The revised complaint also drops charges against Walter Alexander and Charles Cashmore, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to reduced charges.
Alexander, Simpson's golfing buddy, and Cashmore, at times a day laborer, disc jockey and bartender, have agreed to testify at a preliminary hearing against the former football star and the other men who went to a Las Vegas casino hotel room on Sept. 13 to retrieve items that Simpson said belonged to him.
The memorabilia taken from the hotel room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider, photos of Simpson with the Heisman Trophy, and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as $100,000, according to police reports.
The revised complaint increases to 12 the number of charges against Simpson, Clarence Stewart, Michael McClinton and Charles Ehrlich. The four are scheduled to appear for the preliminary hearing Nov. 8 on felonies including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and coercion and one gross misdemeanor, conspiracy to commit a crime. A kidnapping conviction alone could result in a sentence of life in prison with parole.
Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter said Wednesday that he understood McClinton was accepting a plea deal, including an agreement to plead guilty to robbery without the use of a gun.
"It's all the same," Galanter said. "Same prosecutor. Same plea deal. And they're still giving away the courthouse."
McClinton, 49, was scheduled to appear Monday before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure where he was expected to waive his preliminary hearing, court officials said.
McClinton's lawyer, William Terry, declined comment "other than to confirm that the matter's been placed on calendar."
The new coercion charges allege that the men threatened collectibles dealer Bruce Fromong and took his cell phone, while taking a baseball cap and sunglasses at gunpoint from memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley.
Conviction on felony coercion carries a sentence of up to six years in prison.
Ehrlich's lawyer, John Moran Jr., complained Wednesday that the revised complaint contained wholesale changes in prosecutors' theories of the crimes and was filed so late it put defense lawyers at a disadvantage.
"It violates due process and fair play for us, this far down the road with the preliminary hearing set," Moran said.
Galanter, said his client "is not guilty and we continue to say he is not guilty of any crime." Galanter added that he looked forward to cross-examining Alexander and Cashmore.
Stewart's lawyer, Jose Pallares, denied allegations in the revised complaint that Simpson and Stewart conspired to persuade the others to tell authorities that no guns were used in the confrontation.
According to their lawyers and police reports, Alexander and Cashmore can testify that guns were brought to the Palace Station casino hotel room. Simpson, who lives in Miami, has maintained no guns were involved and he did not tell anyone to bring guns.
The complaint names Thomas Riccio, who is not charged in the case, and describes the role the California collectibles broker played in arranging the meeting between Simpson, Fromong and Beardsley.
Riccio's lawyer, Ryan Okabe of Redondo Beach, Calif., said Clark County District Attorney David Roger has promised Riccio immunity from prosecution. Riccio also has provided authorities with an audio tape he said he recorded during the encounter.
Riccio, Cashmore and Alexander are expected to be key witnesses for the prosecution at the preliminary hearing, when Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure will decide whether there is enough evidence to send the case to trial in state court.
Alexander pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony conspiracy to commit robbery, and Roger said he would seek a suspended sentence, which could get Alexander probation instead of one to six years in prison.
Cashmore pleaded guilty to felony accessory to robbery. He could get probation or up to one to five years in prison at sentencing, according to his agreement with the district attorney.
Sentencing for both men will come after an April 15 status check.
Source: www.cinema-pedia.com
Thursday, October 25, 2007
New Charges Filed in O.J. Simpson Case
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Co-Defendant in Simpson Case to Plea
Cashmore will testify that two of the other men who entered the room with the former football star were armed, his lawyer, Edward Miley, said Friday. Miley said Cashmore will plead guilty to being an accessory to robbery, a felony that could get him up to five years in prison.
A court hearing is set for Monday, a court clerk confirmed.
"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Miley said of Cashmore, a 40-year-old laborer, bartender and disc jockey who lives in Las Vegas.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger declined to comment.
Simpson and the others are charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, assault, burglary and conspiracy in the Sept. 13 encounter in a Las Vegas casino hotel room between Simpson and memorabilia collectors Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.
Simpson also faces a felony charge of coercion, alleging that he took a cell phone from Fromong.
Simpson has said he wanted to retrieve personal items that belonged to him, and his lawyers have maintained that no guns were used.
But Cashmore will testify that Walter Alexander and Michael McClinton, two men who entered the room with Simpson, had guns, Miley said. Miley said Cashmore was unarmed during the alleged robbery.
"The only people with guns that he knew of were Alexander and McClinton," Miley said, adding that Cashmore's crime was failing to immediately go to police and turn over the items he carried out of the room.
Cashmore surrendered to authorities six days later and turned over the items, after police released images from hotel security videotapes showing him carrying a box from the room.
Lawyers for Simpson, McClinton and most of the others did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alexander's lawyer, Robert Dennis Rentzer, declined to say whether Alexander had a gun in the room.
"I owe the district attorney an answer to that question before the press," he said. Rentzer said he was scheduled to meet with Roger on Monday, but he expressed doubt Cashmore could say Alexander was armed.
"How can he put a gun in the possession of someone who didn't have a gun out?" Rentzer said.
Miley said Cashmore met Simpson and most of the others in the group for the first time minutes before the alleged robbery.
"O.J. says, 'Hey I've got to move some stuff, can you help?'" Miley said.
Source: www.cinema-pedia.com