While the late O.J. Simpson was regarded as one of the greatest NFL running backs of all time, his highly decorated career as a football star would become overshadowed by his mounting legal troubles.
Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 double murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, 25, after he was accused of their fatal stabbings at Nicole's Los Angeles home.
Thirteen years later, Simpson wound up in legal trouble again, when he was convicted of armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel-casino.
While in Las Vegas for a friend's wedding in 2007, Simpson and a group of friends broke into dealer Bruce Fromong's room at the Palace Station to take back memorabilia Simpson claimed was his.
Simpson convinced friend Charlie Ehrlich to pose as a buyer to get into the room of memorabilia dealers, Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. Ehrlich recalled Simpson saying to him, "These two individuals who I did business with have my merchandise... that used to belong to me... I need someone that I could trust to go up there or go and see what it is," ABC News reported.
"I said, 'O. J., listen, for you, I'm going to do this,'" Ehrlich replied.
Simpson asked another friend, Walter Alexander, to get involved.
"He wanted to get his stuff back... He was like, 'Hey man, will you watch my back?'" he continued. "So I said, yes, and then after I said yes, he leaned in a little closer and he said, 'By the way, can you get some heat?' ... meaning a gun," said Alexander, according to the outlet.
Michael McClinton, a small security company owner interrupted and said he "had plenty of heat" and offered a gun to Alexander.
"[Simpson] asked me, 'would you go with me to be my security?'" McClinton recalled to ABC. "[I said] 'Sure, I'll go with you.' Little did I know that it was going to turn into what it did."
Once inside the room, "O.J. says, 'Pack up the stuff, pack up all the stuff and let's get out of here,'" Ehrlich described, adding one of them pulled out a gun, while the rest of them seized autographed balls, Joe Montana lithographs, and photographs of his kids he claimed belonged to him.
They then fled.
Afterwards, Ehrlich said he realized the men committed an armed robbery.
The victims called 911 and Simpson and the men were arrested days later. Many of them worked out plea agreements and avoided jail time in exchange for testimony against Simpson.
In 2008, Simpson was convicted of armed robbery, assault and kidnapping. He was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison, and released from parole in 2017.
Simpson died Thursday following a battle with cancer, his family said. He was 76.
