O.J. Simpson’s final sturdy dialogue together with his longtime lawyer was simply earlier than Easter, on the nation membership residence Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip.
“He was awake, alert and chilling,” lawyer Malcolm LaVergne recalled Tuesday. “He is on the sofa … consuming a beer and watching TV. And in order that was the final time we had efficient back-and-forth conversations. He is normally the one who retains me up on the information … so we have been simply catching up on the information then.”
A few week later, on April 5, a health care provider stated Simpson was “transitioning,” as LaVergne described it. The final time LaVergne visited, final week, Simpson solely had the energy to ask for water and to decide on to look at a TV golf event as a substitute of a tennis match.
“After all he selected golf,” LaVergne instructed The Related Press in an interview. “He was an absolute golf fanatic.”
Simpson died on April 10, after being recognized final yr with prostate most cancers. He was 76. His stays have been cremated Wednesday morning at roughly 10 a.m. PT, LaVergne confirmed to CBS Information in an announcement.
A submit on April 11 from Simpson’s household on X, previously Twitter, stated Simpson “succumbed to his battle with most cancers” whereas “surrounded by his youngsters and grandchildren.” Nonetheless, LaVergne stated Tuesday only one particular person was with Simpson when he died, recognized by the lawyer solely as “a detailed member of the family.” He declined to say who it was.
“It’s important to do not forget that they’ve shared O.J. with the world their whole lives,” the lawyer stated of Simpson’s surviving grownup youngsters of his first marriage — Arnelle Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53 — and the kids Simpson had with ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson earlier than she was killed in 1994: Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35. The household social media submit requested “throughout this time of transition” for “privateness and style.”
“At first they shared good O.J. However nonetheless he was well-known,” LaVergne stated. “After which, in 1994 on, they type of needed to share unhealthy boy O.J. with the world. However on the finish of the day, these youngsters simply misplaced a father. They usually have the added burden that he is without doubt one of the most well-known individuals on the planet, and who’s polarizing and who’s surrounded by controversy.”
LaVergne, who’s dealing with Simpson’s property, shared particulars of his remaining conferences with the previous soccer hero, film actor, sportscaster, tv pitchman and celeb homicide defendant who he has represented since 2009.
He deflected a query about any doable deathbed confession by Simpson as an try to steer “from somber to the sensationalism and the amusement.” He stated Simpson’s physique will not be studied for the results of persistent mind trauma from doable results of blows to the pinnacle throughout his 11 years as a working again within the NFL.
“Mr. Simpson, to my understanding, had expressed his needs to his youngsters,” LaVergne stated. “And so they will act upon these needs.”
Simpson wished to be cremated, the lawyer stated, and — pending a call from his household — there was no quick plan for a public memorial.
“There’s solely been tentative discussions of a celebration of life (or) ceremony,” LaVergne stated.
The lawyer filed Simpson’s final will and testomony in Nevada state courtroom two days after his dying, naming Simpson’s 4 youngsters as the one beneficiaries of his property. He stated particulars of a household belief are but to be filed.
The lawyer wouldn’t put a worth on the property however stated Simpson didn’t personal a house in states the place he had lived — together with Nevada, California and Florida. He stated accounts have been nonetheless being tallied.
Simpson famously was acquitted of prison prices alleging he stabbed his ex-wife and her buddy, Ronald Goldman, to dying in 1994 in Los Angeles. These proceedings in California in 1996 turned often called the “trial of the century.” Simpson was discovered responsible for the deaths in 1997 by a California civil courtroom jury.
In Las Vegas, Simpson went to jail in 2008 for 9 years after being discovered responsible of armed theft in a 2007 encounter at a on line casino lodge with two collectibles sellers.
He lived at a golf-and-country membership life-style since his launch from jail in October 2017, typically providing social media posts about sports activities and golf. His final message was Feb. 11: carrying a San Francisco 49ers jersey and predicting his previous staff would defeat the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Tremendous Bowl LVIII. The Chiefs received.
LaVergne acknowledged that Simpson died with out paying the households of Simpson’s slain ex-wife and Goldman the majority of a $33.5 million judgment they have been awarded within the 1997 civil legal responsibility case.
Lawyer David Prepare dinner, representing the Goldman household, stated Tuesday that he thought the judgment owed in the present day, together with unpaid curiosity, is greater than $114 million. Prepare dinner instructed CBS Information that Simpson’s dying was “a dying with out penance” and stated that he would maintain combating for the household’s settlement.
“Efforts went nowhere. Did he produce other cash? Nothing that we might discover. Do I feel he was hiding cash? Perhaps,” Prepare dinner stated, including that Goldman and their authorized staff haven’t been capable of entry Simpson’s NFL pension or belief.
LaVergne stated final week the Goldmans would not get a penny of Simpson’s belongings, after which backtracked.
“That ‘zero, nothing’ comment to a neighborhood reporter was harsh and in response to what an lawyer for Fred Goldman stated (inside an hour of notification of OJ’s dying), not Fred Goldman himself. Mr. Goldman’s private post-OJ dying remarks have been non-offensive and comprehensible given the circumstances,” LaVergne stated in an announcement to CBS Information.
He stated Tuesday he believed the quantity owed was greater than $200 million. He stated Simpson’s belongings will not quantity to that.
“They’ll be invited to view my homework,” he stated of the Goldman and Brown households. “I wish to present them what I’ve with the caveat that in the event that they consider one thing else is on the market … they are going to have to make use of their very own attorneys, their very own assets, to try to chase down that pot of gold.”