Former American football star, robber and double-murder suspect OJ Simpson is a free man – and he can’t seem to believe it.
Simpson was spotted at a gas station in Nevada on Sunday after being driven from Lovelock Correctional Center, where he had spent eight-and-a-half-years after an armed confrontation in 2007 until his release just hours before.
Clad in a blue peaked cap, denim jacket, jeans and white sneakers, the disgraced star reacted in good humor when asked how it feels to be free.
‘I been in a car for the last five hours, so how do I know how it feels to be out?’ he asked, wryly.
OJ Simpson was spotted hours after leaving Lovelock Correctional Institute in Nevada, sitting in a gas station in the state. It’s unclear where his driver was, but Simpson – who was in the back seat – took time to muse on the freedom probation brings
The sports star, who had served eight and a half years of his 33-year sentence for robbery and kidnapping before being released early Sunday morning, said: ‘I been in a car for the last five hours, so how do I know how it feels to be out?’
Simpson was spotted in the back seat of a white SUV, his driver having apparently stepped away from the car. He was unaware of the cameraman until he was asked how he was feeling.
‘Man, how in the world– have y’all been stalking me?’ he asked with a chuckle.
Declining to say where he was headed, Simpson continued: ‘I been in nowhere USA for the last nine years doing nothing. Nothing has changed in my life! What do you guys – I mean, what do you guys expect? There’s nothing changed.
‘God bless, take care, you guys,’ he concluded. ‘Nothing’s changed!’
Simpson, now 70, was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2008 for robbing a pair of sports memorabilia traders in a Las Vegas hotel room, but won parole in July due to good behavior and other credits earned in custody.
He was released from the prison, which is located around 90 miles east of Reno, Nevada, after midnight on Sunday morning to avoid media attention.
Nevada state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press that she didn’t know who met Simpson upon his release and didn’t know where he was immediately headed in his first hours of freedom.
Simpson is forbidden from leaving the state without permission from the parole board but is believed to be moving to Naples, Florida – much to the chagrin of its attorney general, who doesn’t want him there
The former American football star and actor was seen in photos just before midnight on Saturday, signing documents. His parole agreement involves not drinking more than Nevasa’s legal driving limit and not possessing weapons
The Nevada Department of Corrections released the video and pictures on Facebook
The Nevada Board of Parole’s conditions for Simpson’s parole say that he can’t leave the state – to visit or settle – without getting permission first from the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation.
However, it is expected that he will be able to choose another state to live in – and that is likely to be Naples, Florida, as his friend, Thomas Scotto, told the Naples Daily News on Sunday.
That not make Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi happy; she told Fox and Friends on Sunday that Simpson will not be welcome to settle in her state because she’s ‘never seen such lack of remorse in my entire career.’
Other details of Simpson’s probation – which will end in exactly five years, but could be shorter if Simpson displays good behavior, pays his fees and fines on time and studies or works ‘diligently’ – have also emerged.
Every month he must write a report about his activities to officials, and he cannot associated with convicted felons or anyone engaged in criminal activity. His parole officer is also allowed to prohibit him from associating with anyone else.
He also needs to submit to blood or urine tests whenever his probation officer demands – to check for illegal drugs, unprescribed prescription drugs or alcohol levels higher than .08, which is the legal limit for driving in Nevada.
OJ won’t even be able to smoke marijuana in states where the drug is legal. And, of course, he is prohibiting from possessing or using weapons unless they are needed for a job, with prior agreement from the parole board.
Early Sunday morning the Nevada Department of Corrections released a video and picture on Facebook showing Simpson signing documents and leaving Lovelock as a free man.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murder charges in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ronald Goldman, 25, in what was arguably the most highly publicized murder trial in recent history.
Simpson can be seen here looking out onto the parking lot of the correctional center ahead of his first taste of freedom in almost nine years
OJ Simpson walks out into of the correctional facility at Lovelock with a hood over his head. His release was secretive in the hopes of minimizing media presence
Simpson is seen here speaking during his parole hearing at Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada, on Thursday, July 20
She had first met Simpson when she was 18 and he was married to his first wife.
After Brown and her friend were found dead outside her home in 1994 Simpson was questioned and later ordered to turn himself into police.
However, he fled and the ensuing police chase – during which a convoy of vehicles followed Simpson in a white Ford Bronco down Interstate 405 – was broadcast live on television.
It led to a ‘the trial of the century’ that gripped America. It became a live-TV sensation that fascinated viewers with its testimony about a bloody glove that didn’t fit and unleashed furious debate over race, police and celebrity justice.
Last year, the trial was dramatised in the critically acclaimed television series, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story.
A jury swiftly acquitted him, but two years later, he was found liable for the killings in civil court and ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million.
David Cook, attorney for the Goldman family, said the judgment amount has nearly doubled with interest over the years to more than $65 million. He said the family will continue to pursue him for the payment.
Simpson is said to have ‘barely made a dent’ in paying that money as the victims’ families accuse him and his financial advisers of shielding his millions from them.
Much of his wealth is said to be untouchable because it is in pension funds.
OJ Simpson spent eight and a half years behind bars for a 2007 armed confrontation with two sports memorabilia traders in a Las Vegas hotel room
Tom Scotto, a friend of Simpson’s, has said the former running back for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers, might live with him in Florida.
Simpson had been ‘bored out of his mind’ in jail and intended to ‘play a little golf’.
Simpson has two grown-up children with Nicole – daughter Sydney, 31, and Justin, 28, who both live in Florida. He also has a son, Jason, 46, and daughter, Arnelle, 48, with his first wife, Marguerite.
Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, said he just hoped to ‘enjoy life’ again.
‘He wants to go to Florida, he wants to see his family and hug his family on the outside of prison,’ he told ABC News.
‘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… and he wants to do that in Florida.’
Simpson was accused of killing wife Nicole Brown Simpson (pictured right in 1994, three months before her death) and Ron Goldman. They were found stabbed to death outside her home. OJ Simpson was tried and acquitted for their murders
During his trial, Simpson tried on the bloody gloves used in the murder but could not get them comfortably on his hands. His lawyer Johnnie Cochran told the jury: ‘If the gloves don’t fit, you must acquit’
Simpson also plans to get an iPhone and get reacquainted with technology that was in its infancy when he was sent to prison in 2008.
The Florida Department of Corrections, however, said officials had not received a transfer request or required documents, and the attorney general said the state didn’t want him.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said: ‘The specter of his residing in comfort in Florida should not be an option. Our state should not become a country club for this convicted criminal.’