Las Vegas – Police arrested O.J. Simpson on Sunday, saying he was part of an armed group that burst into a Las Vegas hotel room and snatched memorabilia that documented his own sports career.
The arrest starts a new legal odyssey for the football star who more than a decade ago was acquitted of the slayings of his ex-wife and a friend, and it opens the possibility he could spend decades behind bars.
Simpson was taken away from The Palms casino-hotel by plainclothes officers a day after the arrest of a golfing buddy who police say accompanied him with a gun in the Thursday night holdup.
Handcuffed and wearing a golf shirt and jeans, Simpson was placed in a sport utility vehicle. He was later ordered by a judge to be held without bail, police said.
“He was very cooperative, there were no issues,” police Capt. James Dillon said.
Simpson was at the Clark County Detention Center on Sunday night for booking on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit a crime and burglary with a firearm, police said. The district attorney, meanwhile, said he expected Simpson to ultimately be charged with seven felonies and one gross misdemeanor.
If convicted of the booking charges, Simpson would face up to 30 years in state prison on each robbery count alone.
“He is facing a lot of time,” said Clark County District Attorney David Roger.
Simpson, 60, has said he and other people were retrieving items that belonged to him. Simpson has said there were no guns involved and that he went to the room at the casino only to get stolen mementos that included his Hall of Fame certificate and a picture of the running back with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Simpson told reporters on Saturday that he did not call the police to help reclaim the items because he has found the police unresponsive to him ever since his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were killed in 1994.
Police did not allege that Simpson carried a weapon in the incident.Police said they seized two firearms involved in the robbery along with sports memorabilia, most of them signed by Simpson.
Walter Alexander, 46, of Mesa, Ariz., was arrested Saturday night on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon. Alexander, described as one of Simpson’s golfing buddies, was released without bail Saturday night.
Police are seeking four other men: Clarence Stewart, 53, of Las Vegas; Michael McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas; Tom Scotto, whose age and hometown were not known; and another man who was not identified.
Simpson, a Heisman Trophy winner, ex-NFL star and actor, said auction house owner Tom Riccio called him several weeks ago to say some collectors were selling some of his items.
Riccio set up a meeting with collectors under the guise that he had a private collector interested in buying Simpson’s items. Simpson said he was accompanied by several men he met at a wedding cocktail party, and they took the collectibles.
Book on killings sells well
O.J. Simpson’s arrest came just days after the publication of his book, “If I Did It,” about how he would have committed the killings of his ex-wife and Ron Goldman in 1994 had he actually done it.
A federal bankruptcy judge awarded the book’s rights to the Goldman family, who retitled it “If I Did It: The Confessions of the Killer.” During the weekend, the book hit No. 1 at and .
