9h 28min, sep 18, 1995 y - Prosecution conditionally rests case

Description:

DA conditionally rests rebuttal case

By TERRI VERMEULEN | Sept. 18, 1995

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18 -- "Prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson double- murder trial conditionally rested their rebuttal case Monday after presenting a dozen witnesses, including seven who tied the football legend to a pair of gloves resembling a pair linked to the killings of Simpson's ex-wife and her friend. 'At this point, your honor, the people conditionally rest rebuttal,' prosecutor Marcia Clark told Judge Lance Ito, adding that prosecutors wanted to reserve the right to call other rebuttal witnesses based on the remainder of the defense's case.

Quickly trying to bolster the defense's theory that the gloves linked to the murders did not fit Simpson, his lawyers called a blood-spatter expert back to the stand to counter the prosecution's response to why the gloves did not fit Simpson during a dramatic courtroom demonstration in June. Defense attorneys and legal experts called that moment one of the most important of the trial. Prosecutors contend the gloves fit Simpson before the murders and had shrunk about 15 percent because of exposure to blood at the murder scene.

During the courtroom demonstration, Simpson told the jury the gloves were 'too tight' and appeared to struggle to put them on over a pair of latex gloves. Defense expert Herbert MacDonell, who had already testified in late July and early August, told the jury that he smeared blood on the same size and brand of gloves and did not detect any shrinkage. Simpson's lawyers contend their client needs an extra-extra-large glove, not the extra-large gloves found at the scene.

One of the extra-large brown leather gloves was found outside the Brentwood condominium where Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were slashed and stabbed to death on June 12, 1994. The other bloody glove was found in the back yard of Simpson's estate 2 miles away. Glove expert Richard Rubin, re-called during the prosecution's rebuttal case to testify about photographs and videotapes taken by six other witnesses, said he is '100 percent certain' that the brown leather gloves worn by Simpson at football games in 1991 and 1993 are the same style as the gloves used in the murders. But he said he could not conclusively determine whether the gloves were the exact same pair. Simpson, 48, a National Football League Hall-of-Fame running back and Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Southern California, could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

In other developments Monday: --The prosecution's last rebuttal witness, FBI shoeprint expert William Bodziak, reiterated his contention that there was only one set of bloody shoeprints leading away from the murder scene -- a size 12 pair of expensive Italian shoes that the government contends Simpson wore the night of the killings. Bodziak's testimony contradicts the account of key defense expert Dr. Henry Lee, a world renowned forensic scientist who runs the Connecticut state crime lab. Lee had bolstered the defense's theory that more than one person committed the murders, saying he found two types of sole patterns when he visited the crime scene two weeks after the murders.

The FBI expert countered that the one imprint Lee identified as a bloody shoeprint was not shown in a June 13 photo of the crime scene, and must have been left at the bloody scene some time after police unsealed the crime scene. --Simpson's chief defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran Jr., told the judge the defense wants to call a reputed former Mafia enforcer-turned- FBI-witness to contradict the testimony of co-lead police investigator Philip Vannatter. Anthony 'Tony the Animal' Fiato is expected to testify that he heard Vannatter saying police already considered Simpson a suspect in the murders of his ex-wife and her friend when a police detective jumped the wall to Simpson's mansion without a warrant. Vannatter and fellow lead investigator Tom Lange have testified they did not immediately consider Simpson a suspect, and went to the mansion to notify him about his ex-wife's death and arrange for him to pick up the couple's two young children.

Simpson's attorneys have long claimed that police immediately considered Simpson a suspect, and illegally entered his property without a search warrant in their 'rush to judgment.' Cochran said the defense wants to call Vannatter back to the stand Tuesday for more cross-examination, but prosecutors are expected to fight those plans. He said the defense expects to wrap up the balance of its case by Tuesday or Wednesday.

The judge barred the defense from calling a former colleague of disgraced ex-cop Mark Fuhrman to testify about his alleged use of racial slurs against blacks. Testimony from Officer Sherry Ray, who is on stress-related leave from the department, would be cumulative given the testimony from four other witnesses about Fuhrman, Ito said. Simpson's lawyers claim Fuhrman is a racist, rogue ex-cop with a motive to plant a bloody glove at Simpson's estate to frame the black football legend for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, who were both white."


Sourced from:
UPI News

Https://www.upi.com/amp/Archives/1995/09/18/EDs-DA-conditionally-rests-rebuttal-case-DA-conditionally-rests-rebuttal-case/7176811396800/

Added to timeline:

Date:

Images: