Kaelin Says He Believes Simpson Is Guilty

Brian “Kato” Kaelin said during a televised interview Friday that he believes O.J. Simpson killed his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

Last month, Kaelin told attorneys pressing wrongful death lawsuits against Simpson that Nicole Simpson thought the former football star would kill her. But Kaelin’s comments Friday marked the first time he has publicly stated that he believes Simpson murdered her.

“I do believe that he had murdered Nicole,” Kaelin said during an interview with Geraldo Rivera, broadcast on CNBC’s “Rivera Live.”

Simpson was acquitted last October in the murder of his former wife and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.

Kaelin, who was declared a hostile witness by prosecutors in Simpson’s double murder trial, said Friday that giving a deposition for the civil case and “seeing the things that now I’m aware of” convinced him that Simpson had indeed committed the crime.

Former Simpson prosecutor Christopher A. Darden said during his appearance on the Rivera show: “I suspect he always has believed that. We made him a hostile witness because we believed he was hiding the truth.”

A transcript of Kaelin’s deposition in the civil case was obtained last month by The Times. The 717-page document describes a turbulent relationship between Simpson and his ex-wife.

In his sworn testimony, Kaelin called the couple’s relationship “stormy,” which contradicted his statement to prosecutor Marcia Clark that they had a “good” marriage.

When asked by an attorney representing Goldman’s father, Fred, how Nicole believed her former husband would kill her, Kaelin responded: “She said with scissors.”