2 different hws. one is 8 sentences the other is 500 words

O.J.'s Melodrama Charged in 2 Murders, Simpson Leaves Suicide Note, Leads a Chase, Surrenders By Jim Mulvaney NEWSDAY STAFF CORRESPONDENT June 18, 1994 Los Angeles - O.J. Simpson surrendered to police last night, ending a dash for freedom and an apparent flirtation with suicide. Seven and a half hours earlier, leaving a letter saying "I can't go on," Simpson fled police who were on their way to arrest him on charges of murdering his ex-wife and a friend. He led them on a surreal freeway motorcade that ended back at his Brentwood home, alone in a car in his own driveway, holding a gun, while police negotiators shouted from his doorway. It wasn't clear why he gave up when he did, but police said he dropped his handgun, picked up two picture frames and walked out of a friend's Bronco. "Code four, code four," cops screamed, indicating the siege was over. Before the standoff, half a dozen news helicopters tracked what came to resemble a parade, broadcasting it live. (The NBC station carried the Knicks-Rockets game in the lower corner of the screen.) People stood at the side of the road and waved as the convoy passed; one group held up a sign saying "Go, O.J." Oncoming traffic halted en masse and honked. Ending days of speculation, the warrant charging Simpson with two counts of capital murder in the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman was filed in criminal court at 10:19 a.m. PDT. In the letter, read last night at a news conference by a friend, Robert Kardashian, Simpson proclaimed his innocence. "I had nothing to do with Nicole's murder. I loved her, always have and always will.

"I've done most of the right things, so why do I end up like this? I can't go on. No matter what the outcome, people will look and point. I can't take that. I can't subject my children to that. This way they can move on and go on in their lives." His lawyer, Robert Shapiro, described Simpson as suicidal. He said he and Simpson were in a secluded home in the San Fernando Valley when police called at 8:30 am. and asked for Simpson to surrender. The lawyer agreed and a time of 11 a.m. was set. Shapiro said Simpson had been "extremely depressed" and under medication since Tuesday. During the morning Simpson dictated a codicil to his will and wrote letters to his mother and his children as well as the public letter. He also called his mother and children. Around noon police called Shapiro and said they would come to pick up Simpson. Shapiro said he gave police directions and they arrived 15 minutes later. In the interim Shapiro and several doctors were on the second floor of the house, and Simpson was downstairs with his childhood friend and former Buffalo Bills teammate, Al Cowlings. "He was wailing," Shapiro said. When a doctor went to look for Simpson and Cowlings, they were gone. About 6:30 p.m., after Simpson's cellular phone calls were tracked by police, an Orange County sheriff spotted Cowlings' white Ford Bronco heading north on Interstate 5 from El Toro. Within minutes a caravan of more than one dozen California Highway Patrol cars were behind it and ahead of it, in a "rolling roadblock" moving at 30 to 40 miles an hour. There were unconfirmed television reports that Simpson was in the truck with a pistol to his head, and that he told police via cell phone that he needed to see his mother. But his 50-mile route appeared aimless, and Cowlings eventually drove to Simpson's Brentwoodmansion. Less than 24 hours before he was charged, Simpson had appeared at the funeral of his ex-wife. In his letter he sought to counter accounts of his relationship with her as tempestuous. "Unlike what has been written in the press Nicole and I had a great relationship for most of our lives together. Like all long-term relationships, we had our downs and ups . . . I don't want

to belabor knocking the press, but I can't believe what is being said. Most of it is being made up." Police announced in an afternoon news conference that Simpson was a fugitive, after he failed to keep his appointment for surrender. "Mr. Simpson is a wanted murder suspect," said a visibly angry police spokesman Commander David Gascon. "Two counts of murder is a terrible crime. We need to find him, we need to apprehend him. We need to take him to justice . . . Mr. Simpson is out there and we will find him." District Attorney Gil Garcetti was shaken at a later news conference. "We have seen the falling of an American hero," he said. "This is a man who can't hide too easily; his face is well known to millions of people around the world." The warrant charges Simpson with killing Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman, 25, in front of her luxury Brentwood condominum shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday with "a deadly and dangerous weapon, to wit a knife." Court papers added no additional details - other than to say that the district attorney wanted Simpson held without bail and that the case was being filed in such a way that authorities could ask for the death penalty. Police sources said yesterday that they believe Simpson attacked his ex-wife and Goldman in front of her condominium. While police say Simpson had plotted to kill the woman he divorced in 1992 after seven years of marriage, it was not clear yesterday whether the 25-year-old waiter and sometime model was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time or if his killing was part of the alleged plot. Garcetti said the weapon was a "substantial knife" that has not been recovered. He added that Simpson did not "lie in wait" for his ex-wife outside the apartment, but refused to give any other scenario. Deflecting questions from the press about why Simpson was not arrested Monday afternoon, Garcetti said that lab reports on forensic evidence linking Simpson to the murder were not completed until Thursday night and reports needed to obtain a warrant were not typed until yesterday morning.

"If in fact we had known where Mr. Simpson was he would have been arrested and we would not have asked for him to surrender," Garcetti said. Police said Simpson has a substantial weapons collection and police informed all officers that he should be considered dangerous. Simpson and his ex-wife attended a dance recital together with their children Sunday afternoon. Police say that five hours later, Simpson went to her condominium in his Ford Bronco and committed the murder. He then raced back to his mansion, under twomiles away, apparently shed his bloody clothes, put on fresh ones and jumped into a waiting limousine that took him to Los Angeles International Airport for an 11:45 p.m. flight to Chicago as part of a business trip he had scheduled the previous week, police said. The bodies were discovered shortly after Simpson's plane took off. Two hours after he checked in at a Chicago hotel, Los Angeles Police called Simpson, informed him of the murder and asked him to return for questioning. He was questioned for three hours Monday afternoon, in the presence of his attorney and he denied taking part in the murder, saying he was home waiting for the limo when the attack took place. The alibi crumbled quickly, police said. They discovered a bloody work glove in front of his mansion and its apparent match at the crime scene. Blood at the scene was identified as the same type as Simpson's, a different type than either victim. Blood stains were found in his Ford Bronco - a car similar to one seen by a jogger in front of the condominium around the time of the attack - as well as in Simpson's driveway and on clothes in his house. Police said they believe it was the victims' blood, but acknowledged that no positive match had been made as of yesterday. At around 3 p.m. there was a flurry of activity at the condo where the murders occurred. Nicole Simpson's father ran outside and asked reporters to call 911. Police said someone they believe to be O.J. Simpson had called the condo and said he was on his way. It was not clear if Simpson had called.

In his letter, he implored reporters not to contact his children. "As a last wish, please please please, leave my children in peace. Their lives will be tough enough."

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