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Former KTVU anchor Ted Rowlands reflects on O.J. trial coverage 30 years later
30 years after the trial of the century captivated millions of viewers and divided the country, Court TV anchor and KTVU alum Ted Rowlands reflects on how the extensive coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial changed the way Americans view the criminal justice system.
No murder confessions were found in recordings that were seized from O.J. Simpson's ex-bodyguard, police told TMZ.
There was allegedly no evidence of Simpson in the recordings and that it was mostly just audio of Iroc Avelli, Simpson's former bodyguard, speaking to himself.
RELATED: Traces of San Francisco native O.J. Simpson's complicated life sprinkled across the city
Bloomington, Minnesota police said they "did not locate any information of evidentiary value" after being asked by the Los Angeles Police Department to search several thumb drives that investigators believed might contain a confession from Simpson in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, according to a statement obtained by FOX 9 News.
What was believed to be on the recording?
According to an application for a search warrant filed in Hennepin County, Minnesota, officer George Harms has applied for a court warrant to search for the imaging of thumb drives, so that, "full forensics examination can be conducted on all thumb drives to try and obtain the recording."
The search warrant was filed on the grounds that the thumb drives, "constitutes evidence which tends to show crime has been committed, or tends to show that particular person has committed crime."
According to the search warrant filed by the Bloomington Police Department on March 3, 2022, Harms was investigating an assault that had occurred at a home on Lyndale Avenue South in Bloomington, for which he drafted a search warrant to collect evidence at the scene.
Several items of evidence were collected after the search warrant was executed, including a backpack with ammunition. Iroc Avelli, Simpson’s former bodyguard, was formally charged in the case, which is still pending.
WATCH: Santa Clara University legal expert weighs lasting impact of O.J. Simpson trial
On June 14, 2024, Harms received a call from the LAPD, who said that Avelli and his attorney met with detectives, and said that located in the backpack seized during the search was a thumb drive that contained a recording of O.J. Simpson confessing to the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Det. Mojarro of the LAPD has since requested that Harms look inside the green backpack for any thumb drives for the recording.
So far, Harms has reported finding the thumb drives, but does not know the contents yet.
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Watch the O.J. Simpson chase unfold
Decades after the infamous white Ford Bronco chase, we take a look at KTTV's archived coverage and hear what it was like to be up in the sky over the surreal scene.
The murder trial
In 1994, Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, were found stabbed to death at her condo in Los Angeles. Simpson, a former NFL player and San Francisco native, was quickly named a person of interest in the high-profile crime and, when he failed to turn himself in, police issued a warrant.
That led to the infamous low-speed chase when TV stations broadcast live coverage of police trailing the white Ford Bronco as former teammate Al Cowlings drove Simpson across L.A. before he eventually surrendered.
Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders. In a widely watched televised trial, he was ultimately found not guilty. No one else was ever convicted for the deaths.
RELATED: ‘It was surreal’: Helicopter pilot recalls covering O.J. Simpson car chase