Former NFL football star O.J. Simpson reacts after learning he was granted parole at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev., on Thursday, July 20, 2017. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after more than eight years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel heist, successfully making his case in a nationally televised hearing that reflected America’s enduring fascination with the former football star. (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP, Pool)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the release from prison of former football legend O.J. Simpson (all times local):
3 a.m.
O.J. Simpson’s friend from Naples, Florida, Tom Scotto, says he was with the former football great after he was freed from a remote Nevada prison.
Scotto said in brief text messages early Sunday to The Associated Press that he was there but couldn’t talk.
Scotto didn’t say where they were going or whether Simpson’s sister, Shirley Baker of Sacramento, California, or his daughter, Arnelle Simpson of Fresno, California, were with him.
The three attended Simpson’s parole hearing in July at Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada.
That’s the same prison where Keast says Simpson was released at 12:08 a.m. PDT Sunday.
Simpson’s living arrangements outside prison have not been made public.
He has said he wanted to move back to Florida, where he lived before his armed robbery conviction in Las Vegas in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers.
But Florida prison officials said documents weren’t filed, and the state attorney general says she doesn’t want Simpson to live in the state.
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2 a.m.
Nevada state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast says she witnessed former football great O.J. Simpson being freed in a dead-of-night prison release, adding the hour was chosen to avoid media attention.
Keast told The Associated Press early Sunday that she witnessed Simpson signing documents shortly before he gained freedom, adding the release was conducted minutes after midnight in Nevada. She says a driver met Simpson at the prison but she doesn’t know who it was and had no information where he was headed.
Neither Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne in Las Vegas, nor state Parole and Probation Capt. Shawn Arruti — who has been handling Simpson’s case — immediately responded to messages for comment early Sunday.
Lavergne said recently that Simpson was looking forward to reuniting with his family.
The 70-year-old Simpson gains his freedom after being granted parole at a hearing in July. Unlike the last time he went free, 22 years ago, he will face restrictions — up to five years of parole supervision.
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1 a.m.
Former football legend O.J. Simpson became a free man again Sunday after serving nine years for a botched hotel-room heist in Las Vegas that brought the conviction and prison time he avoided in the killings of his wife and her friend after his 1995 acquittal.
Nevada state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press that Simpson was released at 12:08 a.m. PDT from Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada. She says she didn’t know who met Simpson and didn’t have any information on where Simpson was headed.
“I don’t have any information on where he’s going,” Keast told AP by phone.
Keast says the dead-of-night release from the prison about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Reno, Nevada, was conducted to avoid media attention. “We needed to do this to ensure public safety and to avoid any possible incident,” Keast said by phone.
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12:40 a.m.
A Nevada prison official says O.J. Simpson, the former football legend and Hollywood star, has been released from a Nevada prison in Lovelock after serving nine years for armed robbery.
Unlike when he walked free after his murder trial in 1995, Simpson faces parole supervision for another five years.
Nevada state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press Simpson was released early Sunday.
The 70-year-old Simpson told the parole board that he wanted to live in Florida. The Florida Department of Corrections said officials had not received a transfer request or required documents.
Simpson was sent to prison in Nevada for a botched hotel-room heist of sports memorabilia 12 years after he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.
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