A witness who says he was robbed by O.J. Simpson testified on Monday that a gun was brandished during the incident as the former football star's robbery and kidnapping trial opened.

Bruce Fromong (54), one of the two collectibles dealers at the centre of the case, told the jury that someone in the room during the alleged robbery shouted, "Put the gun down," contradicting Simpson's claim he did not know firearms were present.

The witness said he could not recall which of the six men who burst into the hotel room, including Simpson, made the gun comment. But he also said Simpson shouted, when he first entered the Las Vegas hotel room: "Don't let anybody leave this room, nobody gets out of here."

Hall of Shame

Fromong's testimony is pivotal to the prosecution's charges that Simpson committed armed robbery and kidnapping in the September 2007 incident in which the Hall of Fame inductee and five acquaintances entered a room at the Palace Station Hotel-Casino and departed with about 80 000 dollars in items largely related to Simpson's athletic career.

The remarks came on the first day of the trial after prosecutor Christopher Owens set out the state's case that Simpson executed a planned robbery while his defense attorney Yale Galanter said he was simply trying to recover personal heirlooms.

Both sides in their opening statements pointed to different excerpts from hours of audio recordings made by various participants in the incident, making it clear the jury's job is to decide what the audio says about Simpson's intent.

Simpson (61), faces 12 charges, the most serious being the kidnapping charge that carries a potential life sentence.

Fromong and fellow dealer Alfred Beardsley had expected to meet with a legitimate memorabilia buyer when Simpson's group arrived, an encounter arranged by a third memorabilia dealer, Thomas Riccio.

Hanging over the proceedings is Simpson's legal history as the acquitted defendant in the most-watched murder trial of the age.

He was found not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, but a civil jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5-million to the families of the deceased.

That judgment, of which Simpson has paid little, is one reason why the ownership of the items taken in the hotel raid are in dispute.

On one piece of audio played by Owens, Simpson is heard telling Riccio: "So they gonna meet tonight, I'm gonna show up with a bunch of boys and take the s— back. They can't do nothing about it."

Intent and force

Such moments, Owens told the jury in a 55-minute opening statement, "will show the intent, it will show the force, it will show the demands and it will show the taking of property. It will show the character of O.J. Simpson."

Galanter countered in a half-hour address that jurors would hear during the month-long trial excerpts that Simpson believed it appropriate for him to lead the group on a recovery mission.

Simpson was unaware that two of his acquaintances carried guns and didn't see either of them brandish one, Galanter said.

Four of the five men who accompanied Simpson have accepted plea deals and are expected to testify for the prosecution.

The one Simpson cohort who did not accept a plea deal was co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart, who is accused of the same 12 charges as Simpson.

AFP