Former football star and famous criminal defendant OJ Simpson was cremated Wednesday, the attorney handling his estate said following his death last week at his home in Las Vegas at age 76.
Attorney Malcolm LaVergne said he was present, along with unspecified other people, at the morning event at Palm Mortuary in downtown Las Vegas.
“I can verify that OJ Simpson was cremated today,” LaVergne said shortly after. “Others were present, but I do not reveal who.”
He declined to provide details of the process.
LaVergne handles Simpson’s trust and estate in Nevada state court. He said Simpson’s creams will be given to Simpson’s children “to do with them whatever they want, according to his father’s wishes.”
OJ Simpson attends his arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court on July 22, 1994.
No public tribute was planned, the lawyer said.
Simpson died April 10 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer last year.
LaVergne said in an interview Tuesday that he visited Simpson just before Easter at the country clubhouse Simpson rented southwest of the Las Vegas Strip, and described Simpson as “awake, alert and relaxed,” sitting on a couch, drinking a beer and “just catching up on the news.
On April 5, a doctor told LaVergne that Simpson was in “transition,” as the attorney described it, and last week Simpson only had the strength to ask for water and choose to watch a golf tournament on television instead of a game. of tennis.
An April 11 post from Simpson’s family on X, formerly Twitter, said Simpson “succumbed to his battle with cancer.” He asked in his name for “privacy and grace.”
“You have to remember that they’ve shared orange juice with the world their entire lives,” LaVergne said Tuesday of the surviving adult children from her first marriage – Arnelle Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53 – and the children. Simpson had with ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson before she was murdered in 1994: Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35.
“And they have the added burden of being one of the most famous people on the planet, who is polarizing, and who is surrounded by controversy.”
Simpson’s children are the sole beneficiaries of his estate, LaVergne said, adding that he is now working to determine the value of Simpson’s assets.
He said Tuesday that Simpson did not own a home in the states where he had lived, including Nevada, California and Florida.
OJ Simpson sits during a break on the second day of an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas.
Simpson was a record-breaking football star for 11 years as a running back in the NFL and became a film actor, sportscaster and television publicist before being acquitted of criminal charges alleging he stabbed his ex-wife and her friend. , Ronald Goldman. , until his death in 1994 in Los Angeles. The trial held in California in 1996 became known as the “trial of the century.”
Simpson was found responsible for the deaths in 1997 by a separate California civil court jury and ordered to pay the families of Simpson’s murdered ex-wife and Goldman $33.5 million in compensation. LaVergne acknowledged that Simpson died without paying most of that sentence.
In Las Vegas, Simpson was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2008 after being convicted of armed robbery in a 2007 encounter at a casino-hotel with two collectibles dealers.
He was released from prison in October 2017 and lived a golf and country club lifestyle in Las Vegas, sometimes offering social media posts about sports and golf. His last message was on February 11, when the NFL championship Super Bowl was played in Las Vegas. He did not attend the game.
Attorney David Cook, who represents the Goldman family, said Tuesday that he thought the civil judgment owed today, including unpaid interest, amounts to more than $114 million.
LaVergne believed the amount was more than $200 million and that Simpson’s assets would not reach that amount.
LaVergne said he intends to invite representatives of the Goldman and Brown families to “look at my homework” on the Simpson estate, “with the caveat that if they think there’s something else out there… they’ll have to use their own lawyers.” , their own resources, to try to chase that pot of gold.’