By Cindy Boren and Des Bieler
Moments after he became eligible for parole, O.J. Simpson was released from a Nevada prison early Sunday morning after serving nine years for a 2007 robbery and kidnapping incident in Las Vegas.
The Hall of Fame football player left Lovelock Correctional Center with an unidentified driver at 12:08 a.m. Brooke Keast, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Corrections told The Los Angeles Times, saying simply: “He is out.”
As for Simpson’s next move, he literally might not be putting much distance between himself and the scene of the crime.
Capt. Shawn Arruti, an official with the Nevada parole and probation department, told the Associated Press on Sunday that Simpson, 70, plans to live at a home in the Las Vegas area for the foreseeable future. Arruti declined to disclose the exact location of the house, for what he said were security and privacy reasons.
Several hours after Simpson left prison, a reporter caught up with him at a gas station and asked where he was headed. “None of your business,” Simpson said, after asking with surprise if the reporter was “stalking” him.
“I’ve been in Nowhere, USA, for the last nine years, doing nothing,” Simpson continued. “Nothing has changed in my life. What are you guys — what do you expect? Please? Can I have a break here?”
Simpson, according to CNN, left prison with several boxes “about the size of a microwave,” Keast said.
“I told him, ‘Don’t come back,’ and he responded, ‘I don’t intend to,’ ” Keast added. “He was upbeat, personable and seemed happy to get on with his life.”
Simpson also met with his parole officer for instructions on the rules he must follow to stay out of prison.
“Our biggest concern was our safety and the public’s safety and not wanting anybody, paparazzi, to follow him,” Keast said. “He left through a big blue door through the front gatehouse and exited quietly. He looked down because he didn’t want to be photographed.”
There had been some speculation that Simpson might move back to California, where he was acquitted of double murder in the so-called trial of the century in 1995, or go to Florida, where he was living before his arrest. It still remains to be seen, of course, how he will he be received after being the subject of a popular miniseries and documentary on his murder trial.
Simpson departed the northwest Nevada prison wearing baggy denim and white sneakers, with a cap pulled low over his face.
“It was incident free, nobody followed, it was exactly what we’d hoped we could do for public safety,” Keast told reporters. “It was a public safety concern. To make it quiet, under the radar and incident free.”
Simpson, originally sentenced to nine-to-33 years in prison for conducting a sting to retrieve memorabilia from his sports career, was granted parole in July, with a date of “on or after Oct. 1″ set. He reacted emotionally, mouthing a “thank you” as four members of the Nevada Board of Prisons delivered their votes for parole.
“I can tell from his voice on the phone . . . that he’s looking forward to freedom and hugging his family on the outside,” Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s lawyer, told the Times in an interview conducted before the release.
Simpson has four adult children, two of whom live in Florida, and LaVergne told the Associated Press that “there’s no doubt he’s going to Florida.” Tom Scotto, a friend and golfing buddy, has offered his home in Naples to Simpson.
Whatever the future holds for Simpson, it is likely to be somewhat surreal, given his past and the circumstances surrounding his parole hearing.
An apologetic Simpson, who had not been publicly seen since being granted parole in a 2013 hearing on lesser charges, appeared far slimmer and more fit than he did then, wearing dark slacks and a blue button-up shirt over a white T-shirt during the hearing. Simpson cracked up when he was initially told that his hearing is the same that all inmates receive, despite the media attention this hearing is attracting. Unexpected levity followed when a commissioner listed his age as 90, rather than 70. “You look great for 90!” she said.
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