Simpson Jury Hears First Witnesses

Establishing a grim timeline for murder, a witness in the O.J. Simpson civil trial Friday described hearing a barking dog, shouting and a clanging metal gate about 10:35 p.m. on June 12, 1994, coming from near the condominium where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were killed.

The testimony was familiar from Simpson’s criminal trial, but it was treated differently. In the criminal case, prosecutors insisted that the murders occurred earlier, about 10:15 p.m., and they sought to tear down any witness who suggested a later time. In the civil trial, both sides appear to accept the same rough time sequence.

Thus, the first day of testimony unfolded in a relaxed, congenial atmosphere, with none of the high-strung verbal jousting that marked the criminal trial. The questioning moved so quickly that by midafternoon, lead plaintiff attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli had run out of witnesses for the day. Petrocelli told the judge he had anticipated longer and more rigorous cross-examination.

That kind of confrontational questioning could emerge Monday, when the plaintiffs present police witnesses to talk about the crime scene. Lead defense attorney Robert C. Baker has promised to expose incompetence and corruption in the police investigation, even vowing to pose questions that might not be acceptable “in polite company.”

Perhaps the most important testimony Friday came from Robert Heidstra, an auto detailer who had been called by the defense in the criminal trial. Heidstra told jurors he was walking his dog in an alley behind Nicole Simpson’s condominium about 10:35 p.m. when he heard the sound of two men arguing.

“I heard a clear voice yelling, ‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’ ” Heidstra said. “It was a male, no doubt about it.” Next, he testified, he heard “another voice, a deeper voice, talking very fast--it sounded like an argument. . . . Then I heard a gate clanging, bang.”

Heidstra said about five minutes later he saw a white Jeep-like vehicle with tinted windows, similar to Simpson’s Ford Bronco, come “out of the dark” and speed from the area. The car turned south, Heidstra continued, in the opposite direction from Simpson’s home--a point that defense attorney Baker emphasized on cross-examination.

In the criminal trial, prosecutors had sought to destroy Heidstra’s credibility by implying that he was out to make money off his testimony. Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark even boasted outside court that “no one with half a brain would believe this guy.”

But this time around, both sides seemed to want jurors to trust Heidstra--though the defense did point out that his original testimony placed the “Hey! Hey! Hey!” sounds at 10:40 p.m., not 10:35 p.m.

Even Heidstra’s admission that he’s trying to peddle a book--to be called “I Heard the Murders of the Century”--did not come in for criticism.

The plaintiffs have staked their timeline largely on Heidstra’s testimony. Petrocelli argued in his opening statement that the words “hey, hey, hey” heard by Heidstra were the sounds of Goldman confronting Simpson.

Petrocelli also had told jurors that forensic experts would testify that both victims died within minutes. The fatal stabbing happened so quickly, he said, that Simpson could have launched the assault as late as 10:40 p.m. and would still have had ample time to return home by 10:55 p.m., when a limo driver saw him near his front door.

The defense, however, plans to bring in an expert to testify that Goldman fought for 10 or 15 minutes--a scenario they contend would exonerate Simpson.

The defense has also promised to prove that Goldman went to Nicole Simpson’s condo that evening on a date. But the bartender at Mezzaluna, the restaurant where Goldman worked, testified Friday that Goldman was simply going there to return a pair of eyeglasses. In fact, Stewart Tanner said, Goldman had planned to meet him and another friend later that evening in Marina del Rey.

Jurors also got their first glimpse of a crime-scene photo.

Brentwood resident Sukru Boztepe recounted how he tried to calm down a frantic, bloodstained Akita that a neighbor said he found on Bundy Drive about 10:55 p.m. Boztepe said the dog dragged him toward Nicole Simpson’s condominium, stopped at the front walkway and barked insistently. When he looked toward the house, Boztepe saw a limp body in a slick of blood.

Jurors appeared riveted by that testimony. Leaning forward, they stared at a photo of the blood-spattered walkway, with Nicole Simpson’s body visible at the far end.