Co-defendant in Simpson case to plea

Accused of being one of five men who joined O.J. Simpson in a hotel-room confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers, Charles Cashmore will plead guilty to a reduced charge and testify that guns were involved in the theft of sports collectibles.

Cashmore will testify that two of the other men who entered the room with the former football star were armed, his lawyer, Edward Miley, said Friday. Miley said Cashmore will plead guilty to being an accessory to robbery, a felony that could get him up to five years in prison.

A court hearing is set for Monday, a court clerk confirmed.

"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Miley said of Cashmore, a 40-year-old laborer, bartender and disc jockey who lives in Las Vegas.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger declined to comment.

Simpson and the others are charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, assault, burglary and conspiracy in the Sept. 13 encounter in a Las Vegas casino hotel room between Simpson and memorabilia collectors Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.

Simpson also faces a felony charge of coercion, alleging that he took a cell phone from Fromong.

Simpson has said he wanted to retrieve personal items that belonged to him, and his lawyers have maintained that no guns were used.

But Cashmore will testify that Walter Alexander and Michael McClinton, two men who entered the room with Simpson, had guns, Miley said. Miley said Cashmore was unarmed during the alleged robbery.

"The only people with guns that he knew of were Alexander and McClinton," Miley said, adding that Cashmore's crime was failing to immediately go to police and turn over the items he carried out of the room.

Cashmore surrendered to authorities six days later and turned over the items, after police released images from hotel security videotapes showing him carrying a box from the room.

Lawyers for Simpson, McClinton and most of the others did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Alexander's lawyer, Robert Dennis Rentzer, declined to say whether Alexander had a gun in the room.

"I owe the district attorney an answer to that question before the press," he said. Rentzer said he was scheduled to meet with Roger on Monday, but he expressed doubt Cashmore could say Alexander was armed.

"How can he put a gun in the possession of someone who didn't have a gun out?" Rentzer said.

Miley said Cashmore met Simpson and most of the others in the group for the first time minutes before the alleged robbery.

"O.J. says, 'Hey I've got to move some stuff, can you help?'" Miley said.