Michael McClinton Accepts Plea Deal To Testify Against O.J. Simpson

The third man accused of taking part with OJ Simpson in a hotel armed hold-up has struck a deal and agreed to give evidence against the former sports star.

Michael McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas, became the third man to agree to plead guilty to reduced charges in the case.

He told Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure he will plead guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. He could receive probation or up to 11 years in prison.

According to police reports, McClinton brought two guns -- at Simpson's request -- to a September 13 confrontation with collectibles dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. McClinton wielded one gun and acted like a police officer, according to others in the hotel room.

McClinton's testimony would provide prosecutors with another account contradicting Simpson's claim that no guns were involved when he went to retrieve items he said belonged to him. In brief comments outside the courtroom, his lawyer, William Terry, wouldn't say what testimony McClinton would provide.

Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has criticized Clark County District Attorney David Roger for "giving away the courthouse" while cutting deals with co-defendants.

Simpson and co-defendants Clarence Stewart and Charles Ehrlich face 12 criminal charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and coercion, and one gross misdemeanor, conspiracy to commit a crime. A kidnapping conviction alone could result in a sentence of life in prison with parole.

Charles Cashmore and Walter Alexander have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify against the three men.

Alexander, a Simpson golfing buddy from Mesa, Arizona, told police that Simpson said to bring guns, and told him later to deny that guns were used. Alexander pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit robbery, and could face probation or up to six years in prison.

Cashmore, a union laborer from Las Vegas, pleaded guilty to felony accessory to robbery. He could receive probation or up to five years in prison.

Authorities say memorabilia taken from the hotel room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider, photos of Simpson with the Heisman Trophy, and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as $100,000, according to police reports.

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O.J. Simpson's Accomplice, Charles Howard Cashmore Testifies Against Him

Charles Howard Cashmore an accomplice of O.J. Simpson in a raid on a hotel suite, will plead guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for testimony against the disgraced football legend and four other defendants.

He is expected to testify that two of his co-accused, Walter Alexander and Michael McClinton, were armed when they entered a Las Vegas hotel room with Simpson and confronted two sports memorabilia dealers, his lawyer Edward Miley said Friday.

"The only people with guns that he knew of were Alexander and McClinton," Miley said.

Robert Dennis Rentzer, Alexander's lawyer, declined to comment on the presence of a weapon during the Sept. 13 incident.

"I owe the district attorney an answer to that question before the press," he said.

Cashmore, who surrendered to police six days later, will plead guilty to being an accessory to robbery, Miley said. The reduced felony charge comes with a maximum five-year jail term.

"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Miley said of Cashmore, a Las Vegas-area laborer, bartender and disc jockey.

Miley says Cashmore was unarmed during the alleged robbery and only met Simpson minutes before the men barged into the Palace Station Casino hotel room.

"O.J. says, 'Hey I've got to move some stuff, can you help?'" Miley said.

Simpson, 60, is charged with 11 criminal offences and could face life in prison if convicted.

According to police reports, Simpson and the other men entered the hotel room at gunpoint and ordered two collectors, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, to hand over several items that Simpson claimed belonged to him.

Simpson maintains he was only trying to reclaim the sports memorabilia and that no weapons were used during the incident.

The collectibles taken from the room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider and framed awards and plaques. The items have a collective valued of up to US$100,000.

The charges Simpson and at least three other men face include:

* Two counts of first-degree kidnapping
* Two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon
* Burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon
* Two counts of assault with a deadly weapon
* Conspiracy to commit kidnapping
* Conspiracy to commit robbery
* Conspiracy to commit a crime.

Simpson also faces a felony charge of coercion, alleging that he took a cellphone from Fromong. He is currently free on US$125,000 bail and is scheduled to return to court later this month.

Cashmore is scheduled to make a court appearance on Monday.

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O. J Simpson Granted $125,000.00 Bail

Former football star O.J. Simpson appeared in court today and was granted bail for $125,000.00, ordered by the judge not to have any form of contact with any of the witnesses involved in the case and also ordered to surrender his passport to his attorney, following his arrest on sunday over an alleged robbery of sports memorabilia at a Las Vegas hotel last week.

Judge Joe Bonaventure set Simpson's bail at $125,000 and also ordered him to turn over his passport to his attorneys.

Clark County District Attorney David Rogers agreed to the bail, which defense attorney Yale Galanter said Simpson would pay immediately after the hearing.

Simpson was wearing a blue jail jumpsuit and handcuffs. He spoke only in direct response to Bonaventure's questions.

Galanter, a Florida lawyer, told the judge that he is not licensed to practice law in Nevada but had filed paperwork to gain the proper status.

Simpson will be arraigned the week of October 22, when he will plead not guilty to the charges, Galanter said.

The judge also told Simpson he must refrain from contacting any alleged victims, witnesses or co-defendants in the case.

The former football star will be allowed to return to his home in Miami, Florida, and elsewhere within the continental United States.

The charges include multiple counts of first-degree kidnapping with a weapon, robbery with a weapon, burglary with a weapon, coercion and conspiracy to commit kidnapping and robbery.

The kidnapping charges were added Tuesday.

Prosecutors contend Simpson and his co-defendants -- Walter Alexander, Clarence Stewart and Michael McClinton -- committed kidnapping because they intended to hold or detain the two alleged victims using a weapon.

Galanter said Tuesday his client has "a very substantial chance of being acquitted of those charges" and that "under the circumstances [Simpson] is doing well."

Galanter said Simpson would not respond to interview requests.

Simpson, 60, was arrested at his hotel Sunday morning and was held in jail without bail.

The items in the room where the alleged robbery took place included baseballs, plaques, a photo featuring J. Edgar Hoover and a mobile phone, a police report said.

Simpson has said that he entered the room with friends, one of whom was posing as a potential buyer, after being tipped off that some of his personal items were for sale there. He said his friends helped him carry the items from the room but said no guns were involved and denied a robbery occurred.

Police, however, said he orchestrated the incident and that the suspects had at least two guns, which authorities recovered during searches.

Simpson and his co-defendants are accused of pointing guns at Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong and taking the memorabilia, along with Fromong's cell phone and Beardsley's baseball cap and sunglasses.

Beardsley told CNN's "Larry King Live" that he was contacted last month by Thomas Riccio -- a dealer and auctioneer of sports memorabilia -- who said he had a client who wanted to buy some high-end Simpson items and would pay top dollar for them. Beardsley then called Fromong, who gave him a list of items he could provide.

Meanwhile, Riccio told King he called Simpson, told him Beardsley and Fromong had the items and the two had agreed to go the hotel room together, but that the alleged robbery was Simpson's idea.

The two planned that Riccio would be in the room and would let Simpson in, Riccio said. But he said he was shocked when Simpson showed up to the Palace Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas with "two white guys and six black guys."

Riccio said he recorded an audiotape of the confrontation "because I've had problems in the past." In the recording, Simpson can be heard barking orders and profanities and repeatedly accusing someone of stealing his things

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O.J. Simpson To Sleep In Jail Tonight

Following investigation into an alleged armed robbery by O.J. Simpson, at a hotel in Las Vegas, the police arrested Simpson today.

While information on what he is being charged for are still streaming in, Las Vegas Police Capt. James Dillon said that Simpson could face felony charges including robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a firearm.

Simpson was arrested at his room in the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, the source said.

On Saturday, Las Vegas police arrested Walter Alexander and seized two guns in connection with the alleged armed robbery, the source said.

"I don't know why they arrested him," Simpson said Sunday, before his own arrest. "I've stayed in contact with the police, and the truth will come out."

Simpson already had been questioned during the investigation into several items of sports memorabilia that were taken from collectors at a room in the Palace Station Hotel and Casino. Simpson has said the items belonged to him.

Alexander was arrested Saturday night and charged with two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, the source said.

Alexander, a Nevada resident, was arrested on his way to McCarran International Airport, the source said.

During searches Saturday, police recovered two guns they say were used in the alleged robbery, the source said.

Simpson, 60, acknowledged that he entered a man's room with a group of friends, one of whom was posing as a potential buyer, after being tipped off that some of his personal items were for sale there.

Among the items were things he hadn't seen in years or that had been stolen, he said. They included photographs of his family and himself as a child, and photographs and negatives taken by his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

Simpson said friends helped him carry the items from the room, but no guns were involved and the incident was not a robbery. VideoWatch a report on the latest developments in the probe »

On Saturday, Simpson said that he and one of the alleged victims, Alfred Beardsley, spoke on the telephone with each other and agreed the incident had been blown out of proportion.

Beardsley confirmed the conversation to celebrity Web site TMZ.com, saying Simpson apologized to him and told him he regretted the incident. The other alleged victim, Bruce Fromong, a sports memorabilia collector, said that two of the men accompanying Simpson pointed guns at the other occupants of the room in what he described as "a home invasion-type robbery." Watch Fromong talk about what happenedVideo

Fromong testified for Simpson's defense in the 1997 wrongful death trial stemming from a lawsuit filed by the family of Ron Goldman, who was killed in 1994 alongside Simpson's ex-wife.

Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995, but the jury in the 1997 civil trial found him liable and awarded the Goldmans $33.5 million for their son's wrongful death.

Fromong testified that prices for Simpson memorabilia had dropped substantially since the 1995 verdict. His testimony was part of the defense's contention that Simpson could not afford to pay the Goldmans. Also on Friday, Thomas Riccio, a former business associate of Simpson, told KVVU television in Las Vegas that he told Simpson about the sale.

Riccio said someone told him last month that he wanted to auction some of Simpson's possessions by placing them on consignment. Riccio added that when he called Simpson to tell him about the planned sale, the former athlete told him the items had been stolen.

Riccio said that as he was being shown the items in the hotel room, Simpson entered the room and seized the items. He said there was no break-in and no gun was used.

Simpson's ex-wife and Goldman -- a waiter who had gone to her Los Angeles, California, home to return a pair of glasses -- were fatally stabbed outside her townhouse June 12, 1994. A jury found Simpson not guilty of the crimes.

Simpson recently wrote a book originally titled "If I Did It" and planned to publish it himself, but a public outcry led to the cancellation of his book deal. A bankruptcy judge subsequently awarded the Goldmans the rights to the book in light of their inability to collect the wrongful death award.

They retitled the book "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer ," which is in bookstores.

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