'There is a killer in this court' Lawyer hammers O.J. in closing arguments

  Jonathan T. Lovitt ; Richard Price

  01/22/1997

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 03A

  (Copyright 1997)

  SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Lawyer Daniel Petrocelli condemned O.J. Simpson

  at his civil trial Tuesday as a ``deeply flawed'' liar who butchered Nicole Brown

  Simpson and Ron Goldman in ``a few moments of uncontrollable rage.''

  Petrocelli, representing Goldman's father, Fred, told jurors during his closing

  argument that evidence in the wrongful-death case includes ``the voices of Ron

  and Nicole speaking to us from their graves, telling us . . . there is a killer in this

  courtroom.''

  Swinging to Simpson, Petrocelli pointed: ``That's the man who attacked them,

  confronted them, and who killed them that Sunday evening in June.''

  Simpson and his lead lawyer, Robert Baker, sat grim-faced through the delivery.

  The lawyer resumes his closing argument today followed by other lawyers for

  the plaintiffs and then Baker for the defense. Petrocelli will finish with a rebuttal

  argument before the case goes to the jury.

  As he has all through the trial, Petrocelli mixed the evidence against Simpson

  with an attack on the defendant's character. Sneering at Simpson's past

  accomplishments on the football field, he challenged jurors to ask themselves

  what kind of man Simpson is.

  ``What kind of man,'' he asked, ``confronted with a bruised and battered picture

  of Nicole, says, `I take responsibility for those injuries, but I didn't slap her. . . . I

  was just defending myself'?

  ``What kind of man who shares a bedroom with a woman for 10 years calls it

  `My bedroom, my property, my home'?

  ``What kind of man says his wife was lying on that (911) tape when she says she

  was afraid? . . . What kind of man says cheating on your wife isn't a lie? . . .

  What kind of man says his wife's most private writings (her diary entries) . . . are

  `a pack of lies?'

  ``What kind of man? A guilty man . . . with no remorse.''

  Petrocelli raced through the physical evidence, including Simpson's blood and

  hair at the crime scene and blood of the victims in his Ford Bronco and at his

  home, including Nicole's blood on his socks found in his bedroom.

  He brought up the 31 pictures showing Simpson wearing shoes matching those

  that left bloody footprints leading away from the bodies.

  ``Those . . . Bruno Magli shoes that he swore to you under oath that he never

  owned and he never wore . . . O.J. Simpson is the killer, the shoes are on those

  feet, it's the end of the ballgame, nothing more to talk about.''

  He also berated Simpson over answers that contradicted testimony from scores of

  other witnesses. For Simpson to be innocent, Petrocelli said, ``60 other people

  have to be lying or mistaken.''

  And he cited Simpson's habit of contradicting his own past statements.

  ``We trap him, he changes his story. We trap him again, he changes his story

  again,'' Petrocelli said. ``He was lying, lying, lying, and he got caught, got

  caught, got caught.''

  PHOTO, B/W, Reuters