JUNE 19 - An FBI expert testified that the person who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman wore expensive Italian shoes that are the same size that O.J. Simpson wears.
William Bodziak, a nationally recognized shoe and tire print specialist, said he examined photos of the murder scene and found they were left by a size 12 pair of $160 Bruno Magli shoes.
Though the shoes that left a bloody trial along the walkway of Nicole Brown Simpson's condominium have not been recovered, Bodziak placed a similar pair of Bruno Magli shoes against a pair of O.J. Simpson's Reeboks and said that they were identical in size "for all practical purposes."
"The person wearing one would certainly be a candidate for wearing the other," Bodziak said.
Even though there are two sets of shoe prints leading away from the crime scene, Bodziak said there was no evidence of more than one source for the footprints, supporting the state's theory that there was only one killer.
When Bodziak was called in to investigate in this case, he was unable to match the shoe prints found at the crime to any in the FBI's reference lab, he said. He then began contacting foreign manufacturers and U.S. importers of Italian-style shoes. After a trip to Italy, he determined that the killer wore a Bruno Magli model, size 46 European or 12 U.S.
These shoes are extremely rare. Fewer than 300 size 12 pairs were distributed in the United States. The prosecution has yet to offer proof that Simpson owned such shoes. But Bodziak said that only about 9 percent of the U.S. male population wear size 12 and those people tend to be between six feet and six feet four inches tall. Simpson is six feet two inches tall.
On cross-examination, defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey suggested that anyone who could wear size 12 shoes could have left such footprints and that criminals are inclined to wear larger or smaller shoes to mislead investigators. Bodziak said this was possible but that he had only heard of this type of deception once in his 25-year career.
Wearing ill-fitting shoes would also leave a criminal "stumbling all over the place" when fleeing a crime scene, he said.
Attacking Bodziak's conclusion that one pair of shoe left all the footprints, Bailey said that two people could have been wearing the same type and size shoe to camouflage their crime.
Bodziak dismissed Bailey's theory as "ridiculous." He said many of the prints he examined were distinct and there was nothing to suggest a second pair of shoes.
JUNE 20 - Prosecutors dropped plans to present additional testimony on domestic violence. The shift in strategy means prosecutors could end their case by next week.
The state also will not present testimony that blood found on the rear gate of Nicole Brown Simpson's home and on socks found in O.J. Simpson's bedroom did not contain EDTA, a preservative one would have expected had police removed it from a test tube of Simpson's blood and planted it there.
Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark said prosecutors have presented overwhelming and undeniable proof of Simpson's guilt and that it was time to get the case to the jury.
Her announcement came after an abbreviated court day during which prosecutors returned to the DNA evidence it claims links Simpson to the murders.
Gary Sims, chief DNA analyst at the California Department of Justice Crime Laboratory, who first testified more than a month ago, returned to the witness stand to testify about further DNA results on blood found at the murder scene, in Simpson's Ford Bronco and on a pair of socks in his bedroom.
Sims said RFLP tests had shown that DNA in blood on the rear gate at the murder scene was consistent with Simpson's DNA pattern. The same held for blood recovered from the Bronco and the socks.
Sims' testimony came after an employee of Bloomingdale's testified that he sold Simpson shoes but could not remember selling the type of shoe that left bloody prints at the crime scene.
Samuel Poser, shoe department manager at the Bloomingdale's store in New York, said Simpson had purchased shoes there on four or five occasions but he did not recall Simpson buying a pair of Bruno Magli designer shoes manufactured in Italy.
An FBI expert previously testified that the bloody shoe prints leading away from the murder scene outside were made by size 12 Bruno Magli shoes. Simpson wears a size 12 but prosecutors have been unable to prove that he ever owned a pair of Bruno Maglis.
JUNE 21 - O.J. Simpson tried on another pair of Aris Isotoner gloves and this time they fit.
The gloves were brand new and the same make, model and size as the bloody gloves found at the crime scene -- the ones that did not appear to fit Simpson last week when he tried them on over latex gloves. Prosecutor Christopher Darden asked Simpson to try on the new gloves in perhaps a last-ditch attempt to repair what was viewed as a near-fatal blunder to the state's case.
"I think they fit quite well, declared glove expert witness Richard Rubin. "They appear to fit him snug and tight, pretty much the way the gloves were designed."
But during cross-examination, Rubin conceded that he could not say whether the gloves were cut by the same person who cut the bloody gloves, or whether they were a perfect extra large, a snug extra large or an oversized extra large.
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. also got Rubin to testify that the left glove, found at Bundy, seemed to have less blood staining than the right glove, found at Rockingham. The right glove seemed to be smaller -- presumably due to shrinkage -- than the left glove. Prosecutors have previously said that the left glove was so soaked in blood that they could not perform DNA testing on it -- a contradiction that has not been explained.
Prosecutors also called witnesses to discuss records of phone calls that Simpson made from the cellular phone on June 12, 1994 and the whereabouts of his girlfriend Paula Barbieri.
Testimony showed Simpson called Nicole Brown Simpson at 2:18 on the afternoon of June 12. The call lasted about three minutes. Then at 2:22 he made two calls to Barbieri's Florida number. Both calls were never completed, meaning Simpson got a busy signal or no answer. At 2:23 he called Barbieri's Los Angeles number. The call lasted about 90 seconds. At 2:24 he tried her again in Florida but got no answer or a busy signal.
Records from the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas showed that 19 minutes before Simpson made the first call to Barbieri's number in Florida, she was checking into a suite at the hotel as a guest of singer Michael Bolton. (Bolton was performing in Las Vegas and hosting a celebrity softball game.)
Prosecutors have tried to show that Simpson is an obsessive man and was spurned by the two women on the day of the murders. Cochran told jurors during opening statements that they would hear about Simpson's wonderful relationship with Barbieri and that he couldn't have been obsessed with his former wife. But, the fact that Barbieri was in Las Vegas with Bolton provides prosecutors with evidence to present another theory.
Finally, at 10:03pm, Simpson made two more calls to Barbieri -- one to the Florida number and one to the Los Angeles number. This was about the time that prosecutors say the murders took place and the time Simpson said he was at home, either chipping golf balls or sleeping. The prosecution probably will argue that if Simpson was home, he would not be making calls on his cellular phone.
In a separate hearing, a Missouri judge ruled Marcus Allen does not to have to go to Los Angeles to testify for the defense about his alleged affair with Nicole Brown Simpson. Judge Thomas Clark ruled without prejudice there was insufficient information about what Allen would say on the witness stand to compel him to compel him to testify.
JUNE 22 - The day featured arguments over which numbers should be used to explain frequencies in mixed samples of DNA.
In the end, Judge Lance Ito sided with prosecutors, allowing them to present their method of calculating frequencies from the mixed samples. And, once again, jurors heard astronomical numbers -- this time in the range of billions to trillions.
For example, witness Bruce Weir testified that there is a one in six million to one in 600 billion chance that the mixture of blood on the glove found on O.J. Simpson's estate belongs to people other than Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Meanwhile, prosecutors accused Simpson of not taking his arthritis medicine so his hands would swell, making it appear that extra-large gloves would not fit him. The allegation was contained in transcripts of Wednesday's sidebar conferences. At one point, prosecutor Christopher Darden said to Judge Ito: "Another concern of ours is that Mr. Simpson has arthritis and we looked at the medication that he takes and some of it is anti-inflammatory and we are told that he has not taken the stuff for a day and it caused swelling in the joints and inflammation in his hands and I'm concerned about that."
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr., scoffed at the accusation. "My dear friends are being paranoid, your honor," he said. "The man has medicine. He doesn't want to be sick."
Prosecutors also said they have photographs of Simpson wearing gloves, perhaps the Aris-Isotoner type gloves found at the crime scenes. Additionally, they subpoenaed NBC for videotapes of Simpson wearing leather gloves during football game telecasts in 1993 and 1994.
JUNE 23 - Population geneticist Bruce Weir conceded that he overestimated the chances of a match between O.J. Simpson's DNA and DNA found at his home and the crime scenes.
"I am sincerely sorry and embarrassed," Weir said during questioning by defense attorney Peter Neufeld. "When I do calculations, I do not consider any forensic implications. And if you are suggesting that I do , let me disabuse you of that right now."
Weir said the errors did not compromise the overall findings that link Simpson's DNA to the blood but the defense contended that he was biased against Simpson. The mistakes affected some but not all of the frequency numbers given by Weir. And they did not affect any of the frequency numbers offered by witnesses Robin Cotton of Cellmark Diagnostics and Gary Sims of the California Department of Justice.
Cotton and Sims' DNA results calculated the chance that blood could come from someone other than Simpson's or the victims. Weir's numbers were less specific. His numbers calculated the frequency of a stain if the blood was contributed by random people. For example, he concluded that the genetic markers found in the blood stain on Ronald Goldman's boot, if left by two people, could be found in 1 in 300 million to 1 in 1 trillion people.
But by failing to include a genetic marker possibly contained in Simpson's blood, Weir said he overstated the likelihood that the defendant's blood was contained in blood mixtures found in his Bronco and on a glove found behind his home.
For every additional DNA type factored into Weir's calculations, the chances for a random match in the general population becomes more frequent. Weir failed to include one additional DNA type when considering some evidence that included Simpson's DNA profile in the blood mixture.
The errors involved what Neufeld called "examiner bias." In other words, he claimed Weir manipulated his calculations to buttress the prosecution's findings.
Meanwhile, Judge Lance Ito agreed to release transcripts from the in-chambers discussions that led to the dismissal of 10 jurors. The judge said he would release the information on July 3, editing out sensitive items that could identify jurors.
The ACLU and the defense sought release of the documents. The ACLU presented First Amendment arguments for why the information should be released, and the defense argued that Simpson's Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial also compelled the release of the information. Defense attorney Alan Dershowitz argued that by making the reasons for the dismissals public, the public would learn what occurred. He also said that others with knowledge about the jurors might come forward with information that could help the defense with its claim that the prosecution has targeted pro-Simpson jurors for dismissal.
In other rulings:
