After months of anticipation, O.J. Simpson finally revealed his alibi: night golf.
He was hitting golf balls toward his children's sandbox shortly after 10 p.m. on June 12 - the same day that, his attorney told jurors Monday, Simpson had suffered an arthritis flare-up so severe he struggled to shuffle cards."I have no doubt that the prosecution will have a field day with the varying images of Mr. Simpson both playing golf and being arthritic within a very short amount of time," said Southwestern University law Professor Myrna Raeder.
The alibi also appears to contradict previous testimony from limousine driver Allan Park, who said Simpson answered his buzzer at 10:56 p.m. claiming he had overslept and just gotten out of the shower.
In all, Monday was not a good day for Simpson, who is charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
Superior Court Judge Lance Ito punished defense attorneys for hiding witnesses from the prosecution. And in a move he called virtually unprecedented, Ito allowed prosecutors to make an additional 10 minutes of opening remarks Tuesday to address the defense transgressions.
Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark will be allowed to discuss alleged inconsistencies in the statement of Mary Anne Gerchas, one of the surprise witnesses mentioned last week in defense attorney Johnnie Cochran's opening statement. Gerchas said she saw four men running from near the crime scene the night of the murders.
Clark also plans to show four minutes of outtakes from Simpson's recent exercise video, which shows the ex-running back stretching, marching, complaining about his knees and later doing pushups. The prosecution presumably wants to counter defense arguments that Simpson's football injuries would have prevented him from committing the murders.
But Clark won't be allowed to counter Cochran's statement that blood found under Nicole Simpson's fingernails didn't match hers, Goldman's or Simpson's. Clark argued that Cochran quoted lines from a blood test report out of context.
Cochran resumed his opening statement Monday, setting the stage for claiming a frame-up by investigators eager to nab a celebrity.
He told jurors that some of Simpson's blood, given to police a day after the killings, is missing, and the blood of his dead ex-wife appeared to have been smeared on a pair of Simpson's socks months after the murders.
"The evidence will be shown to be contaminated, compromised and corrupted," Cochran said. "The gathering of evidence was a complete disaster."
Cochran said the lead investigator carried a vial of Simpson's blood in his pocket for hours, taking it from police headquarters to Simpson's estate about 20 miles away rather than refrigerating it at the crime lab.
Now, Cochran asserted, not all of the blood withdrawn from Simpson's arm the day after the slayings can be accounted for.
He also accused authorities of bloodying a pair of socks months after technicians reported seeing no blood on those items found at the foot of Simpson's bed.
Cochran also sketched out, in detail, what the defense believes was the sequence of events the night of the murders, contending that Simpson was at his estate the whole time.
"He did not, would not, could not, in the time frame, commit these particular killings," Cochran said.
Simpson's lawyers have always contended that he was at home during the murders. But the opening statement marked the first time a lawyer said explicitly what Simpson was doing: hitting golf balls in the front yard of his Brentwood estate.
"Mr. Simpson very often will swing golf clubs, which he keeps all over the place, in the Bentley, in the garage or whatever," Cochran said. "He will chip or swing his four wood or three wood generally in this direction . . . where there is sand where the kids can play."
And that, Cochran said, is what Simpson was doing at about 10:10 p.m. Prosecutors have estimated the murder time at about 10:15 p.m.
Cochran didn't address his earlier suggestion that on the morning of the murders Simpson suffered a bout of rheumatoid arthritis to the hands that was so painful he couldn't shuffle cards.
It wasn't the only contention in the belated wrapup of Cochran's opening statements that raised eyebrows.
In an apparent effort to explain a phone call from a cellular phone in Simpson's Bronco at about 10 p.m., Cochran said Simpson walked outside and used the phone to call his girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, before he started hitting golf balls.
Cochran didn't tell jurors why Simpson didn't just use the phone in his mansion.