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LAPD: Tests on knife linked to OJ Simpson estate to take weeks

Investigators are examining the knife for DNA or other material that could possibly link the weapon to the 1994 murders

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The knife reportedly found at O.J. Simpson’s former estate likely isn’t connected to the killings of his ex-wife and her friend, a law enforcement official said.

But it will take at least three weeks to know for sure.

Investigators are examining the knife for DNA or other material that could possibly link the weapon to the 1994 murders of Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend. Results aren’t expected for at least three weeks, Capt. Andy Neiman said Wednesday.

Meanwhile a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that detectives doubt the knife is connected to the killings.

The official said the knife is commonly used among gardeners and was too small to make the wounds that killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Both Simpson and Goldman had deep gashes to their necks, in addition to a number of other extensive knife wounds.

The weapon used in the killings has been a mystery for decades. Other knives have surfaced during the case, but they were not linked to the crimes.

On Friday, Los Angeles police revealed that they were examining a knife reportedly found at Simpson’s estate years ago.

Police said a construction worker gave the knife to an officer working as a security guard at a filming location. The officer then kept the knife for a number of years, police said.

Trent Copeland, an attorney who represents the officer, said his client retired in 1998 and that the construction worker gave him the knife in 2002 or 2003, well after a jury found Simpson not guilty of the murders.

Copeland said the officer, George Maycott, immediately called LAPD to report the knife.

“Someone put him on hold, that person came back several minutes later, said he spoke to a supervisor who said ‘Double jeopardy is attached to this case, O.J.'s been acquitted. If that knife had blood on it there’s really nothing we can do about it, so we don’t want anything to do with this,’ ” Copeland said.

Maycott then kept the knife in a toolbox for the next 13 years or so.

“He was not this sort of bumbling keystone cop who cavalierly decided he would take what could have been a pivotal piece of evidence and put it in his bag,” Copeland said. “He knows that he did exactly what any diligent professional officer would have done and that is you call LAPD immediately — and that’s what he did.”

The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman were found stabbed multiple times outside her home on June 12, 1994.

The discovery led to the so-called “Trial of the Century,” in which Simpson was represented by a team of high-profile attorneys led by the flamboyant Johnnie Cochran. A jury acquitted Simpson in 1995 after deliberating only four hours.

In 1997, a civil court jury found him liable for the killings and awarded $33.5 million in damages to the victims’ families.

Simpson, who has always maintained his innocence, is now serving a sentence of nine to 33 years in a Nevada prison for a 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction in which he tried to retrieve football memorabilia. He is eligible for parole next year.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press

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