Jury gets Simpson robbery-kidnap case

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The armed robbery and kidnapping case of former football star O.J. Simpson is in the hands of a Las Vegas jury.

Both sides presented closing arguments before court adjourned Thursday. Prosecutors said Simpson led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take sports memorabilia from two men, while defense attorneys said their client was a victim of his own notoriety and targeted by police, CNN reported Friday.

Simpson and co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart are accused of stealing memorabilia from dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley in the Palace Station hotel Sept. 13, 2007. Simpson says he was trying to retrieve property stolen from him.

The most serious of the charges, kidnapping, carries a possible life-in-prison sentence.

Simpson "is the person who put these crimes together," Clark County District Attorney David Roger said.

The defense portrayed Simpson as a victim of his own fame and surrounded by shady characters.

"The intention was to set him up, make money off him," argued Yale Galanter. "He is not guilty."

Simpson was acquitted on Oct. 3, 1995, of criminal charges in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman.