Anatomy of a Plot

The police arrived at the Palace Station, and proceeded to interview Beardsley, Fromong and Riccio separately. All mentioned Simpson, all mentioned guns. Riccio did not mention his tape recording, according to the police report. Cops looked at the lobby surveillance camera and got pictures of the men seen carrying boxes to the cars. When Simpson called Riccio's cell phone, an Officer Tucker spoke to Simpson.

Shortly after noon the next day, cops interviewed Simpson at his room at the Palms. He admitted he and others had taken material from the room. "I didn't care about the memorabilia," he said, according to police report. "I wanted the family stuff." But he denied an armed robbery. "It wasn't about being physical," Simpson said, according to the report. Complaining of media reports that Friday, Simpson told cops: "Armed robbery! I knew I was going to be hearing from the cops."

The case cracked open wider the next night, when police got an anonymous call from a woman who claimed to be a friend of O.J. and the late Nicole Brown Simpson. According to the leaked police report, the woman said "a person named Walter Alexander … was one of the persons who was with Simpson the night of the robbery … and was responsible for supplying the guns…" She said Alexander was at the airport and gave them a Southwest flight number. (Police found two guns similar to those allegedly used in the robbery at McClinton's house, not on Alexander.)

The cops picked up Alexander at about midnight Friday night at the airport; curiously, he was leaving town the night before the Saturday wedding he'd come to Vegas to attend. After police showed him surveillance tape of himself at the hotel, he spoke extensively—and drove with them around to the homes of McClinton and Stewart, whom he knew as "Spence" and "C.J.," according to the police report. The next day the cops obtained search warrants for the houses. They found two guns at McClinton's, plus a concealed weapons permit for them. The police report dryly notes that the 22 and 45-caliber handguns "matched weapons described in robbery." Whether they belonged to McClinton, Alexander or someone else is not clear. McClinton's attorney declined to discuss specifics of the case, though he said the government's case is weak and suggested his client is innocent.  Alexander's attorney declined to comment.

Attorneys for several of the men have complained that prosecutors have leveled too many serious charges under the circumstances. The kidnapping seems to result from the alleged presence of guns at the scene, and Simpson's apparent order: "Don't let nobody leave." They complain that the entire episode may have been a "set-up" engineered by Riccio, a convicted felon who secretly made and sold the tape. Lucherini plans to file a discovery motion to determine what sort of deal Riccio cut with law enforcement. He's the only man who went into Room 1203 with Simpson who hasn't been charged in the case.

© 2007