O.J.'s alibi: Time means everything
Richard Price; Jonathan T. Lovitt
07/10/1995
USA Today
FINAL
Page 09A
(Copyright 1995)
LOS ANGELES - At 9:35 p.m. on June 12, 1994, Brian "Kato" Kaelin left O.J.
Simpson standing alone in the driveway of his estate. At 10:03 p.m., phone
records show, Simpson made two calls to the home of his girlfriend, Paula
Barbieri.
And that was the last anyone saw or heard of Simpson until just after 11 p.m.,
when he finally answered limo driver Allan Park's persistent buzzing at his front
gate.
That missing time on the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman
were slashed to death will be the battleground for the alibi defense that Simpson's
lawyers are planning to throw against double-murder charges.
Defense lawyers start with three burdens, experts say:
-- First, multiple witnesses said Nicole Simpson's dog, Kato, began wailing at
about 10:15 p.m. and continued barking until a neighbor discovered him with
bloody paws at 10:55.
If the murders occurred at 10:15 as the prosecution contends, that would have
given Simpson plenty of time to change clothes, dispose of evidence and make it
home by 11:00.
-- Second, the defense must overcome the testimony of Park, who arrived at
Simpson's estate at 10:22 and began buzzing at 10:40. Simpson, who had made
the limo appointment for 10:45, didn't answer until just after Park says he spotted
someone Simpson's size walking in the estate's front door at 11:00.
The prosecution's implication: Simpson was not home because he had committed
the murders.
-- Finally, the defense has inconsistencies to erase.
Park testified that when Simpson answered the intercom, he said he had
"overslept and he just got out of the shower." When Simpson talked to police the
next day, he said he had been "running around" his room packing for the flight to
Chicago.
Then defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr. said Simpson actually was in the front
yard practicing golf shots in a sand box in the dark.
Cochran's statement is "incompatible" and "could be a lot of trouble for them,"
says former Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted the
Charles Manson murders.
But Cochran's version at least would explain Simpson's absence from the house.
"If (defense lawyers) can show he was chipping golf balls when the murders
happened, that's a great alibi," says lawyer Richard Hirsch, a friend of Simpson
lawyer Robert Shapiro. "But they'll need somebody to establish that it actually
occurred."
Defense lawyers have another opening. They can try distracting the jury from
10:15 as the time of death - raising doubts about the credibility of the tight
timeline.
Cochran says he'll call a couple who he says strolled past Nicole's condo at 10:25
and saw no signs of trouble. Another witness apparently will testify he heard
someone fighting near her condo at 10:40.
The defense wants to show that prosecutors are guessing about time of death. If
Simpson committed murder after 10:40, some jurors will find it hard to believe
he could have disposed of a weapon and bloody clothes and gotten back in time
to meet his limo driver.
Tinkering with the time also matters because of Rosa Lopez, the former
housekeeper for Simpson's next-door neighbor. In testimony taped during the
prosecution's case, Lopez said she saw Simpson's Bronco parked outside his
home after 10 p.m. She suggested it was long past 10:15, which makes her
critical if jurors believe death occurred later rather than earlier.
Although Lopez comes with credibility problems - she was caught fudging the
truth on several points - the defense may need her.
While Park couldn't swear the Bronco wasn't there, he recalled seeing the address
on the curb where the Bronco would have been parked.
Also, Simpson neighbor Charles Cale testified the Bronco was not parked there
between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m.
Bottom line: Most analysts believe the defense desperately needs at least a
fragment of evidence that puts Simpson at home during the key hour. That
became even more critical after Cochran said in opening statements he could
prove an alibi.
Says Hirsch: "He promised an awful lot, and he'll have to deliver."
PHOTOS,b/w(2)