SIMPSON MURDER CASE : Simpson Visited by Family, Friends on His Birthday : Milestone: There was no celebration as the inmate turns 47 in the County Jail. “He’s in tears,” says his attorney Robert Shapiro.

There were no cakes, no gifts, no party for O.J. Simpson on Saturday as he marked his 47th birthday in jail, awaiting trial on charges of murdering his ex-wife and a friend of hers.

Instead, there were visits from family members and F. Lee Bailey, one of his lawyers. But the visits could not divert him from the grim reality of a birthday passed in a cramped jail cell.

“He’s in tears,” said Robert Shapiro, his lead defense attorney, who spoke to Simpson by phone. “It’s a horrible day. “

Even so, the attorney and his client struggled to make the best of it. “We’re trying to have some pleasant conversation,” said Shapiro, “but it’s difficult.”

Despite the occasion, Simpson spent the day like the jail’s thousands of other inmates.

“There are no provisions for birthday celebrations when you are an inmate in the County Jail,” Jeff Springs, a Sheriff’s Department official, had explained Friday.

When visitors arrived to see Simpson on Saturday, he sat on a stool on one side of a glass partition in the visiting area and talked on a phone to a guest on the other side.

He spent half an hour talking with family members--his grown son and daughter, his sister, brother-in-law and niece. He visited longer with Bailey.

Simpson consulted with Bailey and his other attorneys as they worked through the weekend sketching out pretrial motions.

“We are doing everything we can to prepare this case for trial at the earliest possible date under the law,” Shapiro said. “We’re hopeful to be able to accomplish that.”

That could come within 60 days of Simpson’s July 22nd arraignment, which would be remarkably swift for a major case.

All of Simpson’s birthday visitors came empty-handed. “There are no food stuffs that are allowed to be brought in,” Springs said. “He’ll be on the same feeding schedule as always.”

And that schedule does not include any jail-baked cake.

“Someone said: ‘We know you have a jail bakery . . . are you going to make a cake for O.J.?’ I was, to say the least, incredulous that this question would even be considered,” Springs said.

Although Simpson has received 7,000 pieces of mail in the last three days, only one fan showed up in person Saturday morning, bringing a birthday card that she had personalized at a card store. “Everybody needs to be lifted up,” said Marion Griffin of Temecula.

Reporters and television camera operators, holding a vigil for any visitors or fans, encircled her, zooming their cameras in on Griffin’s card and dangling sound booms above her head. “You’re 47 and you’re still a champ,” her card concluded cheerfully.

The hundreds of other people who came to the jail were there to see some of the other inmates, all less famous than Simpson. They waited in a line that snaked from the main visitors entrance around the jail grounds. They brought babies, books and coffee.

Simpson’s visitors were spared this because he is being held in a special unit. His callers waited at a side entrance with a handful of others visiting inmates in a special unit or the jail hospital.

In the drab entrance lobby, Simpson’s visitors surrendered their identification at the front counter and waited for the barred gate to slowly open. From there, they took an elevator up to the small visiting area where Simpson would be brought.

For a few moments, some journalists wandered into the entryway where Arnelle and Jason Simpson were waiting to see their father. Arnelle, in a long black and white dotted dress and white tennis shoes, stared silently behind tinted wire-rimmed glasses at reporters until the cameras focused on her and she turned away.

“What’s with this?” Jason Simpson grumbled to Sheriff’s Deputy Fidel Gonzales, the public information officer. Reporters were asked to leave.

Bailey visited next, wearing a charcoal gray suit and print tie.

“I have a message from (District Attorney) Gil Garcetti and the defense,” Bailey said. “We’ll take care of the trial. We’ll take care of O.J.--if the media take care of the presumption of innocence.”

He strode into the lobby where he was greeted by Nicole Pulvers, a lawyer working for Shapiro, whose job was to escort Simpson’s visitors in and out of the jail.

The children and other relatives left shortly after Bailey’s arrival. As they passed the main entrance, a whoop went up from the crowd waiting to see other inmates. Then came the chant: “O.J.! O.J.!” Arnelle and Jason never broke stride, bounding quickly down the stairs to a parking garage.

“I hope he comes home!” cried out Glenda Starkey, who was visiting her boyfriend, as she watched the Simpson children from a wall overlooking the garage stairs. “She looked up,” said Starkey, beaming as Arnelle disappeared from sight. “That was cool.”

Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this story