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Expert: ‘100 percent’ sure TV gloves similar to evidence
LOS ANGELES — With a new
jury problem arising, an expert gave
the strongest testimony yet linking
OJ. Simpson to two bloodstained
gloves, saying Tuesday he’s “ 100 per
cent certain” Simpson wore the same
uniquely styled gloves in TV appear
ances.
Richard Rubin, a former executive
of Aris Isotoner, looked at photos and
videos of Simpson working at NFL
games and identified the gloves on
Simpson’s hands as Aris Lights, a
model that is “quite rare.”
Jurors were attentive but took few
notes. After they were dismissed for
the day, the defense demanded that a.
juror with a newly disclosed financial *
problem be dismissed from the panel.
Hours earlier, defense attorney
Johnnie Cochran Jr. disclosed the
problem and said that the judge had
offered public funds to keep the panel
member from bailing out of the case.
Cochran opposed the plan, saying
it would taint the juror’s opinion. Few
details of the plan were released. In
court papers, the defense referred to a
juror losing $1,500 a month in rental
income, but it was unclear whether
this was just an example raised to
make a point.
Judge Lance Ito told him to appeal
if he objected. Cochran said he would.
Later, defense attorney Robert
Shapiro said the juror should be ousted.
Ito took no immediate action.
Jury problems hampered the trial
during the first six months, and just
two of the original 12 alternates are
left. But since June 5, no juror has
been dismissed.
Also Tuesday, a jail nurse said in a
videotape played outside the jury’s
presence that he erred when he testi
fied in the preliminary hearing that he
took 8 milliliters of blood from
Simpson the day after the murders.
Thano Peratis, who didn’t testify at
the trial because of health problems,
said the amount was closer to 6.5
milliliters, which, if accurate, would
undermine the defense claim that there
was blood missing from Simpson’s
vial that could have been planted on
evidence.
“I was wrong,” Peratis said.
Peratis is seen in the video sitting
on a sofa and re-enacting the with
drawal of blood from Simpson by
withdrawing water from a purple cof
fee cup. The rambling presentation, in
which Peratis fumbled through boxes
of syringes and vials, drew muffled
laughter in the courtroom.
Defense attorney Peter Neufeld
denounced the video as “rank, staged
hearsay” and said j urors shouldn ’ t see
it.
The judge ruled that prosecutors
could show an edited version of the
tape with the parts where Peratis talks
about his previous testimony and about
the amount of blood he now believes
was in the syringe.
Before Rubin stepped down, one
of the evidence gloves, a new glove of
similar size and eolor and a photo of
Simpson wearing gloves was set on a
white board and passed to jurors.
Police found one bloody, brown,
extra large Aris Light glove near the
bodies at Ms. Simpson’scondominium
and the apparent mate on Simpson’s
estate.
Rubin said a video of Simpson at a
Jan. 6, 1991, Oilers-Bengals playoff
game showed Simpson wearing Aris
Li ghts with a distinctive Brasser stitch
ing.
“How certain are you of that?”
Deputy District Attorney Christopher
Darden asked.
“I’m 100 percent certain,” Rubin
said.
O.J. Simpson gloves
An expert testified today he was “100 percent certain" the gloves O.J.
Simpson wore during a 1991 football broadcast were the same unique
style as those found by murder investigators.
About the gloves:
■ Distinguished by their stitching ■ A special hem at the wrist
■A V-shaped vent in the palm ■ Thin leather and lining
- -+——" " - -I-—1
Source: AP research, Court TV AP
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Man blows up car, killing family
ESSEX, Md. — Betty Louise Clark had
agreed to meet her estranged husband one last
time: He said they’d take her three children
shopping for school clothes and talk.
A day later, all-that was left of Mark A.
Clark’s station wagon was a crumpled, burned
out shell in the parking lot of a strip mall in
suburban Baltimore.
Police believe Clark packed his car with
dynamite and blew up his family and himself,
shaking the neighborhood and sending debris
and body parts raining down blocks away. The
glove compartment was found half a mile from
Monday’s blast.
The Clarks, their 4-year-old daughter, Krysta
Clark, and Mrs. Clark’s other children, Malissa
Ray, 11, and Ricardo Valdez, 6, all died.
Neighbors said Tuesday that Clark, 32, had
threatened to kill himself and his family Sunday
and Monday.
“We all just thought he was blowing hot air,”
said Pamela Pierce, who lived upstairs from
Mrs. Clark.
Mrs. Clark, 32, moved in with her sister in
Essex earlier this year. She had a new boyfriend
and was studying to be a medical secretary.
Neighbors saw Clark talking to himself out
side the building when he visited his estranged
wife on Sunday. He also visited on Monday.
“When I asked what he was talking about, he
said, 'You’ll find out soon,”’ said Mary Tho
mas, another upstairs neighbor.
“Sunday and yesterday he went out to the car
a thousand times looking in the car, looking in
the trunk. Last night when we saw the wreck on •
the TV news we put two and two together,”
Thomas said.
Mark Edward Weitzel, 30, who had been
dating Mrs. Clark since May, said she had
agreed to meet with her husband one last time to
take the children shopping. He picked them up
from Weitzel’s house.
“We knew he was unstable,” Weitzel said.
“But we didn’t think he would actually do
something like this. Yesterday I had a family -
a girlfriend and three kids. Now I have noth
mg.
Police said they had no reports of domestic
violence.
“You hope that if they’re having these prob
lems that they would call us..That’s what make
it so sad since there was no hope of interven
tion,” said Capt. Brian Uppercue, a police
spokesman.
Doctor in botched abortion gets
25 to life for woman’s death *
NEW YORK—A doctor convicted of mur
der for a fatally botched abortion was sentenced
today to 25 years to life in prison by a judge who
called his actions “depraved, indifferent mur
der.”
Dr. David Benjamin, 58, found guilty in an
extremely rare criminal case stemming from a
medical malpractice, received the maximum
sentence from state Supreme Court Judge Rob
ert J, Hanophy.
“This was not a political case or malprac
tice,” Hanophy said. “It was depraved, indiffer
ent murder.”
The murder conviction was the first of its
' kind in New York state, and authorities could
cite only one other case nationally where a
doctor was prosecuted and convicted on murder
charges for botched work.
Benjamin was convicted Aug. 8 of second
degree murder in the July 1993 death of
Guadalupe Negron, a 33-year-old mother of
four who bled to death from a 3-inch rip in her
uterus.
The jury deliberated for just three hours,
rejecting lesser chargesof manslaughter or crimi -
nally negligent homicide. Ordinarily, such inci
dents are handled through malpractice suits or
disciplinary hearings.
Benjamin's attorney, Brad Leventhal, ac
knowledged his client erred during the abor
tion, but said Benjamin did everythinghe could
to save Mrs. Negron. The defense claimed she
caused the tear by sittingup during the abortion.
Appealing appealed for his client to receive
the minimum sentence of 15 years to life,
Levanthal said: “Judge, he’s no threat. This man
brings no danger to society. He’s a man who
tried to do his job.”
In pronouncing sentence, the judge said,
“This was not a political case or malpractice. It
was depraved, indifferent murder.”
Benjamin testified he thought Mrs. Negron
was about 13 weeks pregnant and didn’t realize
until midway through the abortion that she was
20 weeks along. His receptionist testified that
that was a lie and that he ignored the woman for
more than an hour after the abortion.
The state said he also lied to the two para
medics whaarrived on the scene. The district
attorney said the cover-up was one reason for
pressing charges.
Benjamin is appealing the conviction.
One month before Mrs.. Negron’s death, the
state had revoked Benjamin’s license for gross
incompetence and negligence for abortions per
formed on five women in 1990. Benjamin was
allowed to continue practicing while appealing
the revocation. ,