OJ Simpson faces 18-year jail term

2:08pm Wednesday 3rd December 2008

Fallen sports star OJ Simpson should be jailed for 18 years when he is sentenced this week for armed robbery, prison officials said.

Lawyers for Simpson and Clarence Stewart filed papers asking Judge Jackie Glass for minimum prison terms of six years in Friday's hearing.

Stewart's lawyer refers to a confidential recommendation by the state Parole and Probation Division that the two men serve sentences totalling 18 years for two counts of kidnapping with a deadly weapon and two counts of armed robbery.

Kidnapping convictions call for mandatory prison time, and each count carries a six-year sentence. Armed robbery charges each carry three-year sentences.

"We would like the judge to take our recommendation to heart and sentence (Simpson) to the minimum, six years," lawyer Gabriel Grasso said in response to the recommendation.

Glass is not bound by the report and could sentence each of the men to the maximum term of life in prison.

Stewart's lawyer Brent Bryson asked the judge to disregard the state's recommendation. "Stewart submits that given his minimal participation in the events...as well as his lack of any prior criminal convictions, that (he) be sentenced to the minimum," the brief said.

Their remarks indicate that the state is recommending concurrent terms for the other charges for which the two men were convicted, including conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and coercion.

In October a jury convicted Simpson and Stewart of all 12 charges against them in arising from a confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel room. Simpson maintained he went to the room to retrieve personal items that had been stolen from him years earlier.

Simpson, 61, and Stewart, 54, are being held at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas.