Murder in Brentwood (39 page)

P.V.
  
Well, we don’t know a lot of the answers to these questions yet ourselves, O.J., okay?

O.J.
  
I’ve got a bunch of guns, guns all over the place. You can take them, they’re all there, I mean, you can see them. I keep them in my car for an incident that happened a month ago that my in-laws, my wife, and everybody knows about that.

P.V.
  
What was that?

O.J.
  
Going down to... And cops down there know about it because I’ve told two marshals about it. At a mall, I was going down for a christening, and I had just left and it was like three-thirty in the morning and I’m in a lane, and also the car in front of me is going real slow, and I’m slowing down ‘cause I figure he sees a cop, ‘cause we were all going pretty fast and I’m going to change lanes, but there’s a car next to me, and I can’t change lanes. Then that goes for a while, and I’m going to slow down and go around him, but the car butts up to me, and I’m like caught between three cars. They were Oriental guys, and they were not letting me go anywhere. And finally I went on the shoulder, and I sped up, and then I held my phone up so they could see the light part of it, you know, ‘cause I have tinted windows, and they kind of scattered, and I chased one of them for a while to make him think I was chasing him before I took off.

T.L.
  
Were you in the Bronco?

O.J.
  
No.

T.L.
  
What were you driving?

O.J.
  
My Bentley. It has tinted windows and all, so I figured they thought they had a nice little touch.

T.L.
   
Did you think they were trying to rip you off?

O.J.
  
Definitely, they were. And then the next thing, you know, Nicole and I went home. At four in the morning I got there to Laguna, and when we woke up, I told her about it, and told her parents about it, told everybody about it, you know? And when I saw two marshals at a mall, I walked up and told them about it.

P.V.
  
What did they do, make a report on it?

O.J.
  
They didn’t know nothing. I mean, they’ll remember me and remember I told them.

P.V.
   
Did Nicole mention that she’d been getting any threats lately to you? Anything she was concerned about or the kids’ safety?

O.J.
   
To her?

P.V.
   
Yes.

O.J.
   
From?

P.V.
   
From anybody?

O.J.
   
No, not at all.

P.V.
  
Was she very security conscious? Did she keep that house locked up?

O.J.
  
Very.

P.V.
   
The intercom didn’t work, apparently, right?

O.J.
   
I thought it worked.

P.V.
   
Oh, okay. Does the electronic buzzer work?

O.J.
   
The electronic buzzer works to let people in.

P.V.
   
Did you ever park in the rear when you go over there?

O.J.
 
  
Most of the time.

P.V.
   
You do park in the rear?

O.J.
  
Most times when I’m taking the kids there, I come right into the driveway, blow the horn, and she, or a lot of times the housekeeper, either the housekeeper opens or they’ll keep a garage door open up on the top of the thing, you know, but that’s when I’m dropping the kids off, and I’m not going in, and sometimes I go to the front because the kids have to hit the buzzer and stuff.

P.V.
  
Did you say before that up until about three weeks ago you guys were going out again and trying to...?

O.J.
  
No, we’d been going out for about a year, and then the last six months we’ve had... it ain’t been working, so we tried various things to see if we can make it work. We started trying to date and that wasn’t working, and so, you know, we just said the hell with it, you know.

P.V.
  
And that was about three weeks ago?

O.J.
  
Yeah, about three weeks ago.

P.V.
  
So you were seeing her up to that point?

O.J.
  
It’s, it’s... seeing her, yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, it was a done deal, it just wasn’t happening. I mean, I was gone. I was in San Juan doing a film, and I don’t think we had sex since I’ve been back from San Juan, and that was like two months ago. So it’s been like... for the kids we tried to do things together, you know. We didn’t, we didn’t really date each other. Then we decided let’s try to date each other. We went out one night, and it just didn’t work.

P.V.
  
When you say it didn’t work, what do you mean?

O.J.
  
Ah, the night we went out it was fun. Then the next night we went out it was actually when I was down in Laguna, and she didn’t want to go out. And I said, “well, let’s go out ‘cause I came all the way down here to go out,” and we kind of had a beef. And it just didn’t work after that, you know? We were only trying to date to see if we could bring some romance back into our relationship. We just said, let’s treat each other like boyfriend and girlfriend instead of, you know, like seventeen-year-old married people. I mean, seventeen years together, whatever that is.

P.V.
  
How long were you together?

O.J.
  
Seventeen years.

P.V.
  
Seventeen years. Did you ever hit her, O.J.?

O.J.
  
Ah, one night we had a fight. We had a fight, and she hit me. And they never took my statement, they never wanted to hear my side, and they never wanted to hear the housekeeper’s side. Nicole was drunk. She did her thing, she started tearing up my house, you know? And I didn’t punch her or anything, but I...

P.V.
   
Slapped her a couple times?

O.J.
  
No, no, I wrestled her, is what I did. I didn’t slap her at all. I mean, Nicole’s a strong girl. She’s a... one of the most conditioned women. Since that period of time, she’s hit me a few times, but I’ve never touched her after that, and I’m telling you, it’s five, six years ago.

P.V.
   
What’s her birthdate?

O.J.
   
May 19
^th
.

P.V.
   
Did you get together with her on her birthday?

O.J.
  
Yeah, her and I and the kids, I believe.

P.V.
   
Did you give her a gift?

O.J.
   
I gave her a gift.

P.V.
   
What’d you give her?

O.J.
   
I gave her either a bracelet or the earrings.

P.V.
   
Did she keep them or...?

O.J.
  
Oh, no, when we split she gave me both the earrings and the bracelet back. I bought her a very nice bracelet, I don’t know if it was Mother’s Day or her birthday, and I bought her the earrings for the other thing, and when we split, and it’s a credit to her, she felt that it wasn’t right that she had it, and I said good, because I want them back.

P.V.
  
Was that the very day of her birthday, May 19, or was it a few days later?

O.J.
  
What do you mean?

P.V.
  
You gave it to her on the 19
^th
of May, her birthday, right, this bracelet?

O.J.
  
I may have given her the earrings. No, the bracelet. May 19
^th
. When was Mother’s Day?

P.V.
   
Mother’s Day was around that... O.J.
  
No, it was probably her birthday, yes. P.V.
  
And did she return it the same day?

O.J.
  
Oh, now she...
 
I’m in a funny place here on all this,

right? She returned it-both of them-three weeks ago or so, because when I say I’m in a funny place on this it was because I gave it to my girlfriend and told her it was for her, and that was three weeks ago. I told her I bought it for her. You know? What am I going to do with it?

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

O.J.
  
Should I talk about my thoughts on that? I’m sure eventually I’ll do it, but it’s like I’ve got some weird thoughts now. I’ve had weird thoughts... You know, when you’ve been with a person for seventeen years, you think everything. I’ve got to understand what this thing is. If it’s true blue, I don’t mind doing it.

T.L.
  
Well, you’re not compelled at all to take this, number one, and number two, I don’t know if Mr. Weitzman explained it to you-this goes to the exclusion of someone as much as to the inclusion so we can eliminate people. And just to get things straight.

O.J.
  
But does it work for elimination?

T.L.
   
Oh, yes. We use it for elimination more than anything.

O.J.
  
Well, I’ll talk to him about it.

T.L.
   
Understand, the reason we’re talking to you is because you’re the ex-husband.

O.J.
  
I know I’m the number one target, and now you tell me I’ve got blood all over the place.

T.L.
   
Well, there’s blood in your house and in the driveway, and we’ve got a search warrant and we’re going to go get the blood. We found some in your house. Is that your blood that’s there?

O.J.
  
If it’s dripped, it’s what I dripped running around trying to leave.

T.L.
   
Last night?

O.J.
  
Yeah, and I wasn’t aware that it was...
 
I was aware that I... You know, I was trying to get out of the house. I didn’t even pay any attention to it. I saw it when I was in the kitchen, and I grabbed a napkin or something, and that was it. I didn’t think about it after that.

P.V.
  
That was last night after you got home from the recital, when you were rushing?

O.J.
  
That was last night when I was... I don’t know what I was, I was in the car getting my junk out of the car. I was in the house throwing hangers and stuff in my suitcase. I was doing my little crazy what I do, I mean, I do it everywhere. Anybody who has ever picked me up says that O.J.’s a whirlwind. He’s running, he’s grabbing things, and that’s what I was doing.

P.V.
  
Well, I’m going to step out and I’m going to get a photographer to come down and photograph your hand there. And then here pretty soon we’re going to take you downstairs and get some blood from you. Okay? I’ll be right back.

T.L.
   
So it was about five days ago you last saw Nicole? Was it at the house?

O.J. Okay, the last time I saw Nicole, physically saw Nicole, I saw her obviously last night. The time before, I’m trying to think. I went to Washington, D.C., so I didn’t see her, so I’m trying to think. I haven’t seen her since I went to Washington. I went to Washington-what’s the date today?

T.L.
  
Today’s Monday, the 13
^th
of June.

O.J.
  
Okay, I went to Washington on maybe Wednesday. Thursday I think I was in... Thursday I was in Connecticut, then Long Island Thursday afternoon and all of Friday. I got home Friday night, Friday afternoon, I played, you know... Paula picked me up at the airport. I played golf Saturday, and when I came home I think my son was there. So I did something with my son. I don’t think I saw Nicole at all then. And then I went to a big affair with Paula Saturday night, and I got up and played golf Sunday, which pissed Paula off, and I saw Nicole at... It was about a week before, I saw her at the...

T.L.
   
Okay, the last time you saw Nicole, was that at her house?

O.J.
  
I don’t remember. I wasn’t in her house, so it couldn’t have been at her house, so it was, you know, I don’t even physically remember the last time I saw her. I may have seen her even jogging one day.

T.L.
   
Let me get this straight. You’ve never physically been inside the house?

O.J.
  
Not in the last week.

T.L.
   
Ever. I mean, how long has she lived there? About six months?

O.J.
  
Oh, Christ, I’ve slept at the house many, many, many times, you know? I’ve done everything at the house, you know? I’m just saying... you’re talking in the last week or so.

T.L.
   
Well, whatever. Six months she’s lived there?

O.J.
  
I don’t know. Roughly. I was at her house maybe two weeks ago, ten days ago. One night her and I had a long talk, you know, about how can we make it better for the kids, and I told her we’d do things better. And, okay, I can almost say when that was. That was when I, I don’t know, it was about ten days ago. And then we... The next day I had her have her dog do a flea bath or something with me. Oh, I’ll tell you, I did see her one day. One day I went... I don’t know if this was the early part of last week, I went ‘cause my son had to go and get something, and he ran in, and she came to the gate, and the dog ran out, and her friend Faye and I went looking for the dog. That may have been a week ago, I don’t know.

T.L.
   
(To Vannatter) Got a photographer coming?

P.V.
  
No, we’re going to take him up there.

T.L.
  
We’re ready to terminate this at 14:07.