O.J. Simpson's associate pulled gun, witness says

O.J. Simpson talked with his lawyer, Yale Galanter, during his kidnapping and robbery trial yesterday. (Ethan Miller/Reuters /Pool)

LAS VEGAS - An auctioneer who brokered the meeting where O.J. Simpson confronted two memorabilia dealers testified yesterday that a Simpson associate "pulled out a gun . . . and it got crazy from there."

"There was a time he pointed the gun at me . . . it was a scary situation," Thomas Riccio said in a recounting of the Sept. 13, 2007, incident at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino. The gunman, later identified as Michael McClinton, was "hopping around with the gun in his hand, barking orders," Riccio said.

Simpson, meanwhile, was yelling at the memorabilia dealers, Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, Riccio said. Simpson believed the pair were selling personal mementos taken from his trophy room and his mother's storage unit, Riccio said.

Some of Simpson's five associates stuffed hundreds of collectibles into boxes and pillowcases, Riccio said. The encounter lasted about six minutes. Riccio said some of the items taken by Simpson's associates were collectibles unrelated to Simpson, though the former NFL star told the people in the hotel room that he didn't want to retrieve items that didn't belong to him.

"This is overkill," Riccio testified.

"Big-time overkill. They didn't need to do it this way . . . they certainly didn't need to bring guns."

Simpson, 61, and codefendant Clarence Stewart, 54, are charged with a dozen crimes. The most serious - kidnapping - carries a potential life sentence.

Yesterday morning, jurors heard a conversation between Riccio and Beardsley secretly recorded shortly before the incident. Riccio testified that it was typical for him to surreptitiously tape business deals in case anything went awry.

In the recording, Beardsley described the items Simpson wanted as "stuff O.J. personally loves."

Among the personal items Beardsley described during the recording were "thousands and thousands and thousands of negatives." They allegedly depicted Simpson's first wedding and his childhood - "when he had rickets [and his mother made him] homemade braces . . . cause he couldn't walk," he was heard to say.

"When O.J.'s mother died, they put all her stuff in storage," Beardsley said, explaining the items' origin. There was a family rift and, "They got tired of paying the, uh, storage bills."

Jurors also toured the hotel's Room 1203 yesterday, where the alleged robbery occurred. The 12 panelists and six alternates were bused to Palace Station, where guests milled about in the hallway. Simpson did not go; Stewart did.

No juror spent more than 30 seconds examining the room.