Would-Be Simpson Witness Sentenced in Fraud Case

Mary Anne Gerchas, who claimed she saw four men outside Nicole Brown Simpson’s condominium the night Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were murdered, was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail for lying on a car loan application, one day after getting a year behind bars for other crimes.

A Pomona Superior Court judge sentenced Gerchas after an earlier guilty plea.

Gerchas was already scheduled to begin serving a year in jail next Monday in a separate case and it was not clear Thursday whether she will serve her terms concurrently.

A West Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered her to pay $58,000 in restitution and spend a year in jail for offenses including defrauding a Century City hotel of about $24,000.

In his opening statement, O.J. Simpson’s lead defense attorney, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr, said Gerchas was prepared to testify to seeing the men--none of whom were the football legend--June 12, 1994, the night of the killings. She since has been dropped from the defense witness list.