D.A. Readies for Tactics of Simpson Defense : Crime: Garcetti says a claim of mental incapacity would not surprise him. Arraignment is set for today.

The Los Angeles County district attorney said Sunday he anticipates that O.J. Simpson and his attorneys likely will argue that the former football star was mentally incapacitated and therefore not responsible for the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife and a male friend.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if at some point we go from, ‘I didn’t do it’ to ‘I did it, but I’m not responsible,’ ” Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said.

If that happens, he said, prosecutors will “be waiting” and “have no difficulty in overcoming that defense.”

Simpson met with his attorney, Robert Shapiro, at the Central Jail, but Shapiro declined to talk about his client’s defense until after an arraignment scheduled for this morning in Downtown Los Angeles. Simpson was charged Friday in the June 12 stabbing deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

The comments from the attorneys on both sides came during another day of impassioned nationwide discussion and speculation about the case. Both sides have sought to influence public perceptions; Garcetti spent much of the weekend appearing on national television to focus attention on the victims, while Shapiro described his client’s fragile mental state.

On his way into the Sunday visit, Shapiro told a mob of reporters that Simpson “wished me a happy Father’s Day, and told me to spend the morning with my children. And then he started to cry, and said, ‘I wish I could spend Father’s Day with my children.’ ”

Shapiro also said he had delivered a “special message” to Simpson from the Rev. Billy Graham.

Asked how his client will plead at the hearing, Shapiro said only that “O.J. will be there.”

When told of Shapiro’s comments in an interview with The Times, Garcetti became agitated and said “there is no doubt that the heartstrings are being pulled.”

“It annoys me that we are beginning to lose focus that the true victims in this case are Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, their parents and the children of Nicole Simpson,” he said. “Those are the people we should truly be feeling sorry for.”

Already there has been an outpouring of public sympathy for the football Hall of Famer. Supporters gathered along freeways to shout encouragement to Simpson as he and his friend Al Cowlings, trailed by a cavalcade of police cars, made a suspenseful journey Friday that ended with his surrender at his Brentwood mansion.

His arrest by a police SWAT team was a spellbinding ending to a drama that heightened with each day. Simpson emerged as a suspect soon after the bodies of his ex-wife and Goldman were found late Sunday outside her Brentwood townhouse.

By week’s end, well-wishers had put signs at the mansion’s gate with messages such as “We You O.J.” “He was someone to look up to all those years,” said Jeff Gibson, 24, of Placentia. “I just wanted to be here to show some support.”

While in jail Simpson can read books from the library and buy newspapers and magazines. After his arraignment he will be allowed one visitor per day, in addition to his attorney and psychiatrist, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Larry Mead said.

With the image of Simpson languishing in a 9-by-7-foot jail cell still sinking in, much of the country spent Father’s Day trying to understand how he got there and searching for lessons to be drawn from the tragedy.

Simpson and the events leading up to his arrest were the topic of discussion on three major television network news programs. The drama was dissected for insights into the sometimes rocky relationship between Los Angeles police and the public; the difference between celebrities and heroes, and the mishandling and misunderstanding of domestic violence.

“People have been talking about O.J. Simpson as a hero,” said former Secretary of Education William Bennett, appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I don’t think he was a hero. We confuse real heroism with celebrity and we confuse celebrity . . . with significance.”

Several of the television shows also focused on the issue of domestic violence. Simpson pleaded no contest in 1989 to misdemeanor spousal battery of Nicole Brown Simpson but critics and prosecutors contend he got off too lightly because he avoided jail time.

“If O.J. Simpson had walked into his boss’s office and punched him in the face, as he apparently did to his wife, it would not have been treated the same way,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala on “Face the Nation.” “Violence, whether it happens in the home or outside the home, is sheer violence and it’s unacceptable.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Conn, who heads the special trials unit and who also appeared on “Face the Nation,” described Nicole Simpson’s slaying as a classic “domestic violence killing.”

The Simpson case not only dominated the television networks, it also found its way into the pulpit.

During Mass at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Brentwood, Nicole Simpson’s parish, the Rev. Donie O’Ceochain said it was “almost prophetic” that the week’s scriptural readings “deal with storm and stress, fear, anxiety, unanswered questions, helplessness, seeking answers and human vulnerability.”

“It’s been a sad week in Brentwood,” he said. “We have all been touched.”

The Brentwood townhouse where the killing occurred and Simpson’s nearby mansion became familiar symbols of tragedy last week. Residents of the affluent Westside enclave tried Sunday to ease back out of the spotlight.

Two police officers directed pedestrian and vehicle traffic in front of the townhouse as curiosity-seekers continued to converge at the site where last week’s tragedy began. The crowds were so intense that the family living next door moved out temporarily to escape the attention.

Christian Coe, president of the the South Brentwood Homeowners Assn., said he spent part of the day talking with police and traffic officials about where to install “no stopping,” “no parking” and “tow-away” signs to discourage visitors.

“For God’s sake, people were butchered to death in there,” said Philip Alexander, who lives about 75 yards away. “People think this is Disneyland or something.”

The family of Nicole Simpson gathered at her parents’ home in Dana Point for Father’s Day. They went to brunch and then some family members went to the beach to relax.

“We’re just trying to have a mellow Father’s Day,” said Nicole’s sister, Dominique Brown. “We’re trying not to make any more comments for a while.”

Meanwhile, court officials made hurried preparations for Simpson’s arraignment today. Throngs of reporters are expected to attend the court hearing, and officials were worried that disruptive crowds of onlookers could gather.

“We will have very heavy security,” said sheriff’s spokesman Mead.

Rather than being transported in a jail bus, the way most prisoners are, Simpson is to be taken alone. “Whatever route is taken to the Criminal Courts Building will be secret. We are not disclosing any plans,” Mead said.

Public interest in the Simpson has been so intense that the Sheriff’s Department set up a special address for letters to the inmate given Booking No. 4013970: P.O. Box 86164, Los Angeles.

Garcetti said he expects the arraignment to be continued.

Sources said Saturday that prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury to win an indictment of Simpson.

Garcetti on Sunday would not deny but also would not confirm that the grand jury proceedings had begun.

In any case, Garcetti has said the start of a trial is at least months away, and he promised to make sure that Simpson is not released on bail. “He is not entitled to bail by law,” he said. “We will do everything in our power to be sure that he does not have bail assigned to him.”

The district attorney conceded that the prosecution’s “most profound challenge” will be selecting 12 jurors who will unanimously agree with the prosecution.

“The defense is always just looking for that one juror who might hang them up,” Garcetti said.

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Gordon Dillow, Matt Lait, Irene Garcia and Kenneth Reich.