OJ Simpson trial nears conclusion in Las Vegas

OJ Simpson's robbery-kidnap trial drew toward a close yesterday as his attorney insisted the retired football star was unjustly prosecuted for merely trying to retrieve "sacred" personal belongings that had been taken from him.

Defense lawyer Yale Galanter told jurors that Simpson lacked any criminal intent when he and five other men stormed into a Las Vegas hotel room last year to confront a pair of memorabilia dealers, and that Simpson was unaware any of the men with him were armed.

"This was always about the recovery of stolen property," Galanter said in closing arguments, suggesting prosecutors and police were out to get Simpson due to the infamy surrounding his acquittal a decade ago in a sensational murder trial.

But Clark County District Attorney Dave Roger admonished jurors that "a good-faith belief in the right of property taken" does not excuse Simpson from being charged with using force and the threat of violence to seize those items.

"We all must be held accountable for our own actions," Roger said.

Simpson faces a possible life prison term if convicted on charges of robbing and holding the two memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino on September 13, 2007. Prosecutors say Simpson and the men who accompanied him made off with thousands of dollars in collectibles.

Galanter argued that the former athlete turned Hollywood actor and TV pitchman wanted only to retrieve personal photographs and mementos that found their way into the possession of collectors after they were stolen from him.

Galanter said the items represented "the absolute essence, the cornerstone and the foundation of OJ Simpson's life, and that's why this property is so sacred to him."

Four of the men with Simpson in the hotel encounter have agreed to plead guilty in the case, and all took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of trial testimony that concluded on Wednesday.

Two of them, Walter Alexander and Michael McClinton, told the jury that they carried guns into the hotel room encounter at Simpson's behest. McClinton said Simpson urged him to "show" his weapon and "look menacing."

Neither Simpson, 61, nor his lone remaining co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, were called to testify before the defense rested its case.

Simpson and Stewart are each charged with a dozen crimes, including armed robbery and kidnapping. If convicted on all counts, they face potential life sentences.

While no evidence has emerged suggesting that Simpson himself was armed, prosecutors have sought to show that Simpson knew of, and even encouraged, the possession of guns by his former co-defendants.

Jury deliberations are expected to begin today.

Simpson's previous legal cases are not supposed to figure in jurors' minds, but they have hovered around the trial.

A Los Angeles jury cleared Simpson of murder charges stemming from the June 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, at the end of a year-long trial that transfixed much of the world.

A civil court jury later found Simpson responsible in a wrongful death suit and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that remains largely unpaid.