8 Days of O.J. - "A GLOVE, A DOG, AND KATO KAELIN: The Evidence That Should Have Convicted O.J. Simpson" - Day 2

Reid Carter examines February 1995 - the month that presented overwhelming evidence against O.J. Simpson that somehow didn't matter. Blood evidence creating a trail from Bundy to Bronco to Rockingham. The $55 Aris Isotoner gloves that would doom the prosecution. Kato Kaelin becomes the world's most famous houseguest while refusing to say what he really heard. Nicole's Akita with bloody paws that should have sealed the case. Rosa Lopez emerges as the defense's lying witness who fled to El Salvador. Denise Brown's devastating testimony about abuse gets overshadowed by legal theater. February proved O.J.'s guilt beyond doubt - and proved that evidence doesn't matter when you've got the right jury and better lawyers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Caalirogashark Media. This is read Carter, Saturday, September twenty seventh,
twenty twenty five, Day two of eight days of OJ.
We're examining February nineteen ninety five, the month that should
have ended this trial with a guilty verdict, the month

(00:25):
the prosecution presented evidence so overwhelming, so damning, so absolutely conclusive,
that any reasonable jury would have convicted OJ Simpson in
an afternoon. Instead, February nineteen ninety five became the month
we learned that evidence doesn't matter if you don't know
how to present it, That physical proof becomes meaningless if

(00:45):
the jury doesn't trust who collected it. That DNA trails
and blood patterns and witness testimony can all be explained
away if you've got the right story and the right scapegoats.
February was the month of the Bloody Glove, The month
cato'kalan became famous for being useless. The month Nicole's dog
tried to tell us who killed her. The month Rosa

(01:07):
Lopez proved that money can buy any testimony you need.
Most importantly, February was the month we should have realized
that this trial wasn't about evidence anymore. It was about performance,
and while the prosecution was trying to present facts, the
defense was putting on the greatest legal magic show in
American history. I'm read Carter, this is day two of

(01:30):
eight days of OJ. Welcome to the month that proved
OJ Simpson was guilty and proved that guilt doesn't matter
in celebrity justice. February nineteen ninety five. Twenty eight days
that should have sent OJ Simpson to death row. Twenty
eight days of evidence so clear, so undeniable, so scientifically

(01:52):
certain that denying it required abandoning logic itself. But here's
what I think happened in February. And I've studied this
case for years, so I'm confident about this. The prosecution
made their second fatal mistake. Their first mistake was letting
Cochrane pick the jury in January. Their second mistake was
thinking that evidence speaks for itself. Evidence doesn't speak. Lawyers speak,

(02:16):
And the prosecution spent February reciting facts, while the defense
spent February telling stories. Guess which approach worked better with
a jury that had already decided the LAPD couldn't be trusted.
Let me walk you through the trail of blood that
should have convinced anyone with a functioning brain that OJ
Simpson was a killer. February third, nineteen ninety five, the

(02:38):
prosecution begins presenting the blood evidence, and Folks, this wasn't
trace amounts, this wasn't microscopic samples. This was a highway
of blood leading from the murder scene directly to OJ
Simpson's bedroom. Dennis Fung, the LAPD criminalist, took the stand
to explain what they found at Bundy Drive. Nicole Brown

(02:59):
Simpson's blood, Ronald Goldman's blood, and most importantly, OJ Simpson's blood,
all at the same crime scene, all fresh, all deposited
the night of June twelfth, nineteen ninety four. But here's
where it gets damning. The blood trail doesn't end at Bundy.
It continues to OJ's white broncho, parked a block away.

(03:21):
OJ's blood on the driver's door handle, on the interior console,
on the steering wheel, Niicole's blood on the carpet, Ron's
blood on the console. Then the trail continues to rocking
them OJ's estate. More blood drops leading from the broncho
up his driveway into his house. OJ's blood drops in
his foyer in his hallway leading directly to his bedroom,

(03:43):
and in that bedroom socks, dark socks with Nicole Brown
Simpson's blood on them. Not transfer blood, not secondary blood.
Nicole's blood soaked into socks that were sitting on oj
Simpson's bedroom floor. This isn't circumstantial evidence. This is a
GPS tracking system written in blood, leading from the murder

(04:03):
scene to the killer's bedroom. Any competent prosecutor should have
been able to convict Ojay with this evidence alone. But
Barry Sheck was about to earn his fee. Shek took
Dennis Fung apart, piece by piece, not on the substance
of the evidence, but on the collection procedures, the chain
of custody, the storage protocols, the laboratory standards. Shek wasn't

(04:26):
disputing that the blood was there. He was planting the
idea that it got there through contamination, mishandling, or deliberate planting.
And watching this testimony thirty years later, I can see
exactly what Sheck was doing. He was making the jury
more concerned about how evidence was collected than what the
evidence proved. But the blood evidence was just the opening Act.

(04:49):
February ninth brought us the gloves, the fifty five dollars
rus Isotoner gloves that would eventually destroy the prosecution, but
started as their strongest weapon. One glove was found at
the Bundye crime scene, soaked in blood from both victims.
The other was found behind Ojy's house at Rockingham, also
blood soaked, same manufacturer, same size, extra large, same rare

(05:14):
style that Nicole had purchased for OJ as a Christmas gift.
The prosecution had receipts. Literally, Nicole bought these exact gloves
at Bloomingdale's in December nineteen ninety. She bought two pairs,
one brown, one black. She gave them to OJ as
Christmas presents. The gloves found at the crime scenes matched exactly.

(05:35):
But here's what the prosecution should have emphasized and didn't.
These weren't just any gloves. These were expensive, distinctive, custom
fit gloves that Nicole specifically chose for OJ's large hands.
The odds of someone else having identical gloves that happened
to be soaked in Nicole and Ron's blood and left
at both crime scenes astronomical. Instead, the prosecution got bogged

(05:59):
down in technical testimony about leather shrinkage and blood degradation.
They turned smoking gun evidence into a chemistry lecture. They
forgot that juries need to feel the weight of evidence,
not just hear about it. Meanwhile, February brought us kato'klan
and let me tell you something about Kato'kalean. This man

(06:21):
had the opportunity to be the hero of this case
and chose to be a coward instead. Kato'klin lived in
Ojy's guesthouse, rent free. He was there the night of
the murders. He heard strange noises, he saw oj acting suspiciously.
He knew things that could have convicted a killer and

(06:41):
saved Nicole and Ron's families years of pain. Instead, Kato'calein
turned his testimony into performance art. He played dumb, He
claimed memory problems. He acted like a stone surfer who
couldn't remember what he had for breakfast, let alone what
he heard the night two people were butchered. February thirteenth,

(07:02):
Kto takes the stand. The prosecution asks about the thumps
he heard against his wall around ten forty five pm.
Three loud thumps that shook his room, Thumps that came
from the direction of the pathway where the bloody glove
was found. What does Kato say He heard thumps but
didn't think they were important. He was watching TV, he
was distracted. He didn't investigate because he was tired. Tired.

(07:26):
Three loud thumps shake your wall an hour after your
landlord's ex wife was murdered, and you're too tired to
look outside. That's not tired, that's willful ignorance. And here's
what I think really happened with Katoklin. I think he
knew exactly what those thumps were. I think he suspected
what Oj had done. But Kato was living rent free

(07:47):
in a mansion, hanging out with celebrities, enjoying a lifestyle
he could never afford on his own. He wasn't going
to bite the hand that fed him, even if that
hand was covered in blood. The prosecution should have destroyed
Cato on cross examination, should have forced him to admit
that he was protecting his meal ticket, should have made
the jury see that Cato was choosing comfort over conscience. Instead,

(08:10):
they treated him like a friendly witness and let Cochrane
turn him into comic relief. Cochrane made Cato seem harmless
and confused, rather than complicit and cowardly, another prosecution opportunity wasted.
But February's most heartbreaking testimony came from an unexpected witness,
Niicole's dog. Pablo Fenves, Nicole's neighbor, testified about hearing an

(08:32):
akida barking plaintively around ten fifteen pm on June twelfth.
Not aggressive barking, not territorial barking, mournful, continuous wailing that
went on for hours. The dog was found later that
night by other neighbors wandering the alley behind Nichole's condo.
The dog's paws were covered in blood. The dog was agitated,

(08:53):
trying to lead people back toward Nichole's gate. The dog
knew something terrible had happened and was trying to get help.
Animals don't lie, Animals don't have ulterior motives. That dog
was trying to tell anyone who would listen that its
owner was dead. That dog provided a timeline and a
witness account more reliable than anything kato'clin offered, But the

(09:15):
prosecution barely emphasized this testimony. They mentioned the dog in
passing like it was a minor detail instead of powerful
evidence about timing and the scene itself. Meanwhile, the defense
was busy creating their own witnesses. Enter Rosa Lopez, the
housekeeper who claimed she saw OJ's Bronco at Rockingham during
the time of the murders. Rosa Lopez, who would become

(09:38):
the defense's first major witness and their first major embarrassment.
We'll be right back with Rosa Lopez's lies, Denise Brown's
devastating testimony about OJ's abuse, and how February proved that
evidence doesn't matter if you don't know how to tell
its story. Welcome back to day two of eight Days

(10:07):
of OJ. I'm Red Carter and we're examining how February
nineteen ninety five presented overwhelming evidence of OJ Simpson's guilt
that somehow didn't matter. Rosa Lopez. Let me tell you
about Rosa Lopez, because she represents everything that was wrong
with this trial. Rosa Lopez was a housekeeper who worked

(10:28):
for Ojay's neighbors. She claimed she saw OJ's white Bronco
parked at Rockingham at ten fifteen pm on June twelfth,
exactly when the prosecution said he was at Bundy murdering
Nicole and Ron. If true, this would have given OJ
and alibi. If true, this would have destroyed the prosecution's timeline.
If true, this would have been the most important testimony

(10:50):
in the trial. But it wasn't true. And here's how
we know it wasn't true. Rosa Lopez's story changed every
time she told it. First she saw bronco, Then she
wasn't sure it was the bronco, then she was sure again.
First she saw it at ten fifteen, then it was ten,
then it was ten thirty. Her story had more versions

(11:13):
than a Hollywood script. More importantly, Rosa Lopez had lied
to investigators multiple times. She initially told police she didn't
see anything unusual that night, no bronco, no OJ. Nothing.
Only after the defense found her and offered to help
with her immigration status, did she suddenly remember seeing the bronco.

(11:33):
And then this is the best part. Rosa Lopez fled
to El Salvador before she could be cross examined by
the prosecution. Fled the country rather than face questions about
her convenient memory and her changing story. Think about that
the defense's star alibi witness ran away rather than be
questioned under oath. That tells you everything you need to

(11:54):
know about the quality of OJ's defense. They were willing
to put up witnesses they knew were lying, and when
those witnesses got scared of perjury charges, they helped them
flee the country. But the prosecution let this slide. They
should have made Rosa Lopez's flight the centerpiece of their case.
Should have argued that innocent people don't need lying witnesses,

(12:15):
should have pointed out that OJ's defense was so weak
they had to import perjury from Central America. Instead, they
moved on to the next witness, like Rosa Lopez's lies
didn't matter, like suborning perjury was just another day at
the office. Meanwhile, February brought us testimony that should have
broken every heart in that courtroom. Denise Brown, Nicole's sister,

(12:37):
took the stand to describe Ojay's abuse of her sister.
February fifteenth, Denise Brown testifies about a restaurant incident in
nineteen eighty seven. Nicole and oj are at a restaurant
with friends. Oj gets angry about something trivial. He starts
screaming at Nicole in front of everyone. He grabs her
by the hair. He throws her out of the restaurant

(12:59):
like she garbage. Denise describes Nicole coming home with bruises,
with black eyes, with excuses for why she fell downstairs
or walked into doors. Classic domestic violence patterns that should
have made the jury understand what kind of man O J.
Simpson really was. But the defense objected to most of

(13:20):
this testimony too prejudicial, they claimed, not relevant to the
murder charges. Judge Ido sustained most of their objections, keeping
the jury from hearing the full scope of OJ's violence
toward Nicole. And here's what infuriates me about this decision.
How is a pattern of domestic violence not relevant to
a domestic murder case? How is Ojy's history of controlling, abusing,

(13:45):
and terrorizing Nicole not directly connected to him killing her
when she finally tried to leave permanently. The prosecution should
have fought harder for this evidence, should have made domestic
violence the centerpiece of their motive argument, have shown the
jury that June twelfth wasn't OJ's first attack on Nicole,
it was his last. Instead, they let the defense minimize

(14:07):
the abuse testimony and focused on scientific evidence that the
jury didn't understand and didn't trust. But here's the most
damning evidence from February evidence that should have ended any
reasonable doubt about Ojy's guilt. The timeline the prosecution established
that Nicole and Ron were killed between ten fifteen and
ten forty pm on June twelfth. They proved Ojay had

(14:31):
no verifiable alibi during this time. They showed he was
supposed to be home packing for a trip to Chicago,
but couldn't account for his whereabouts during the murder window.
They proved Ojay left for the airport in a rush,
didn't answer his phone, acted agitated and suspicious. They showed
he had fresh cuts on his hands the next day
that he couldn't explain. They demonstrated he had motive, opportunity,

(14:54):
and the physical evidence linking him to the crime. This
wasn't circumstantial evidence. This was direct proof of guilt. Any
competent jury should have convicted based on the timeline alone.
But this jury wasn't interested in timelines. They were interested
in police misconduct. They were interested in racial conspiracy theories.
They were interested in everything except the fact that oj

(15:17):
Simpson had murdered two innocent people. And by February's end,
I think the prosecution realized they were in trouble. Not
because their evidence was weak. Their evidence was overwhelming, but
because their jury had been selected by the defense and
their judge was more interested in television ratings than controlling
his courtroom. February twenty eighth, nineteen ninety five twenty eight

(15:45):
days of evidence that proved beyond any reasonable doubt that
OJ Simpson was a killer. Twenty eight days that should
have guaranteed his conviction. Instead, February became the month we
learned that evidence is only as strong as the jury's
willingness to accept it. That DNA doesn't matter if you
can convince people it was planted, that eyewitness testimony is

(16:07):
meaningless if you can make witnesses seem unreliable. That physical
proof becomes worthless if you can create enough doubt about
who collected it and how. The prosecution spent February building
an airtight case against OJ Simpson. The defense spent February
building an airtight case against the LAPD. Guess which argument
the jury found more compelling. February nineteen ninety five was

(16:32):
the month that proved OJ Simpson's guilt beyond any shadow
of doubt. It was also the month that proved doubt
doesn't have to be reasonable to create reasonable doubt. It
just has to be loud enough, and repeated often enough,
and dressed up in the right conspiracy theories. Kato'kalin lived
rent free in OJ's guesthouse and still couldn't bring himself
to say what he really heard that night. Rosa Lopez

(16:54):
lived rent free in the defense's fantasy and fled the
country rather than tell the truth under oath, and OJ
Simpson lived rent free in the jury's willingness to believe
police conspiracies rather than scientific evidence. Nicole Brown Simpson and
Ronald Goldman were murdered by O. J. Simpson on June twelfth,
nineteen ninety four. February nineteen ninety five proved this fact

(17:17):
with blood evidence, timeline evidence, motive evidence, and witness testimony.
But facts don't matter if you have the right lawyers
and the right jury and the right judge. February taught
us that evidence doesn't speak for itself. It needs advocates
who know how to make juries listen. The prosecution had
the evidence but lost the argument. The defense had no

(17:38):
evidence but won the performance, and two families watched the
clearest proof of their loved ones killer get explained away
by lawyers who were paid millions to make murder look
like persecution. That's day two of eight days of OJ.
February nineteen ninety five, the month that should have convicted

(18:00):
killer and instead just confused a jury. Tomorrow, Day three,
March nineteen ninety five, the month Mark Furman became the
real defendant, when the detective who found key evidence got
destroyed by f Lee Bailey's cross examination, When Furman's lies
about using racial slurs handed Johnny cochran the race card

(18:20):
on a silver platter, when evidence collection mistakes became conspiracy theories,
and the LAPD found itself on trial for murder. March
nineteen ninety five was when this case stopped being about
OJ Simpson's guilt and started being about police misconduct, When
the victims became footnotes and the investigators became villains, When

(18:40):
reasonable doubts stopped being reasonable and started being profitable. Before
we go, let me remind you why February nineteen ninety
five matters. The evidence presented that month was overwhelming. O. J.
Simpson's blood at the crime scene, victim's blood in his
car and house, his expensive gloves at both locations, his

(19:01):
inability to account for his time during the murders his
suspicious behavior afterward. Any one of these pieces of evidence
should have been enough to convict. Together, they created a
case so strong that denial required abandoning logic itself. But
the jury abandoned logic. They abandoned evidence. They abandoned Nicole

(19:22):
Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman because they were more interested
in sending a message to the LAPD than delivering justice
to a killer. Nicole was thirty five years old when
OJ murdered her. She was finally free from their abusive marriage.
She was building a new life with her children. She
was planning a future that OJ couldn't control. Ron Goldman

(19:43):
was twenty five years old. He was returning sunglasses Nicole
had left at the restaurant where he worked. He died
trying to defend a woman he barely knew from a
killer he couldn't fight. They deserved justice, They deserved a
jury that cared more about evidence than politics. They deserved
prosecut couters who knew how to present facts, and judges
who knew how to control courtrooms. Instead, they got the

(20:05):
OJ Simpson trial, where evidence didn't matter, truth was optional,
and murder became entertainment. Join me, tomorrow from March nineteen
ninety five, when Mark Furman handed Johnny Cochran the keys
to reasonable doubt and the prosecution started losing a case
they should have won. In their sleep, I'm read Carter.

(20:26):
The evidence was clear thirty years ago. The verdict was
wrong then, and it's still wrong now. Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ronald Goldman are still dead and OJ Simpson still
got away with murder. The preceding episode is based on

(20:50):
court records, news reports, and publicly available information from the
OJ Simpson trial. While we strive for accuracy, ramatic interpretation
and creative license has been used for storytelling purposes