LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) — O.J. Simpson asked friends to bring guns to a confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room, a witness told the sports star's armed robbery trial here Wednesday.
American football legend Simpson asked members of a gang who accompanied him to the showdown to carry weapons for their own protection and to "look tough" by displaying the guns in their waistband, Walter Alexander told the court.
"'I need somebody to watch my back ... do you think you can get some 'heat'?" Simpson said in a meeting before the raid, according to former friend Alexander, using a slang word for firearms.
Alexander is the first witness to give detailed information about how Simpson, 61, allegedly ordered the use of guns in retrieving personal items that were stolen from him a decade ago in Los Angeles.
Simpson, famously acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles in 1995, could be jailed for life if convicted on a dozen robbery and kidnapping charges.
He has repeatedly insisted he was unaware any members of his gang were armed prior to the alleged robbery in Las Vegas on September 13 last year.
Alexander and Simpson were in the gambling haven to attend a friend's wedding when the raid was planned against the memorabilia dealers in their room at the Palace Station casino hotel.
Alexander quoted Simpson as saying: "I doubt you will ever need 'em (the guns), you just want to be protected. Put 'em in your waistband and have your jackets open so they could see when you walk in."
For protection, Alexander and Michael McClinton, another man in the plot, visited a spy shop to buy a tape recorder and mini camera to record the upcoming event. They intended to sell the footage to the media, Alexander testified.
McClinton gave Alexander a .22-caliber automatic handgun and kept a 9 mm handgun for himself. Then they met Simpson and three others at a low-budget hotel when the unsuspecting memorabilia dealers thought they were meeting prosective buyers, Alexander testified.
However, things started to unravel when Simpson told McClinton to take out his gun just before the men burst into the hotel room.
Alexander testified that he thought: "This is gonna be a robbery. I just wanted to turn and go the other way, but O.J. was my friend and I said I had his back. But I really didn't want to go in the room at that point."
After the robbery, Alexander and McClinton worried about getting arrested, Alexander testified. "We realized he was going to throw us under the bus and the only way to defend himself was to blame it on us," Alexander said.
Alexander left Las Vegas shortly and was arrested at the airport. He gave details about the robbery to police as part of a plea bargain.
Later Wednesday Alexander clashed angrily with Simpson's attorney Yale Galanter during aggressive cross-examination.
Galanter riled Alexander immediately by asking if he was feeling well or under the influence of drugs before accusing him of trying to exploit the incident for his own financial gain.
After Galanter leaned in close to quiz the witness, Alexander snapped: "Would you back away from me because I don't like the way you smell."
The attorney began arguing with him and four bailiffs rushed to the witness stand to head off a physical confrontation. Galanter was later chastised by the judge outside the presence of the jury.
Simpson is on trial with Clarence Stewart, who was part of the alleged raid. Four other involved men, including Alexander and McClinton, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges with the agreement to testify.
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