O.J. Simpson, who famously stunned America more than a decade ago by walking away from his murder trial a free man, was sentenced yesterday to at least 15 years in prison for his Las Vegas kidnapping conviction.

His accomplice Clarence Stewart was also sentenced to 15 years.

The sentence was levied by a judge two months after jurors found the 61-year-old retired football star guilty of all 12 charges against him for last year's gunpoint holdup of a pair of sports memorabilia collectors in a casino hotel room.

Describing Mr Simpson, 61, as arrogant and ignorant, District Judge Jackie Glass said the evidence was overwhelming.

The former National Football League hero turned actor, dressed in blue prison garb, appeared sombre and drawn as the sentence was pronounced. Minutes earlier he had pleaded for leniency, saying he had only meant to retrieve possessions that he believed were wrongly taken from him.

"I didn't mean to hurt anybody, and I didn't mean to steal anything," he said, his voice shaking with emotion.

Mr Simpson has remained in custody since he was convicted on October 3, exactly 13 years after his controversial 1995 acquittal in Los Angeles in the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

It was not immediately clear how many years the one-time star athlete known as "The Juice" would actually serve before he might be eligible for parole, or how the prison terms imposed by the judge for other offences would add to the 15-year sentence he received for kidnapping.

Judge Glass denied defence motions for bail pending appeal, saying both defendants posed a risk of fleeing.

Mr Simpson's lawyers had asked that he receive a term of no more than six years for storming into a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino with five cohorts in September 2007 to hold two sports merchandise dealers at gunpoint, then making off with thousands of dollars in collectibles.

The four other men originally charged in the case all agreed to plead guilty and took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of trial testimony.

Neither Mr Simpson nor Mr Stewart testified in their own defence.

Mr Simpson's lead attorney, Yale Galanter, has said his client's past as a notorious murder defendant, widely seen as having eluded justice in Los Angeles, was a factor in his being found guilty by the Las Vegas jurors.

After his acquittal in the 1995 case, Mr Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a civil case and ordered to pay $33.5 million (€26.3 million) to Mr Goldman's family.