet moment,” Fred Goldman said. “It was satisfying seeing him in shackles like he belongs.”
Simpson said he and five other men were simply trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and other mementos when he stormed a Las Vegas hotel room occupied by two dealers on Sept. 13, 2007. He insisted the items, which included his first wife’s wedding ring, had been stolen from him.
But the judge emphasized that it was a violent confrontation in which at least one gun was drawn, and she said someone could have been shot. She said the evidence was overwhelming, with the planning, the confrontation itself and the aftermath all recorded on audio or videotape.
Glass, a no-nonsense judge known for tough sentences, imposed such a complex series of consecutive and concurrent sentences that even many lawyers watching the case were confused as to how much time Simpson got.
Simpson could serve up to 33 years, said Elana Roberto, the judge’s clerk.
In state prison, he will remain in his own cell protected from the general prison population because of his celebrity.
Simpson’s lawyer suggested again that his client was a victim of payback for his acquittal in Los Angeles.
“It really made us all aware that despite our best efforts, it’s very difficult to separate the California case from the Nevada case,” attorney Yale Galanter said.
Some people who followed the case said justice had finally caught up with Simpson.
“You do things and you’ve got to expect karma to come around,” said Greg Wheatley, 32, of Los Angeles.
Simpson was led away to prison immediately after the judge refused to permit him to go free on bail while he appeals.
Simpson’s co-defendant and former golfing buddy, Clarence “C.J. Stewart, was sentenced to up to 27 years in prison but would be eligible for parole after 7 1/2 years, court officials said.
The judge could have sent both men to prison for the rest of their lives. The state parole agency recommended at least 18 years. The defense pushed for the minimum six years.
District Attorney David Roger revealed that Simpson and Stewart had both been offered plea agreements during the trial that would have resulted in lesser sentences.
The prosecutor also said that because the crimes were considered violent felonies, Simpson and Stewart will not be eligible for good-behavior credits to lessen their sentences.
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