Thirteen years after his acquittal in one of the most publicized murder cases in American history, former football great O.J. Simpson returns to court here Monday for jury selection in a robbery and kidnapping case that could send him to prison for life. Legal experts say the outcome of the case is far from clear as Simpson, 61, faces a dozen felonies that stem from a confrontation in a hotel room last September in which he and a gang of gun-toting cohorts departed the scene with pillow cases stuffed full of sports memorabilia. The charges against Simpson and one of those men, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, includes kidnapping and armed robbery, both of which carry potential life sentences in the state of Nevada. Simpson and his group allegedly stormed the room at the Palace Station Hotel-Casino to retrieve memorabilia largely related to the football star's career that he has insisted was stolen from him. It was in the possession of two collectibles dealers, Bruce L. Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. Simpson later insisted he did not know that two of the men with him would be carrying guns and did not see them brandish their weapons. Four of the gang, including the two who carried weapons, have struck plea agreements for reduced sentences in exchange for testifying against Simpson. The encounter was arranged by another memorabilia dealer, Thomas Riccio, who recorded the incident and sold those recordings to the celebrity website TMZ.Com for a reported 165,000 dollars before he shared the audio with police. Fromong said Simpson and his group took hundreds of items including his new mobile phone and many collectibles that were related to the careers of other American sports figures. Legal analysts say that such a banal case rarely would go to trial but that the famous defendant has turned it into a much more complicated matter. "Nothing about an O.J. case is a normal case because it's O.J.," says former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson based in Los Angeles who covered the 1995 trial for CBS News.
