Murder in Brentwood (10 page)

“Did Mr. Weitzman, your attorney, talk to you anything about this polygraph we brought up before? What are your thoughts on that?”

What possessed Lange to mention Simpson’s lawyer and risk his invoking right to counsel? Why would he talk about a polygraph? Why would he change the subject just when it seemed they were getting somewhere?

They discussed the polygraph, and Simpson eventually said that he would talk to his lawyer about it. At this point, the interrogation was effectively over, as it now could be argued that Simpson invoked his right to counsel.

However, Lange then became accusatory, telling Simpson that he was the suspect and giving him detailed information about the investigation and the evidence against him.

“Well, there’s blood in your house and in the driveway, and we’ve got a search warrant, and we’re going to get the blood. We found some in your house. Is that your blood that’s there?”

Why did he ask Simpson this? Wasn’t it already established that Simpson had been bleeding? What hadn’t yet been established was when he cut himself, how, and what he did between visiting McDonald’s and the limo drive. Why didn’t either detective try to establish these crucial points?

After previously stating that he “kind of leisurely got ready to go,” Simpson then said he was “hustling,” “rushing,” “running,” “doing my little crazy what I do, I mean, I do it everywhere.” Instead of using his own words against him, the detectives tried once more to get a firm answer when he was last at the Bundy residence. Once more, Simpson evaded them. Finally, the detectives decided they were through. Instead of interrogating him further, they started talking about bringing in the photographer, and they terminated the interview.

The interrogation was extremely important to the entire investigation, maybe as important as the physical evidence. It should have been well planned. The detectives should have taken the time to go over Simpson’s alibi, his movements after the dance recital, the cut on his hand, the blood in his Bronco, and the glove found at his house. Any crucial statements should have been covered, over and over, to allow him to stumble on his lies. Simpson should have been forced to account for his time from the recital until Phillips called him in Chicago. He should have been locked into his story during this taped interview.

Vannatter and Lange should have entered the interview room with just a few goals. Establish where and when he cut his finger and where he bled. Does he own any brown leather dress gloves? What size shoe does he wear? Is he right- or left-handed? Has he ever been behind Kato Kaelin’s room before? What’s back there, anyway? Confront him and let him explain why he never even asked the detective who notified him of Nicole’s death how she was killed.

Unfortunately, he was never even directly challenged on any statement. Vannatter and Lange had their suspect right where they wanted him, but then they let him go, never confronting Simpson with the possibility of any participation in the murders. The interrogation seemed more an opportunity for Simpson to explain away areas in which he appeared guilty, and by not challenging his excuses, the detectives almost appeared to accept the answers.

The most shocking aspect of the interrogation was that Lange and Vannatter terminated the questioning to photograph Simpson’s finger. An effective interrogation would have continued for hours, as long as Simpson didn’t invoke his constitutional rights. If they wanted a photograph or blood taken, all the detectives had to do was write a search warrant and take the evidence later. There is no reason why they had to interrupt the questioning that could have slammed the door on Simpson.

Two people were dead. The suspect had waived his rights and was sitting right across the table from two experienced detectives. They had him where they wanted him, and they interrogated him for only thirty-two meandering minutes. They learned close to nothing. In thirty-two minutes, I could barely have begun to build a rapport with the suspect.

A good interrogator would have tried to establish a solid answer on Simpson’s part, then used the evidence at the scene to begin to poke holes in his answer. Let him talk about the previous day without interruption, and then question him about his own statements. Allowing him to change his story would have confused him. After five or six hours of the game, he would have made mistakes, and then a smart interrogator would have gone in for a gentle kill.

Whenever Simpson appeared to be lying, he talked in circles and said almost nothing. They shouldn’t have let him get away with it. They should have nailed him down to a single timeline, and then poked holes in his story. When was the last time he visited the Bundy residence? The recital ended around seven. What did he do from seven to eight? From eight to nine? From nine to ten? From ten to eleven? If he didn’t remember when he cut himself, exactly when did he realize he was bleeding? What “stuff did he get out of the Bronco? Why did he leave the shovel and package in the back?

In an effective interview, just as Simpson would begin to run out of excuses, the questioning would become more accusatory. No one is smiling anymore, and the pressure builds. Just before Simpson is about to ask for his attorney, the “in-charge” detective elevates his voice and says, “O.J., we both think you were involved in this murder.... We think you killed Nicole.”

The inevitable pause is important. You read his eyes. “You left a bloody glove behind Kato’s room. You screwed up.... You left evidence everywhere.”

You throw a couple of Polaroids from the crime scene onto the table. You get graphic.

“How did it feel, O.J.? How did it feel to kill the mother of your children? How did it feel to have her warm blood running down your hands?”

Let him think about it a moment.

“What about your kids, O.J.? How are they going to feel, knowing their daddy killed their mommy? What’s going to happen to them? How does your mother feel? Is she proud of you now? How about all your fans? Will they still cheer a murderer?”

If he declares his innocence, then offer a polygraph.
 
But unless he wants to invoke his rights, you keep hammering away. Use your notes to once again go over his statements where he obviously was lying. This is the point where many cases are won or lost. Play on his love of his children and the brutal way their mother was murdered, left for his children to discover. Play on his ego. Only a coward would murder a defenseless woman.

Simpson’s interrogation should have been easy. A strong line of questioning and intelligent interview techniques might have prompted him to confess, or at least provoked an incriminating statement or contradictory stories. But Vannatter and Lange’s interrogation couldn’t get Simpson even to admit that he had slapped Nicole during a documented episode of domestic violence.

At the end, the only result of the interview was that Simpson knew more about the evidence than the detectives learned about Simpson’s involvement.

Here is what Simpson learned from the interrogation:

1.
    
He was the suspect.

2.
   
Nobody saw him in the Bronco about the time of the murders.

3.
   
The police didn’t seem to care about Kato.

4.
   
The police found blood in the Bronco.

5.
   
The police impounded the Bronco.

6.
   
The police knew about the argument with Nicole at the recital.

7.
   
The police are interested in his shoes.

8.
   
The police found blood at Nicole’s house that was thought to be his.

9.
   
The police know that the Bronco was parked behind Nicole’s at the time of the murder, or they think it was there.

10.
 
 
The police want to give him a polygraph.

11.
  
The police found blood in his house and on his driveway.

And what did the detectives learn from Simpson that they did not already know, or couldn’t have found out elsewhere?

1.
   
When he last slept and how much.

2.
   
That he drives the Bronco, as do his maid, Arnelle, and Kato.

3.
   
He always parks the Bronco on the street.

4.
   
He tried to call Paula Barbieri the evening of the murders, time unknown.

5.
   
He parked the Bronco at eight-something and went to get a burger with Kato Kaelin.

6.
   
He cut his finger, but didn’t know exactly where or when.

7.
   
He bled in the Bronco when he got his cellular phone.

8.
   
He felt that his relationship with Nicole was always a problem, but nothing was his fault.

Once Simpson realized he was the only suspect, he would no longer talk to the police. Lange and Vannatter had their only chance to interrogate the suspect, and they blew it. In a case filled with unnecessary blunders and missed opportunities, Lange and Vannatter’s thirty-two-minute interrogation of Simpson was one of the most tragic. Instead of slamming the door on O.J. Simpson, they left it wide open, and he ran right through it.

Chapter 6

SLOW-SPEED PURSUIT

I want to say something to the entire community. If you in any way are assisting Mr. Simpson… Mr. Simpson is a fugitive of justice now. If you assist him in any way, you are committing a felony... and you will be prosecuted as a felon.

LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY GIL GARCETTI

REGARDLESS OF WHAT TURNS the investigation had taken up to Simpson’s interrogation, Vannatter and Lange still had more than enough evidence to arrest him late on the afternoon of June 13. But they didn’t. Vannatter said he had to wait for test results on the evidence, specifically the DQ-Alpha DNA tests, which would have provided preliminary genetic evidence.

How did we ever arrest anyone before DQ-Alpha DNA testing? Let us review the evidence we did have. There was blood on Simpson’s Bronco, on his property, and in his house, and a bloody glove had been found on his estate that matched the one found at the Bundy crime scene. His interrogation statements were self-contradictory, vague and evasive, and did not even establish a consistent story about his actions the night of the murders, much less provide him an alibi. The time period he had the most difficulty accounting for was that surrounding his ex-wife’s murder. He had an unexplained cut on his finger, and his several different statements to the detectives concerning the cut only made it appear more suspicious.

We could have typed the blood in the Bronco, at Rockingham, on the Bundy gate, and on the glove. We could have typed the blood of both victims and Simpson’s sample. And we would have found that Simpson’s blood type matched that on the Bundy walkway, and that the victims’ and Simpson’s types were both on the bloody glove and inside the Bronco. This would have been more than enough evidence to arrest Simpson. We didn’t need any more scientific tests.

So, why wasn’t he arrested the day after the murders?

First, I don’t believe it was Vannatter or Lange’s decision. The word had to come from higher up. The department probably was afraid to arrest a popular celebrity for murder and be second-guessed, or even wrong. The preferential treatment Simpson received indicated how uncommonly he was handled in otherwise common circumstances. After all, Los Angeles has hundreds of murders a year. The police usually don’t release homicide suspects once they have sufficient evidence to arrest or detain them. But Simpson was not just any other suspect: he was “the Juice.”

The media was all over this case from the beginning, and everyone was worried about how they would look in print and on television. So, the only suspect in the double murder case was released for four days, when there was more than sufficient evidence to arrest him. If it had still been my case, I would have just booked Simpson.

Simpson’s arrest was inevitable. On Friday morning, June 17, the district attorney’s office and the LAPD had their DQ-Alpha results, which confirmed their suspicions, and made the decision to arrest Orenthal James Simpson.

The previous night, Simpson’s new lawyer, Robert Shapiro, had convinced the detectives to allow Simpson to surrender instead of arresting him. Lange called Shapiro at 8:30 on Friday morning and told him that the LAPD had issued an arrest warrant for Simpson. Lange gave Shapiro until 11:00 A.M. to bring his client in. Shapiro promised that he would do his best, but said he was worried about Simpson’s mental state and that he might be suicidal.

Shapiro knew something that few others, including the arresting detectives, did: Simpson was not at his home in Brentwood, but was staying at his friend Bob Kardashians house in Encino. Rather than calling

[As a past member of the LAPD pistol team, I was considered one of the best shots, and Brad wasn’t far behind. We were to be the shooters.]

his client to inform him about the impending arrest, Shapiro drove over to Kardashian’s house and told Simpson in person. Shapiro called the LAPD regularly from Kardashian’s, but he wouldn’t say where he was or when the suspect was coming in.

Meanwhile, Simpson underwent a battery
 
of physical
 
tests
  
and
 
photographs by the medical experts Shapiro had already brought in on the defense team. Then O.J. had to write letters, he had to make phone calls, he had to say goodbye to people, he had to get ready (no doubt once again performing his “little crazy what I do, I mean, I do it everywhere”), and he had to spend a few moments alone with Paula Barbieri. Finally, he had to get dressed, and his good friend Al Cowlings went with him.

More than an hour after the deadline for surrender had passed, LAPD officers arrived at Kardashians house to arrest Simpson. They looked in the room where they had been told they’d find Simpson, but he wasn’t there. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere in the house. The celebrity suspect had escaped under I he watchful eyes of his own attorneys, who had promised to bring him in. He was now a fugitive from justice.