Subdued Kaelin Offers New Details of Night of Killings

His demeanor was subdued compared with the jittery exuberance of appearance at the criminal trial, but the testimony that Brian “Kato” Kaelin offered Tuesday in O.J. Simpson’s civil trial was more colorful--and potentially more damaging to Simpson--than any of his previous sworn statements.

Describing the famous three thumps he heard from his guest house on Simpson’s estate the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were murdered, Kaelin testified that they sounded “like someone falling back behind my bedroom wall.”

That description meshes with the plaintiffs’ scenario--that Simpson made the noises when he crashed into the air conditioner behind Kaelin’s wall while jumping over a fence in a mad dash to get back to his house after the murders. It’s also far more specific than Kaelin’s previous accounts of the noises, which he has described as generic, rhythmic thumps that he mistook for an earthquake.

Kaelin also gave a new account of his chat with Simpson the day before the murders, when the two were watching “The World According to Garp” on television. Kaelin told jurors that Simpson urged him to watch a particular sex scene in the movie, and then compared it with an incident that had occurred nearly a year before, when he saw his ex-wife having sex on her living room couch with a boyfriend.

The defense has cited that incident as an example of Simpson’s restraint because he did not confront the couple. The plaintiffs, however, may use Kaelin’s testimony to suggest that Simpson was obsessed by the thought of his ex-wife dating other men, and dwelt on the incident for many months.

Kaelin also added fresh details about an afternoon conversation with Simpson on June 12, 1994, the day of the murders. Simpson, he said, spoke of arranging to “cause some kind of financial damage” to Nicole Simpson by reporting her to the Internal Revenue Service. The plaintiffs have cited the IRS incident as proof that Simpson sought to control and frighten Nicole.

In a final bit of new and dramatic testimony, Kaelin said that just hours before the murders, Simpson complained aloud that Nicole was “playing hardball with him” because she would not let him spend time with their daughter.

Kaelin, a struggling actor who became an instant celebrity after his televised testimony during the criminal trial, largely avoided the distracting tics that had given him such a comic air on the witness stand. Instead, he kept a straight face and earnest demeanor throughout much of his testimony, sticking to single-word answers when possible.

He did, however, show a glimpse of the old Kato when defense attorney Robert C. Baker asked him if he thought it was a compliment that the Simpson children named their dog after him. “Whaddaya mean by that?” Kaelin asked, twisting his mouth and sounding equal parts amused and indignant.

In his cross-examination, Baker set about to shred Kaelin’s credibility by pointing out inconsistencies among his many statements to investigators, lawyers and juries. He repeatedly suggested that Kaelin had embellished his testimony to sensationalize the story for a book deal.

Above all, Baker blasted Kaelin for suggesting to civil trial jurors that the three thumps came as late as 10:50 p.m. In previous sworn testimony, Kaelin has pegged the approximate time of the thumps at about 10:40 or 10:45 p.m., although he has always noted that he did not look at a watch and was only estimating. The time is important because both sides agree that the murders were committed about 10:40 p.m., so Simpson would have been hard pressed to kill both victims, return home, vault the wall and bang into the air conditioner before about 10:50 p.m.

Although Kaelin remained firm that the thumps could have been as late as 10:50, he did concede some points to the defense. He agreed that Simpson did not voice jealousy of his ex-wife’s boyfriends, was not in an unusual mood the day of the murders, and did not seem to have cuts on his hands when he took off for Chicago shortly after 11 p.m.

As he did during the criminal trial, Kaelin testified that he left Simpson standing in the driveway after a burger run to McDonald’s about 9:37 p.m. on the night of the murders. He also revealed a detail that he had not told jurors in the criminal trial--that the next day, Simpson came up to him in the kitchen and said: “You saw me go into the house from McDonald’s.” Plaintiffs have cited that alleged encounter as an attempt to establish an alibi; Simpson has said he does not recall that conversation with Kaelin.

Kaelin’s account of that incident sets up a credibility contest pitting his word against Simpson’s. In several other key areas as well, Kaelin’s testimony Tuesday differs from statements that Simpson gave under oath in a pretrial deposition. For example:

* Kaelin testified that Simpson’s dog, Chachi, suffers from arthritis, hobbles, and usually stays on the grass. But Simpson has said he did not answer repeated buzzes on his telephone intercom from a limousine driver waiting to take him to the airport because he feared the dog would run out if he opened his automatic gate to let the driver in.

* Kaelin testified that he watched Simpson rummage for a flashlight in the kitchen just before leaving in the limo. He said he did not observe any blood and did not see Simpson dab his finger with a towel or tissue. Simpson, however, has said that he saw blood on his counter while looking for the flashlight, and then noticed a mysterious drop of blood on his pinkie, which he blotted with some paper.

* Kaelin testified that Simpson was wearing a “sharp-looking sweatsuit, dark, with a white zipper” when they went to McDonald’s. But Simpson has said he does not own the kind of sweatsuit Kaelin described.

Before Kaelin testified, jurors heard a tape recording that a Los Angeles police sergeant surreptitiously made when he responded to a domestic disturbance call at Nicole Simpson’s house Oct. 25, 1993, less than eight months before the murders. On that tape, which was not played during the criminal trial, Nicole Simpson tells officers that her ex-husband showed up at her house with a “crazed look” on his face, kicked in her back door and started screaming at her.

“He gets very animalistic looking,” she says. “All his veins pop out and his eyes get black, black and cold, like an animal. I mean, it’s very, very weird, and when I see it, it just scares me.”

The officers then returned to O.J. Simpson, telling him: “You’re bigger, you’re stronger, you’re faster . . . and she’s a little frightened.”

They did not, however, charge him with anything. “Because of your celebrity status, because of her willingness to cooperate, we don’t want to make a big, big thing out of this,” an officer told Simpson. “We want to keep it as small as possible.”

That comment could bolster the plaintiffs’ contention that the LAPD, far from wanting to frame Simpson for murder, actually treated him with unusual deference.

Simpson did not strike or threaten Nicole Simpson during the incident--a point the defense emphasized while cross-examining one of the officers who responded to the scene. Baker also emphasized that the argument erupted because Simpson was upset that his ex-wife was consorting with “hookers” and other unsavory people while his children were home.