O.J. Simpson delivered the following words while seeming to choke back tears before he was sentenced to 9 to 33 years for an armed heist in Las Vegas.
“Your honor, I stand before you today sorry, somewhat confused.
“I feel like apologetic to the people of the state of Nevada.
“I’ve been coming to Nevada since 1959. I worked summer jobs for my uncle in ’60 and ’61 and I’ve been coming ever since and I’ve never got into any trouble. People have always been fine to me.
“When I came here, I came here for a wedding. I didn’t come here to … I didn’t come here to reclaim property.
“I was told it was here. What he told me that Monday is that the stuff was in Vegas when I was going to be in Nevada.
“I called my kids, I talked to my sisters, I called the Brown family and I told them I have the chance to get some of our property back, property that over the years was seen being sold on the Internet.
“Picture of ours stolen from our home going into the tabloids.
“We called the police and asked what to do. They told us what to try to do but you can never find out who was selling it.
“This was the first time I had the opportunity to catch the guys red-handed with what they stole from my family.
“I knew these guys, I did think Mike Gilbert was going to be there. He was the one who did it.
“But I have no hatred for Mike Gilbert. In the past, as we know, you heard on that tape Mike Gilbert tried to set me up on a porn video, trick me into a room with hidden cameras.
“The newspaper and the tabloids still had cover stories that ‘O.J. did it’ even though there was no home video. Even though I didn’t participate in it. I forgave Mike. I yelled at him just like I yelled at Bruce and Beardsley and I’ve forgiven them.
“We’ve talked about it, Beardsley, right the next day. Bruce and I have talked about it. His kids have called me since. We’ve apologized to each other. The only person I asked, I requested to help me here. was Mr. Stewart. I did request him.
“I needed his car. I asked him if he had some guys to help me remove these things from the room. I didn’t ask anybody to do anything but stand behind me to allow me to yell at these guys and then help me remove those things.
“And if they wouldn’t let me remove them, we were going to call the cops on them, because I felt that they were wrong. They had turnover orders and they had to turn over some of these things that were both garnish-able and things that were not garnish-able. I didn’t want them to yell at them.
“I think Mr. McClintock, at a previous trial, said I didn’t ask them to yell at anybody. Unfortunately they did and I believe it was my fault because I brought them there.”And I knew the character of a couple of the guys that were there and it was my fault that they were there. But in no way did I mean to hurt anybody, to steal anything from anybody.
“I spoke to Bruce before I left the room. He told me what was his. And I called him and when I got to the car and I said exactly what you have. I want to send it back to you.
“I talked to the police officers, I volunteered immediately to come back, [to] show them what was taken and tell them what took place Before anybody talked to the police. I was the first guy that volunteered to do it. And I heard on the tapes that they thought I was stupid for doing it.
“But I didn’t want to steal anything from anybody. I don’t think anyone said I wanted anyone else’s stuff, just my own.
“I wanted my … my daughter, Mrs. Brown gave her her’s mother wedding ring – stolen.
“And all my kids had pictures. My oldest son has his own family now. He wanted a picture of the Oval Office with Gerald Ford when he was 5 years old – stolen. All these things are gone.
“And I didn’t want to hurt Bruce, I didn’t want to hurt any of these guys.
“I know these guys. These guys have eaten in my home. I’ve done book reports with their kids. I’ve sung for their mothers when they were sick. I wasn’t there to hurt anybody. I just wanted my personal things and I realized now it was stupid of me
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to steal anything from anybody. And I didn’t know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends and retrieving my property. So I’m sorry, I’m sorry for all of it.
“But all the others guys, except Mr. Stewart, volunteered. They wanted to go. Mr. Stewart is the only person I asked to help me. All the rest of them when they found out, they volunteered – ‘Come on let us go!’
“One of them wanted to be the security guy, claimed he was a security guy.
“But I didn’t mean to hurt anybody and I didn’t mean to steal from anybody. Thank you.”