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It was the men they were supposed to meet, not O.J. Simpson, who worried Thomas Riccio. But O.J. wasn't worried about anything. "Don't worry, I've got my boys. We're going to take care of it," he said.
According to Riccio, that's how it went down shortly before Simpson and his ad hoc posse confronted two sports memorabilia collectors in a Las Vegas hotel room Sept. 13, purportedly to retrieve stolen items.
On the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there's enough evidence to try Simpson and two others on felony charges that include armed robbery and kidnapping, Riccio, the one who arranged the meeting between Simpson and Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, testified that he set up the amateur sting operation because he truly believed the memorabilia was stolen.
Beardsley "came right out and said it was stolen from O.J.'s trophy room," Riccio said Friday, his second day on the stand. "Those were his exact words."
So, Riccio reserved room 1203 at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino in his name and, contrary to Fromong's description of their entrance as a "military-style invasion," he let Simpson and his pals into the room.
"I had a key, and I let them in," Riccio said. "Nobody was busting the door down."
But their simple plan quickly "went south," he added. "Things went crazy," but "there was no turning back" once the guns came out.
On Thursday and Friday, prosecutors played portions of an audio recording Riccio made of the confrontation, which he sold to tmz.com for an undisclosed amount before giving it to police, on which can be heard a man who sounds like Simpson shouting, "You think you can steal my s--t and sell it?"
After Simpson and his five-man entourage had left, one of the men still in the room says, "We were just robbed at gunpoint, man. We were just robbed at gunpoint by O.J. Simpson."
Riccio said that Simpson, who has maintained he only showed up to take back what was his and that no firearms were involved, later told him, "This is all going to blow over in a couple of days. Nothing's going to come of it."
Instead, Simpson and five others were arrested and three of the men have agreed to plead to lesser charges and testify against the ex-football star.
Riccio, who was granted immunity in these proceedings after handing all the tapes over to authorities, also recorded a voicemail that Simpson left for him some time after the alleged heist, in which he talks about only wanting to get some stolen signed footballs and awards back, and says, "What are they talking about, a gun? Nobody had any guns. Where'd that [expletive] come from?"
While Riccio played coy about how much TMZ gave him for the audio scoop, he testified that Simpson was going to give him 200 signed copies of If I Did It for putting him in touch with Beardsley and Fromong.
"I was afraid of Beardsley and whoever he might bring—not O.J.," Riccio said Thursday.
FBI reports released last week showed that Riccio had informed the L.A. bureau, as well as L.A. police, several weeks before the meeting took place that Simpson planned to reclaim some pilfered items. He did not tell the feds that any weapons or strong-arming was going to be involved.
"O.J. made it clear to me he didn't see a gun," he said. "I made it clear to him I did."
Under cross-examination by Simpson attorney Yale Galanter, Riccio admitted it's highly possible Simpson really didn't notice a weapon.
"There's a real good chance he didn't see it," he said. "He was standing several feet in front of the guy that had the gun."
Alleged accomplice Charles Cashmore, who has already pleaded guilty to accessory to robbery in exchange for his testimony, also testified Friday that he didn't tell Simpson he and another man were carrying guns.
"In hindsight, I guess I should have corrected him," Cashmore told the court. "There was fear in me. I was in a situation that was very surreal to me, so I didn't say anything."
Earlier in the day, Riccio had said, "I don't think we would have been here if no gun was here."
He testified Thursday that it was Beardsley and the possibility of who he might bring with him that made him uncomfortable, not Simpson.
"You called him a raving looney, didn't you?" Galanter asked.
"That's appropriate," Riccio agreed. "A lot of people I know are harsher in their assessment of him…Why he never got arrested, I can't answer."
Five other witnesses were still expected to testify, so the hearing, originally scheduled to last two days, will continue next week, after which Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure will determine whether the case goes to trial.
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