OJ Simpson

I woke up this morning to the news that OJ was found guilty of robbery in Las Vegas. 13 years ago, he was found not guilty of killing his wife. I have mixed emotions about this situation. But, there have been some parts of my life that have happened along with OJ's timeline. On my last night in the house I grew up in on Belmont Drive in Columbia was the time of the chase along the freeway between the police and OJ. That was 14 years ago. It was on my birthday of June 17th. I laid on the floor of our den watching a small TV. All of the furniture was gone. There was a lot of dust in the air in the house. I was glued to the TV. On the day that the verdict came down that OJ was found not guilty in Los Angeles, that was the last day of my work at Belk. We had closed the Columbiana Center store. There were a few of us still there who were packing up the store. This was the last day, and there was a big screen TV in the Men's Department where we watched the verdict. It was shocking. Do I believe he killed his wife and Ron? Probably, but there was a doubt. Fast forward to last year. OJ walked into a hotel room, where there were people who had some memorabilia of his, and he wanted it back. If he told friends to bring guns, there would have been a gangsta thing. A lot of the situation dealt with perception. OJ might have made a bad decision. Maybe there were guys there who wanted to make a statement. But, I don't think he was guilty of kidnapping. Now, there is the robbery aspect. Speaking as a dealer of memorabilia, I can tell you that I do not fear Paul McCartney flying over here to get back a backstage pass from his 1989 show that I have. After all, I own it now. I paid money for it. So, unless these dealers actually stole these items from OJ's house while he wasn't home, then maybe he would be guilty of robbery. His legal team will appeal. They will say the jury was tainted by previous events. They will probably try to play the race card. I hope they don't. But, I also hope OJ won't spend a lot of time in jail. If so, another prisoner might try to kill him. That would be a shame.