O.J. Simpson trial nears conclusion in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Lawyers in the robbery-kidnap trial of O.J. Simpson began closing arguments on Thursday in a case expected to hinge on what, if anything, he knew about guns carried by former co-defendants who testified against him.

Simpson, famously acquitted in a sensational murder trial more than a decade ago, faces a possible life prison term if convicted on charges of robbing and holding two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint last year.

Prosecutors say the former football star and five associates stormed into a room at the Palace Station hotel and casino in September 2007 brandishing weapons and got away with thousands of dollars in collectibles.

Defense lawyers have argued that Simpson went to the hotel merely to retrieve personal mementos that were stolen from him and that the retired athlete turned Hollywood actor and TV pitchman was unaware that his cohorts were armed.

Four of the other men originally charged in the case later agreed to plead guilty and all took the witness stand for the prosecution during nearly three weeks of trial testimony that concluded on Wednesday.

Two of them, Walter Alexander and Michael McClinton, told the jury that they carried guns into the hotel room encounter at Simpson's behest. McClinton said Simpson urged him to "show" his weapon and "look menacing."

Neither Simpson, 61, nor his lone remaining co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, were called to testify before the defense rested its case.

Simpson and Stewart is each charged with a dozen crimes, including armed robbery and kidnapping, which carries a potential life sentence.

While no evidence has emerged suggesting that Simpson himself was armed, prosecutors have sought to show that Simpson knew of, and even encouraged, the possession of guns by his former co-defendants. The issue is expected to be a key factor in how the jury decides the case.

Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass presented jury instructions in court on Thursday, and attorneys for both sides were expected to give their closing arguments.

Simpson's previous legal entanglements are not supposed to figure in the jury's deliberations but they have hovered around the current case.

A Los Angeles jury cleared Simpson of murder charges stemming from the June 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, at the end of a year-long trial that transfixed much of the world.

But a civil court jury later found Simpson responsible in a wrongful death suit and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that remains largely unpaid.

Prosecutors contend that some of the items Simpson was out to collect last year at the hotel had once been given by him to a former agent to keep them from being auctioned off to help satisfy his civil court debt.

Glass has admonished jurors to put Simpson's murder trial out of their minds, though Clark County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Owens seemed to invoke the 1990s case in his opening statement weeks ago.

He implored jurors then to "write the final chapter" with a "true verdict, the verdict you can feel good about."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)