O. J. Simpson has been convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping, not based on what his former co-defendants, who took plea deals, testified during the trial, but due to the secret recordings jurors listened to.

O. J. Simpson and five other men stormed into one particular hotel room on Sept. 13, 2007, to allegedly retrieve items that the former football star claimed rightfully belonged to him, including football plaques and trophies and family heirlooms.

The room, at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, was then occupied by two sports memorabilia dealers, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong. Unbeknownst to anyone else, one of the men in Simpson’s posse, Thomas Riccio, a Los Angeles collectibles dealer who had arranged the meeting between The Juice and the two collectors, had also hidden a tape recorder in the room.

The device recorded everything said there, during the confrontation and afterwards, when police investigators arrived on the scene.

The jury, nine women and three men, listened to these recordings, which went on for hours. They heard a man identified as Simpson says, “I’m gonna show up with a bunch of the boys and take the [stuff] back,” and “It’s my stuff. They stole it.”

They also heard him tell his five associates, “Don’t let nobody out of this room,” and to pick up his items.

A police investigator was recorded while he commented how “California can’t get him. ... Now we’ll be able to,” a reference to Simpson’s acquittal in 1995 on murder charges. Simpson’s defense team argued that this was a situation where others wanted to have a profit off Simpson (such as Riccio, who testified that he earned more than $200,000 from deals with the media for his recordings) and police officers wanted to make up for the infamous acquittal.

O. J. Simpson’s murder trial of more than a decade ago and the subsequent acquittal were largely brought up during the trial. Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass made sure that none of the jurors had any preconceived notions regarding Simpson’s possible guilt in the current case based on how they saw his 1995 acquittal.

The 12 jurors finally selected all declared they could put aside whatever opinions or feelings they had regarding the past case as well as Simpson’s controversial fame and focus on the facts of the current situation.

FBI forensic audio experts testified during the trial that the audio recordings, which were not completely clear and easily comprehensible, may or may not have been tampered with. Police transcripts of the recording also were questioned, as they did not always reproduce what was said on the tapes correctly. Judge Glass ultimately ruled that the jury consider the recordings evidence but not the transcripts.

Friday, Oct. 3, the twelve jurors found the 61-year-old former athlete guilty on all twelve charges, including armed robbery, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, coercion and conspiracy.

Sentencing has been set for Dec. 5 and O. J. Simpson could spend the rest of his life behind bars, as could the only remaining co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, 54, who was also found guilty on all charges.

The jurors told the Associated Press they convicted Simpson based on the recordings they listened to, not based on the former co-defendants’ testimonies, which did not inspire them with much confidence.