SIMPSON ENDS TESTIMONY; DEFENSE TO REST TODAY.

Byline: Dennis Love and Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writers

Nicole Brown Simpson wrote that O.J. Simpson ``beat the holy hell out of me'' in a letter produced Monday by plaintiffs in Simpson's wrongful death trial.

Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki turned back angry defense objections that the letter was prejudicial and approved its use. But plaintiffs' lawyer Daniel Petrocelli ultimately opted to pass up the chance, before the jury, to confront Simpson with the inflammatory claim.

The surprise introduction of the eight-page letter came ahead of Simpson's cross-examination and his final testimony in which he issued new denials about pictures showing him wearing Bruno Magli shoes and killing his former wife and Ronald Goldman.

``Now O.J.,'' his lawyer asked finally. ``Did you, with your children in the house, upstairs in the bedroom asleep, murder your ex-wife and leave her body there where the kids could find it?''

Answered Simpson: ``No. Absolutely not.''

It was an emotional, final day of testimony for Simpson, who spent much of Monday on the witness stand. Defense lawyers will rest their case today. The plaintiffs plan to call about a dozen witnesses in rebuttal.

After Monday's testimony, legal experts said they were perplexed that Petrocelli did not use the most explosive portions of Nicole Simpson's undated letter, which lawyers claim she penned sometime between 1989 and her death.

``He didn't use what he had to the greatest extent that he could,'' said Leo Terrell, civil rights lawyer and O.J. Simpson friend. ``Why, I don't know.''

One legal expert said Petrocelli may have made a strategic decision against bringing up the ``holy hell'' quote, fearing it could become an issue on appeal. Others said Petrocelli may have just lost his momentum during a cross-examination that lacked the sting of the lawyer's interrogation of Simpson during the plaintiffs' case.

Petrocelli sought to introduce the letter to refute Simpson's assertion during his direct examination of a ``super''-loving relationship with Nicole Simpson. The judge admitted the letter solely for jurors to understand Nicole Simpson's state of mind before her killing.

In one part read aloud, Nicole Simpson makes reference to the couple's rocky relationship.

``O.J., I think I have to put this all in a letter,'' she wrote. ``I'd like you to keep this letter if we split. . . . I'd also like you to keep it if we stay together as a reminder.''

A part of the letter that wasn't read to jurors referred to an incident in which Nicole Simpson was treated at a hospital.

``You beat the holy hell out of me and we lied at the X-ray lab and said I fell off a bike. . . . Remember

??'' the letter said.

Questioned by Petrocelli, O.J. Simpson testified he never saw the letter until he was in jail after being charged with murder.

The former professional football star, who was cleared in 1995 of criminal wrongdoing in the slayings, earlier confided to jurors that it was his mother's admonition years ago that those who commit suicide ``don't go to heaven,'' as well as the intervention of friend A.C. Cowlings, that prevented him from taking his own life.

``I was in a lot of pain,'' Simpson said of the slow-speed pursuit June 17, 1994, the day he was charged with murder. ``I wanted it to end. I guess I was feeling suicidal. . . . I was missing Nicole.''

But later, Simpson also testified he was unfaithful ``several times'' while married to Nicole Simpson, and that while he viewed that as ``morally wrong'' he didn't feel it meant he was a liar.

At one point Monday, Simpson's voice cracked when talking about his children and the day he and Cowlings led police on the Bronco chase. At another, Simpson elicited laughter from the packed courtroom while recounting an argument on the golf course the day of the killings.

Under friendly questioning from defense attorney Robert Baker, Simpson said he was despondent and heavily medicated after the slayings.

On the day criminal defense attorney Robert Shapiro had agreed to turn Simpson over to police, Simpson testified that he and Cowlings left the Encino residence of Simpson confidant Robert Kardashian and drove to the Orange County cemetery where Nicole Simpson was interred.

``But we didn't go in because there was a police car at the entrance,'' Simpson testified. ``So A.C. and I just sat in an orange grove and talked . . . (then) A.C. went to use the restroom, and got into the back of the car and took out the gun. Fortunately A.C. came back and said, `I'm taking you home.' ''

Baker asked Simpson what stopped him from pulling the trigger. ``Partly A.C., and partly my mother told me years ago that you couldn't go to heaven if you committed suicide. Thank God for A.C. . . . I'm ashamed I was ever thinking that.''

After five hours of direct testimony Friday and Monday, Baker stepped aside late Monday morning for Petrocelli's cross-examination. Petrocelli immediately launched a contentious, broadside attack on Simpson's credibility, asking Simpson, ``Isn't it true you've lied repeatedly to this jury . . . isn't it true you've lied repeatedly throughout your entire life?''

``No,'' Simpson replied.

``There were times when you were married to Nicole that you were unfaithful to her, isn't that correct?''

``From time to time, yes,'' Simpson answered.

``And that was dishonest, wasn't it?'' Petrocelli asked.

``Morally, yes,'' Simpson replied.

``That was a lie, wasn't it?'' Petrocelli asked again.

``I think morally it was dishonest. I don't know if I would characterize it as a lie,'' Simpson said.