The sister and father of Ron Goldman appeared on ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ Friday alongside attorney Christopher Darden to talk about OJ Simpson and his infamous murder trial.
All three guests spoke about the disgust they still feel towards Simpson 22 years after he was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron.
The Goldmans said that they were appalled by the way the Nevada Parole Board handled his July hearing, and shocked that the former football star’s admitted physical abuse of Nicole was not even a factor for the six-person board.
Ron’s sister Kim also spoke about her decision to write OJ a prison letter shortly after he was sentenced to 33 years behind bars at Lovelock Correctional Facility in Nevada on armed robbery and kidnapping charges.
‘It was important for me to shrink him in size because he has taken up so much space in my head and in my life,’ Kim told Megyn on the program.
‘I needed to see him behind bars and shackles in the orange suit.’
That letter meanwhile was sent on a card that read: ‘Congratulations on your new home.’
Kim previously spoke about the letter in an interview with Oprah Winfrey back in 2014, saying she signed the card by writing: ‘Hope you enjoy your new digs. The Goldman Family.’
Opening up: Kim Goldman (above) appeared on ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ Friday to talk about OJ Simpson, 22 years after he was acquitted of murdering her brother Ron
Who’s laughing now: Kim revealed that she wrote OJ a prison letter shortly after he sentenced on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping and sent to Lovelock (OJ above in July at his parole hearing)
Gang of three: Kim was joined on the program by her father Fred Goldman and Christopher Darden, who prosecuted OJ during his double murder trial
Darden said at the top of the interview that he still cannot believe that OJ will be walking free in just a few days.
‘Well, you know, he’s butchered two people with a big knife before. You know? He’s held up people. Had people spread out against a wall, you know, with their backs to him while somebody held a gun on them. All that is dangerous conduct,’ said Darden.
‘One thing is obvious, and that is that he hadn’t learned his lesson. Maybe he has now.’
He too then went after the parole board and the way they handled the case.
‘I don’t think they paid any attention to itI watched the parole hearing live. And I watched him exclaim how he led a conflict-free life. He wasn’t a violent person. He had never raised a weapon against any other person,’ said Darden.
‘And I’m sitting here thinking, “He’s lying through his teeth and the parole board has to know it.”‘
Darden said his biggest source of pain however was letting down the Goldmans, who did later win a $30 million civil judgement against OJ that has never been paid by the felon.
Kim admitted every day can still be a struggle for her in the years since Ron was murdered.
‘I mean, you know, for anyone that has suffered a loss, it doesn’t leave you,’ said Kim.
‘It kind of moves through your day. And in different times of your day, can pop up. And with our case being so public, it’s hard because it is constantly out there, and you don’t get an opportunity to walk away from it.’
She then spoke more about mailing Simpson that prison letter.
Kim broke down in tears as the verdict was read in the murder trial back in 1995 (above)
‘It was important for me to shrink him in size because he has taken up so much space in my head and in my life. That I needed to see him behind bars and shackles in the Orange suit,’ said Kim.
‘And I wanted to be the one to walk away and have the back of my head be what he sees because when he stabbed my brother to death, my brother was lying with his eyes open and watched Nicole be nearly decapitated and watched his killer walk away.’
Kim then added: ‘It was important for me.’
Fred meanwhile said he does not believe for one second that OJ will be visiting the grave of his ex-wife when he is released from prison like he has claimed in the past.
That seemed to be confirmed by Simpson’s lawyer Malcolm LaVergne, who detailed what his clients plans are once he gets released in an interview with ABC News.
‘He wants to go to Florida, he wants to see his family and hug his family on the outside of prison. He wants to eat seafood; he wants to eat steak. He wants to enjoy the very simple pleasures that he hasn’t enjoyed in nine years,’ said LaVergne.
‘I spoke to him. He’s going to get the latest iPhone.’
LaVergne then added: So he wants to enjoy those very simple pleasures, and he wants to do that in Florida.’
The prosecution’s unrest: Darden )above) said he was disgusted that phone calls in which Nicole Brown detailed her abuse by OJ were never even acknowledged during the parole hearing
Tall tale: Fred Goldman (above) said he does not believe for one second that OJ will be visiting the grave of his ex-wife when he is released from prison like he has claimed in the past
Simpson was attending the wedding of his good friend Scotto back in 2007 when he made the ill-fated decision to rob a memorabilia dealer at gunpoint with a group of friends inside the man’s hotel room.
He was sentenced to 33 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of all ten counts with which he was charged on October 3, 2008 – exactly 13 years to the day that the former football star was acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.
Simpson has been a model inmate ever since he entered the Lovelock Correctional Center back in 2008 according to multiple reports and interviews with fellow prisoners.
His sentence was handed down by a Clark County judge after he was convicted on multiple counts of kidnapping, robbery and conspiracy to commit a violent crime as well as one charge of burglary with a firearm.
At his first parole hearing back in 2013, the board voted to parole Simpson on the charges of kidnapping, robbery and burglary, guaranteeing he would be released in 2022 at the latest assuming he committed no infractions while behind bars.
It was also determined at that 2013 parole hearing that Simpson must still serve at least four more years behind bars, confirming that his earliest possible release date October 1, 2017.
Simpson had also served the time required for both conspiracy charges by that time, and now remains behind bars on just one of the eight counts for which he was ordered to serve time – assault with a deadly weapon.
‘I just wish I never went to that room,’ Simpson said at that 2013 hearing.
He also argued that it was his memorabilia he was taking back from the man, a great deal of which he claimed had been stolen from his storage facilities while he was incarcerated during his previous murder trial.
‘They were trying to steal other people’s property. They were trying to steal other people’s money,’ Simpson told the panel.
‘My crime was trying to retrieve for my family my own property.’
And while Simpson may feel he has been wrongfully incarcerated, it seems that prison has been good for the athlete, who is the commissioner of the softball league and works cleaning the facility’s workout center.
ill-fitting defense: Despite being acquitted of all criminal charges, Simpson was ordered to pay the Goldmans $30 million after they filed a civil suit in the case (above in June 1995)
He has also begun taking classes while behind bars.
Simpson never completed his degree at the University of Southern California, electing to drop out in 1969 after he won the Heisman Trophy in order to join the National Football League.
That move did pay off at the time for the college sensation, with the Buffalo Bills selecting the running back with the first pick in the 1969 draft, and his charismatic personality netting him a slew of endorsements including Hertz.
Things began to spiral out of control however in the years before the death of his second wife, but that was nothing compared to the debauched life he was leading in Miami prior to the 2007 incident.
Simpson and his friends were videotaped entering and leaving a Las Vegas hotel on September 15 by security cameras, and there was an audio recording of the group in the bedroom where the robbery took place confirming the victim’s story that the men threatened him with guns.
It also gave the prosecution grounds to file kidnapping charges against Simpson, who can be heard screaming to his accomplices at one point: ‘Don’t let nobody out of this room.’
The recording was made by Thomas Riccio, the man who first told Simpson about the stolen memorabilia and where the man with the goods would be that night.
Riccio, who was given immunity in exchange for his testimony at the trial, said on the stand that TMZ paid him $150,000 for the recording soon after, and that he earned another $60,000 from TV appearances after the incident.
Simpson meanwhile gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times just a few days after the robbery, saying: ‘I’m O. J. Simpson. How am I going to think that I’m going to rob somebody and get away with it?
‘You’ve got to understand, this ain’t somebody going to steal somebody’s drugs or something like that. This is somebody going to get his private [belongings] back. That’s it. That’s not robbery.
He then joked: ‘Besides, I thought what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas.’