(CN) — After spending nine years in prison and over four years on parole, O.J. Simpson became a free man effective Dec. 1, the Nevada State Police confirmed Tuesday.
In 2007, Simpson was arrested, charged and later convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping after leading a group of men who held two sports collectible dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. Simpson claimed the memorabilia was stolen from him and he was only seeking to retrieve it.
A judge sentenced the former football star and actor to 33 years in prison, but the Nevada Parole Board granted him parole after nine years and he was released from prison in October 2017. The parole board then granted him approximately three months of good time credits, allowing his parole to end early.
Now 74, Simpson gained widespread notoriety after his high-profile acquittal in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. A civil court later found him liable in a wrongful death civil suit filed by Goldman’s family and ordered him to pay $33.5 million, the bulk of which the Goldman family says they have never received.
Some of Simpson’s defenders claimed the armed robbery arrest and conviction were influenced by a vendetta against Simpson in the wake of his acquittal on the murder charges. Jurors said shortly after the conviction that recordings, videos and voice mails influenced their decision to convict.
After his 2017 release from prison, Simpson immediately made headlines for his first tweet, in which he remarked that he’s got a “little gettin' even to do.” He has maintained an active Twitter presence since, frequently commenting on college and NFL football happenings from the green of a Las Vegas golf course.
Simpson has spent his parole in luxe Las Vegas gated communities and golf clubs, according to his Twitter. In 2019, he filed a defamation suit against The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a luxury resort casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip less than five miles from the casino where the armed robbery took place. Simpson claims the Cosmopolitan defamed him by telling celebrity tabloid TMZ that he was thrown out for being drunk and disruptive at a bar.
The parties settled this year, though the terms were not disclosed and both sides agreed to bear their own costs.
A representative for Simpson did not respond to a request for comment and it remains unclear whether Simpson will stay in Nevada now that his parole has ended.
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