A former friend of O.J. Simpson, whose testimony at his 2008 robbery and kidnapping trial alienated him, told the Post Thursday that Simpson was simply following God’s orders.
Walter Alexander, who became one of Simpson’s closest friends after his infamous 1995 acquittal for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, later converted to Christianity. , said he tried to persuade the soccer great Simpson to join him.
“His heart wasn’t in it,” Alexander said.
“He just wanted to party.”
Alexander, known as “Goldie,” told a Nevada jury in 2008 that the memories she claimed were stolen from Simpson, who died Wednesday after a battle with cancer, at a Las Vegas hotel. Simpson told how he and another friend asked him to bring a gun when he tried to retrieve his belongings. .
Simpson tried to pin the entire episode on him, Alexander said.
“He was just trying to save his life,” he said.
“He was just doing what I think a lot of people would do. He doesn’t want to get out of jail.”
But Alexander said he was not willing to give up and decided to cooperate with prosecutors in the case.
His turn on the stand subdued his former friend, and Simpson was found guilty.
“I’m not crying today,” Alexander said of Simpson’s death.
“But I’m saddened. At one point, we were very close friends. In my mind, he was a really good person, but one day he made a horrible decision.”
Simpson was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 33 years in prison for the memorabilia robbery.
This sentence was handed down exactly 13 years after the date of his acquittal for the double murder.
He served nine years in prison and was released in 2017.
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Alexander said he first met Simpson at a golf course, just days after a jury acquitted him of the brutal murders of Nicole and Ron.
Alexander, a former soccer golden boy, said he had been abandoned by his famous celebrity friends and was depressed.
“He was very disappointed that he was in a situation where he used to have all these endorsement deals and money and fame and now it’s all gone,” he said. Ta.
“He would get a check from the NFL, but it was nothing compared to what he was used to. He was in the dumps.”
At the time, Alexander was running a successful beauty salon and was a mainstay of Los Angeles’ urban party scene at the time.
“He didn’t have much interaction with black people up until then,” he said.
“But after the incident, I took him to a black club, a place where he still received support. We partied a lot.”
However, Alexander said God showed him that he had to testify against his friend, and their friendship ended after a 2008 robbery incident.
“On the day of the hearing, I saw him come out of the bathroom,” Alexander recalled.
“I said, ‘Juice, I love you, but I’m not going to go to jail for you.'” And he said, “I love you too.” Do what you have to do. ‘”
Alexander said she had mixed feelings when she heard of Simpson’s death, although she did not speak to him directly after that day.
“He made a terrible mistake,” he reiterated of Nicole and Ron’s deaths.
“And he did it.”
