O.J. Simpson's Ex-Ally Testifies

Celebrity Tried to Influence Story About Guns, Witness Says

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 9 -- Minutes after bursting into the hotel room where he took back contested sports memorabilia, former football star O.J. Simpson appeared to understand that the confrontation had gone too far and began instructing his confederates on a milder version of events, one of them testified Friday.

" 'Gentlemen, we didn't have any guns. Nobody saw any guns,' " Charles Cashmore quoted Simpson as saying after leaving the room, where Cashmore said two handguns had been clearly visible.

One pistol was brandished by Michael McClinton, a Simpson associate who also verbally threatened the two men trying to sell items that Simpson said were his, Cashmore testified. He said the other weapon was in the waistband of a man who held open his coat to reveal it while shouting orders.

"I was just in a situation that was very surreal to me," said Cashmore, who had met Simpson barely an hour before the Sept. 13 confrontation.

The Las Vegas laborer testified at a preliminary hearing as a prosecution witness, part of a plea agreement that likely reduced his sentence to probation from the potential life sentence facing Simpson and two co-defendants. Clark County Judge Joe M. Bonaventure will decide whether the three should face trial on a dozen felony charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

Two other men have also reached plea agreements and are expected to testify against Simpson, who was acquitted by a Los Angeles jury in 1995 in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.

Cashmore, who works as a furniture mover, was introduced to Simpson by an old friend, Clarence "C.J." Stewart, who also is on trial. Cashmore testified that he thought he was going to help Simpson reclaim some belongings, only to find himself one of seven husky, middle-aged men moving through the Palace Station Hotel and Casino's lobby.

The errand turned out to be a confrontation in "a very small room, very heated and very quick," said Cashmore, 40. He said he scooped footballs into pillowcases and lugged a box of photographs down to a car, where Simpson began saying there were no guns.

"The only thing I could assume is that he knew that a gun was a lot of trouble," Cashmore said in his statement to police.

On that, everyone seems to agree. While Simpson's attorneys beat relentlessly on the theme that Simpson was merely retrieving his belongings, Las Vegas police brushed aside the issue when it was raised by Thomas Riccio, the auctioneer who had guided Simpson to the merchandise: " 'We have a bigger issue here,' they said. 'There were guns used,' " Riccio said on the stand Friday.

Riccio, who testified to seeing McClinton wield a pistol, said it is possible Simpson did not. "There's a real good chance he didn't," Riccio said. "He was three feet in front of the guy who had the gun."

But he expressed amused skepticism at the suggestion that Simpson did not know that men in the group were carrying guns. "There's a chance," Riccio said with a smile. "I'm not going to put big odds on it."

Riccio, who deals in celebrity memorabilia, also explained his understanding of the provenance of the items Simpson wanted back. About 10 years earlier, he said, Simpson's business associate, Mike Gilbert, took the memorabilia to prevent its seizure. Sheriff's deputies intended to confiscate it to fulfill Simpson's obligations to the Goldman family, which won a civil judgment holding Simpson responsible for the 1994 murders.

But Gilbert later refused to return the material to Simpson, Riccio testified.

Defense attorneys also challenged Cashmore's depiction of himself as a hapless everyman, citing interviews with national television figures.

"Why do you have a publicity agent, as a flipped-over witness in a criminal case in the state of Nevada?" asked Simpson attorney Gabriel Grasso.

Cashmore replied that, in addition to coordinating requests for interviews, "she's helping me understand I am a person here and not one of the O.J. guys."