Who knew that jurors arriving at dramatic late-night guilty verdicts didn't die out with the Brothers Karamazov? I wish I had been there. Some hard workers were present including the LA Times' Ashley Powers, who offered an accounting of what happened in the room as Simpson's fate was announced.

Even Dostoyevsky would be confounded by the truly bizarre timing of this conviction on robbery and kidnapping charges on the very anniversary of Simpson's acquittal 13 years ago on double murder charges.

After the announcement of the guilty verdict, as the defense lawyer and retired judge Dayvid Figler had predicted to me back at the start of the trial, Judge Glass immediately ordered Simpson directly to jail pending sentencing. She did not have to do that: Glass could have let him stay free on bail until sentencing. One assumes she will keep Simpson incarcerated through the appeal process as well.

After the controversy over jury selection (the jury, excluding alternates, had no African American members) guaranteed at least one appeal by the defense if there was a guilty verdict, Figler, like the other defense attorneys I spoke to on the topic, told me that the standard wait for the Nevada Supreme Court to hear and decide an appeal is about 2 years. But the Nevada Supreme Court can take as long as they want to take and often take longer. 

So, now, even if Simpson were to succeed in appealing the jury verdict and have that verdict vacated by the Nevada Supreme Court, those two or so years will likely be spent behind bars. Even then, under a best-case scenario, if Simpson emerges victorious and the verdict on every charge is vacated by the Nevada Supreme Court, the decision on whether Simpson would stay in jail pending his new trial would be in the hands -- in all likelihood -- of Judge Glass again. No obvious scenario plays out that allows Simpson to walk free after last night's conviction in the short term.

So, as of now, Simpson is no longer a free man, and that will be the case for quite some time. Simpson will stay in jail until sentencing in December and then he will be sent to prison in Nevada. These are likely to be very hard years for Simpson. Nevada's prison system is not meant for celebrities. Because of the seriousness of the charges, there is the real possibility he will ultimately have to be sent to Nevada's maximum security prison in Ely. And there Simpson would likely spend years totally isolated from his fellow prisoners for his own safety. 

I reached Figler early this morning to find out how long Simpson is likely to be sentenced by Judge Glass, and ask what Simpson's chances are on appealing the verdict. Figler noted that judges in Nevada have a very wide discretion for sentencing. Simpson could get anywhere from a few years to a possible life sentence. If a gun had not been involved in the case, Figler says, even probation would have been a possibility.

As for the jury verdict and the appeals, Figler noted: "The kidnapping is a hyper-technical finding and I expect that to have a good chance on appeal." But that is only one of the charges, and Figler believes the reality at this point is that that the 61-year-old Simpson could spend many of his remaining years in the prison system of Nevada.

(Photo: Daniel Gluskoter/AFP/Getty Images)

Thomas Riccio earns much more money than I do, simply by talking about  O.J. Simpson, his former friend who he secretly taped and finished testifying about Monday.

I think one thing that has amazed me about the Simpson case is that so many media outlets that cover the case were allegedly willing to pay for information and interviews. When TMZ scored Riccio's tapes of the confrontation, the editor of the site was on "Larry King Live." He did not say how much TMZ paid for the tapes, but with a jaded attitude, he noted that any outlet would have paid for those tapes. I was surprised by his certainty on this point, because to the best of my knowledge, none of the organizations that I work for would ever pay for an interview (including the L.A. Times, Rolling Stone and Las Vegas Weekly).

I don't mean to sound artificially lofty. There are plenty of ethical challenges and complexities to covering Vegas that keep one dancing in the minefield. We all navigate this aspect of Vegas as best we can with the guidelines our employers offer and our sense of how to behave in situations not anticipated by those guidelines. As a recent example: I accepted media review tickets to the premiere of Donny & Marie at the Flamingo on Thursday night. It is work to be there, as I plan to write about the show for you Friday morning. But along with the invitation came an offer of a free dinner for two at either of two of the Flamingo's expensive restaurants. This was not meant by the Flamingo as a bribe. In the way resorts think, once you have media on property, you show off what you have in hopes that this will merit future attention. The Flamingo is not thinking a trip to the steakhouse will make a critic into a fan of Donny & Marie. But still, when the Flamingo followed up with a phone call to me last week to find out when I wanted my reservation, I declined the free dinner. I do not fault other writers who accepted the meal. On other occasions, particularly when getting a tour of a closed nightclub with the registers off-line, I accept a free soda. My point is that particularly in covering Vegas, your ethics are something you must guard with care, and you must not be casual about accepting anything that resorts offer. The resorts want to get the word out on shows and amenities, and journalism rules are not their concern or interest. They think with a hospitality model.

Anyway, back to the subject for paying for interviews. That has no gray to it. I simply won't do that, and (I don't pretend to stand alone) neither would any of my colleagues (at least that I am aware). If paying for interviews is practiced by the local Vegas press corps, then it is done so underhandedly; I have never been suspicious of anyone's access for interviews. Also, I have never been asked for cash for an interview or assistance getting an interview.

This is in part the way the press is used in Vegas; the people we interview are essentially bribed on the resort end to talk to the press. Vegas has many ways to compensate celebrities, from free rooms to hosting fees at nightclubs to gambling chips for playing. But in exchange for all of that, talking to the press is something the celebrities do for the resorts to sing for their supper. In the Simpson case, I am truly surprised by Riccio's allegations of just how many people were willing to pay him. He testified that TMZ paid him $150,000 for the tapes. The Review-Journal then summarized the following testimony:

"He (Riccio) also said "Entertainment Tonight" paid him $25,000, the Howard Stern radio show paid him $20,000 through a sponsor, and ABC paid him $15,000 under the guise of paying for a Simpson photo."

Of course, Riccio has proved a less than reliable witness. And how someone sees a payment matters. To give an example, a close friend of mine who does not give a lot of interviews about her work was profiled in a national magazine with a strong reputation for good journalism. She agreed to be interviewed for the story, because of the integrity of the magazine's reputation. The magazine also photographed her in Vegas. After the photograph ran, she was surprised to be contacted by the magazine, which asked for her Social Security number, and then she received a check for a substantial modeling fee. This had no influence on her decision to be interviewed for the story, especially because she did not expect to be paid for the photo. But $15,000 would be a lot for a photo of Simpson when there are so many of them available already.

(Photo O.J. Simpson  during his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Center courtesy Getty Images)

The Vegas economy can't get a break. Even the O. J. Simpson sequel is turning into something of a dud.

Yesterday I went down to the Clark County Regional Justice Center to check out the scene at the O. J. Simpson trial. The place was deserted in terms of spectators on the street. There was no one hanging around the courthouse this time trying to attract attention. For the first day of jury selection there had been a woman in a superhero costume and a man wearing only a barrel. These attention seekers have moved on for now. But there were still metal barricades all around of the sort used to close streets for parade routes, erected  pointlessly, and the officers meant to man them were hanging out in groups because there was no crowd to police.

On Saturday night comic Mike Saccone greeted the audience at LA Comedy Club with this: "Welcome to the Palace Station, the most famous hotel in Las Vegas."

Just a short time ago this joke may have worked because this locals' casino is utterly unlike the famous spectacle of the Las Vegas Strip.

But now the humor lies in the fact that despite the countless advertising dollars spent to promote Las Vegas Boulevard, Simpson's arrest for allegedly robbing sports memorabilia from a Palace Station
room has genuinely, albeit briefly, made this casino--which is a short hop from the Strip, yet a world away--the most famous property in Las Vegas.

"Don't worry," Saccone went on to reassure the audience and underscore his point, "the building has been cleared of all burglars and the murderers. It is the same person, by the way."

Booking agent Matt Chavez expected his audience to be about 75 percent locals last month when he opened LA Comedy Club (which offers two shows a night, seven nights a week) at Palace Station.

But when comic Saccone asks for applause this night from all the locals in attendance, the packed room turned out to be less than half locals. Call it the O.J. Simpson bounce. "It has definitely brought us a lot of attention," Chavez says.

More than a lot of attention, actually. Lori Nelson, director of corporate communications for parent company Station Casinos, tracked more than 4,000 television appearances of the Palace Station logo used in stories related to Simpson during that one-week period (a total that excludes radio, newspapers, magazines and the Internet).

With the possibility of an O.J. Simpson trial in Las Vegas, Palace Station probably will be a primary beneficiary, thanks to the law of unintended consequences.

But for LA Comedy Club, an additional payoff is the material.

"The comics we had the night (the O.J. Simpson story broke) were using it," Chavez said. "It was brought up immediately at this club. The audience loves it. This is the place it happened."