ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Confronted with the toughest physical evidence against him, O.J. Simpson couldn't explain Monday how blood believed to be the victims' got into his Bronco or how he suffered hand cuts that plaintiffs claim were fingernail gouges from a death struggle.
Before testimony ended for the day, Simpson said he never owned Bruno Magli shoes like those he is shown wearing in a 1993 picture - and the kind that left bloody, size 12 prints near the bodies of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Of the picture, Simpson said: ``It's a fraud.''
And sources said Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki will dismiss one of the 12 jurors today to be replaced by an alternate. The development occurred late in the day after the judge received a note which prompted him to halt the proceedings, send the jury home and call attorneys into his chambers. The identity of the juror and the reason for dismissal were not immediately known.
In some of his most aggressive questioning yet, attorney Daniel Petrocelli showed Simpson a close-up photograph, taken three days after the slayings, of a crescent-shaped cut on his finger, and charged: ``It was a fingernail mark, wasn't it, sir?''
``I seriously doubt that,'' Simpson replied.
``It was somebody's fingernails ripping into your skin, wasn't it?'' Petrocelli asked.
Simpson suggested his then-5-year-old son, Justin, could have cut his finger while they were ``rassling'' in the days after the killings.
``Unless it was Justin's, I really don't know,'' Simpson said with a hint of exasperation.
``Are you saying it was your son's fingernail?'' the lawyer asked.
``I'm not saying it was Justin's. I was saying he was the only one I was [having] any heavy physical wrestling [with].''
Petrocelli, pacing sometimes within inches of the witness, challenged Simpson to explain virtually every move he made during 86 minutes on the night of the June 12, 1994, slayings when his whereabouts are unknown.
Simpson maintained he was resting in bed or showering at the time, and also said he was chipping golf balls and taking his dog out for a walk during those unaccounted-for minutes.
Later, Petrocelli confronted Simpson with the allegation he took a polygraph test and scored a minus 22, showing ``extreme deception.''
Simpson, who denied in his deposition ever taking a lie-detector test, acknowledged under questioning that he was hooked up to a polygraph machine at a private office so he could see how the device worked before taking a test from police. Police never made Simpson submit to a lie-detector test.
Petrocelli clearly tried to get a rise out of Simpson, but it didn't work. Once, the attorney paced so close to Simpson they were nearly nose to nose. At another instant, Petrocelli pointed a pen in Simpson's face and demanded, ``Answer the question, sir!''
Petrocelli quizzed the defendant about blood, noting there was blood in his Bronco, on a driveway at his home and on a kitchen counter. The defense has said the Bronco blood was planted by overzealous police.
Simpson said he remembered seeing some blood on his pinky finger and on the counter before he left for Chicago late the night of the slayings.
``I assumed at the time it was my blood. I don't know. Like I said, I didn't feel the cut,'' he said.
He said he had no idea why or when he bled.
He recounted how a glass broke in his Chicago hotel room and perhaps injured his hand. But he couldn't remember how the glass broke or when he was cut, suggesting it was perhaps when he was ``sweeping'' broken pieces into the sink.
Under questioning about when he changed his clothes in Chicago the day after the killings, Simpson said he knew he had some blood on his clothes and ``at some point, I threw up.''
Petrocelli asked if he knew how blood traces that experts have linked to Nicole Simpson and Goldman came to be in his Bronco. Simpson said he didn't know.
``You have no explanation for this jury?'' Petrocelli asked incredulously.
``None,'' Simpson replied.
He also said he didn't know how blood matching his and Nicole Simpson's got on socks in his bedroom, or how blood matching his was found on the pathway of his ex-wife's house, on the path of his Brentwood estate and on the floor of his bathroom there, ``except that's where I shave.'
Fighting back persistent challenges to his alibi, Simpson maintained he was on his bed resting or in the shower between 10:35 and 10:40 p.m., when the plaintiffs say the killings took place.
Simpson said he was running late for a limousine ride to the airport, and hurried into the shower during those five minutes. Plaintiffs say Nicole Simpson and Goldman were slashed to death between 10:35 and 10:45.
While showering, Simpson said, he thought he heard a phone ringing. He said his security system causes the phone to ring when a visitor buzzes at the gate.
Limousine driver Allan Park testified that he rang the intercom from 10:40 to 10:49. House guest Kato Kaelin arrived at the front of the estate at 10:55, checking out mysterious thumps, and Simpson came out of his house at 11:01.
In his second day on the stand, Simpson was an island of calm in a stormy court scene marked by accusations between battling attorneys Petrocelli and Simpson attorney Robert Baker, who accused each other of ``showboating.''
Simpson started the day by denying he had ever listened to a ``Dear John'' phone message left for him by his girlfriend, Paula Barbieri. The plaintiffs contend the message helped push him into a murderous rage the night of the killings.
Petrocelli suggested Simpson was lonely that night and repeatedly called Barbieri for companionship.
And, Petrocelli suggested, Simpson was upset at his ex-wife for causing the alleged breakup with Barbieri.
``You blamed Nicole because your relationship with Paula was now almost up, true?'' Petrocelli asked.
``I can't answer that.''
``You blame Nicole because your relationship with Paula was over?'' Petrocelli asked.
``No, I didn't do that,'' Simpson said.
But Simpson did later acknowledge that ``Nicole was a problem with Paula.''
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Simpson colorby CNB