O.J. Simpson cheers while standing with his attorneys F. Lee Bailey and Johnnie Cochan after hearing the not guilty verdict in his criminal murder trial in Los Angeles on October 3, 1995.
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However, police said that even if the weapon proved to be new evidence related to one of the most notorious killings in recent United States crime history, it is unlikely Mr Simpson could be charged again because he has already been aquitted of murder.
He declined to be specific about the date, but said it was “possibly during the demolition” of the house Simpson had in the wealthy Brentwood area of Los Angeles, which took place in 1998. He would not describe the knife or where it was found on the property, citing an investigation by the department’s open-case team.
But that would be as improbable as this possibly “bogus” story about the knife, as Los Angeles Police Capt. Andy Neiman put it to reporters Friday.
A construction worker reportedly found the knife buried on the property of Simpson’s former Brentwood estate “some years ago”. Neiman said he wasn’t sure whether the motor officer was retired at the time he purportedly came into possession of the knife, or whether he was working off-duty at the time and retired afterwards.
The former National Football League star and actor was acquitted in the 1995 double homicide of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
However, there’s still the chance that someone else’s fingerprints are found in the process of the knife being tested, and thus, the investigation continues…
In 1997, a civil court jury found Simpson liable for the slayings and awarded millions of dollars in damages to the victims’ families.
Simpson is now incarcerated for a 2008 kidnapping and armed robbery conviction.
The construction worker who found the knife told police he stumbled upon it while Simpson’s home was being demolished, but he couldn’t remember the exact date, sources told TMZ. That person relayed the information to their superiors who demanded the officer turn over the knife. “It is being treated as we would all evidence, and has been submitted to our lab”.
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Neiman said: “I do not know if he was retired when he received this item, or if he was still an LAPD officer and retired after – we are looking into that”. The owners of a high-end cutlery shop testified that Simpson had purchased a large knife from them weeks before the murder.
