Memorabilia dealer testifies on O.J. robbery

Thomas Riccio, a memorabilia dealer who captured the events on a digital recorder, testified he set up the meeting that ultimately led to felony charges against Simpson. He later sold a copy of the recording to a tabloid Web site before handing it over to police.

Like Fromong, Riccio said he hoped to make money off Simpson. It was only Simpson, Riccio said, who didn’t want any money. He just wanted to retrieve memorabilia from his storied football career that his family could have as keepsakes.

“A lot of people forget the fact that O.J. was one of the greatest football players,” Riccio said.

He said Simpson not only wanted his stuff back, but was interested in staging a reality show documenting the recovery. But when he told FBI agents in Los Angeles about their plans, he said, they “put their heads in their hands” and refused to get involved.

FBI documents obtained by The Associated Press last week confirm the agency was told of the plan by Riccio three weeks before it happened.

Fromong and Riccio were among eight witnesses prosecutors expected to call. The hearing was to continue Friday.

Beardsley, who has been in custody in California on a parole violation, has been transferred to a Las Vegas jail and is expected to testify, defense lawyers said.

In Simpson’s mind, according to a close friend, the Las Vegas charges are rooted in the former football star being acquitted in the 1994 slayings of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

“He believes he’s being tried for that now,” said Tom Scotto, 45, a North Miami Beach, Fla., auto body shop owner.

Simpson has maintained that he wanted to retrieve items he knew had been stolen from him, including the suit Fromong mentioned.

Simpson and co-defendants Clarence “C.J.” Stewart and Charles Ehrlich face 12 charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and coercion.

A kidnapping conviction could result in a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery conviction could mean mandatory prison time.

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