Two decades later, same opinion. Kato Kaelin, a key witness during the O.J. Simpson trial from 1995, told Barbara Walters in a new interview airing Monday, Nov. 9, that he still believes the former football star is guilty in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
The night the murders took place in June 1994, Kaelin was a guest at Simpson's home -- and the sequence of events remains engrained in his memory. "O.J. Simpson came by my door, my guesthouse, and said that he was going to go out and eat," Kaelin, 56, recalled to the veteran journalist on her new ID series, Barbara Walters Presents American Scandals.
The two pals went to McDonald's, and eventually, Kaelin returned to his bungalow while Simpson headed into his house. An hour and a half later, a limo pulled up to the home to take Simpson to the airport, and Kaelin helped him pack.
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"There was a bag that was ready to be packed," Kaelin recalled. "And he said, 'Don't touch that bag.' And that bag was never found. It looked like a backpack. I don't know what was in there, but something in there . . . enough for OJ to say, 'Don't touch.'"
Kato Kaelin testified in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial on March 22, 1995
Credit: Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images
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The prosecution brought Kaelin in to determine whether Simpson, now 68, could have committed the crime. The defense, meanwhile, viewed Kaelin as a "friendly witness." All Kaelin could do at the time was recall the timeline of events from his perspective.
O.J. Simpson and attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. during Simpson's trial
Credit: AFP/Getty Images
After an eight-month trial that was heavily scrutinized by the public, Simpson was found "not guilty." Walters was with Kaelin when the shocking verdict was read aloud in 1995. "You asked me off camera . . . 'What do you think?'" Kaelin recalled of that moment. "And I whispered into your ear, I said, 'I think they made a mistake.'"
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Twenty years later, his opinion hasn't changed. "I could only say what I knew," Kaelin shared. "And that's what I testified to, my opinion about his guilt is my opinion. In my opinion, yes, I think he's guilty. In hindsight, and everything, 20 years later, I think that O.J. Simpson is guilty."
Barbara Walters interviewed Kato Kaelin, who thinks O.J. Simpson is guilty
Simpson, meanwhile, is incarcerated at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada, where he is behind bars on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, among other felonies. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2008.
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