Week 3

February 6 - 10, 1995

During cross-examination, defense lawyer Robert Shapiro asked Brown about her previously acknowledged drinking problem. He asked her how much she had to drink on the nights that she testified about Simpson's alleged abuse towards her sister. She said she had been drinking on both nights.

FEBRUARY 7 - The prosecution began presenting testimony to establish the timing of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

The prosecution focused on the time that Ronald Goldman left the Mezzaluna restaurant - 9:50 pm and the suspected time of the murders -- 10:15 pm. The key witness, Pablo Fenjves, a neighbor of Nicole Simpson's, testified about an Akita dog that wandered around their neighborhood, persistently barking, until it led bystanders to Nicole Simpson's front gate and her body. Fenjves said that he first heard the dog barking about 10:15 pm and that the animal was still barking when he went to sleep at 11pm

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The defense contends that Simpson could not have committed the killings, gotten rid of the evidence and returned home by 11 pm to catch a limousine for a trip to the airport.

Meanwhile, a juror was dismissed leaving 21 jurors and alternates to hear the case.

A 54-year-old black male was chosen to replace the 63-year-old white female who was dismissed. She was removed because her doctor may testify for the defense about Simpson's arthritis.

The jury now has seven women and five men. The ethnic breakdown is now nine blacks, one white, one Hispanic and one Native-American.

The defense accused the prosecution of violating a law requiring prosecutors to turn over all evidence favorable to the defendant. The defense referred to a videotape, shown in court Monday, showing Simpson leaving his daughter's dance concert hours before the slayings June 12.

Defense Attorney Carl Douglas said the tape, which he contended was given to the prosecution last summer, "clearly turned out to be a piece of very favorable evidence." Two prosecution witnesses, including Denise Brown, had described Simpson as moody at the recital, while the tape shows him cheerfully greeting his former in-laws and picking up his son.

Prosecutor Christopher Darden said the delay was "just another innocent mistake" in a case that has generated thousands of pages of documents and hundreds of videotapes. He also disputed that it was favorable to the defense, saying Simpson "looks like a completely different person" on the tape.

FEBRUARY 8 - A neighbor of Nicole Brown Simpson testified how he discovered her body lying in a pool of blood outside her townhouse after being led to the murder scene by her agitated Akita. Sukru Boztepe said the dog pulled him to the crime scene by its leash just after midnight on June 13. The prosecution argues that Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed about two hours earlier.

"I saw a lady lying down, full of blood," Boztepe testified. "I could see the person was blonde, I could see her arm. There was a lot of blood," he added.

Boztepe said he arrived at his apartment complex around the corner from Nicole's Simpson's condominium on Bundy Drive at about 11:40 pm and found his neighbor, Steven Schwab, in the complex's courtyard with the Akita. Schwab testified that he found the Akita wandering aimlessly near Bundy at around 10:55 pm.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran tried to show that the witnesses were only approximating the times that they heard the dog. While some said that might be the case, Schwab said he was sure of the time.

He said that his nightly dog-walking routine was set by when his favorite television reruns were on. He recalled taking his dog out 10:30 pm -- at the end of the Dick Van Dyke Show -- and returned home at 11:05 pm -- just as the Mary Tyler Moore show was starting.

Judge Lance Ito ruled that O.J. Simpson's first wife will have to testify in the case. The lawyer for Marguerite Thomas had tried to quash a subpoena, arguing that it was served in an unethical manner.

The prosecution wants to question Thomas about the telephone conversations she had with Simpson on June 17, the day of the infamous police chase.

FEBRUARY 9 - The first police officer to arrive at the murder scene detailed the position of bloody shoe prints, a knit cap, a glove, an envelope and other pieces of evidence found near the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Officer Robert Riske said he and his partner arrived on the scene early June 13 in response to an emergency 911 call about a possible burglary. He testified that he saw the body of Nicole Simpson first, then Goldman's, and noticed that the front door of Nicole Simpson's home was open.

He said he stepped over the body and entered the home to look for signs of other victims, evidence or a suspect. Riske said the house did not appear to be ransacked, but he did find two children sleeping, a tub filled with water and candles burning.

Asked by prosecutor Marcia Clark whether any evidence was disturbed, Riske said he avoided stepping through any blood at the scene by staying close to a fence and wall that led up the walkway and stairs to the front door of the home. He also said he did not touch any of the evidence, observing rules of crime-scene preservation.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran questioned Riske about the police procedures at the crime scene. Among other things, he asked him why he used Nicole Brown Simpson's telephone before dusting it for fingerprints and why no photographs were taken inside the condominium.

Meanwhile, the potential defense witness who says she saw four men leaving Nicole Brown Simpson's home on the night of the murders, was arrested for arrested for failing to pay a $23,000 bill for a three-month stay at a hotel while her home was being remodeled after the Los Angeles earthquake. Mary Anne Gerghas was charged with credit card fraud, grand theft and defrauding an innkeeper.

FEBRUARY 10 - The court was in recess.