simpson media circus was back in full force. >> o.j. simpson. >> o.j. simpson. >> earlier this morning the lapd saying it was in possession of a knife possibly connected to the murders of nicole brown simpson and her friend ron goldman. >> that item has been recovered by robbery homicide investigators and it's been treated as we would all evidence. >> suddenly it was 1994 all over again. >> news crews started jock i canning for prime real estate here on rockingham avenue and just as they did 22 years ago started lining up their satellite trucks right here in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the united states. >> an lapd officer now retired was handed that knife by a construction worker near the o.j. simpson property in the late 1990s. police say he held on to it for 18 years. >> do you believe the story. >> at this point we have to take it at face value. >> right from the beginning there were speck ticks. >> this may just be nothing. >> the speculation about the knife brought the so-called trial of the century front and center yet again. >> let

simpson or spoke with o.j. simpson was when i testified in nevada and as you said and has been widely reported, these are very common motions that get filed wherever there's a conviction and like 99.99% of the cases and i was very fortunate enough to be able to testify, the trial judge there found there was no ineffective assistance but even more importantly what wasn't highly publicized was there were a number of appeals and the nevada supreme court in their last order came out with an order that really put a feather in my cap and they said not only was it not ineffective assistance of koun snell a complicated complex trial, there were no errors at all. none. as a practicing lawyer for over 35 years, it gave me great solace to have that order and to have such an esteemed body as the nevada supreme court to look at this, hear all the arguments and say that there were no errors at all. but i don't hold any animosity or ill will because it's part of what i do for a living. i've done it to other lawyers in other c

the people versus o.j. simpson. >> i'm not a bad person. >> cubarring as o.j. simpson. what do have to hide. >> and marsha clark played byulson. >> we have a warrant for this man's arrest. >> the families of nicole brown simpson and ron goldman did not give up. they sued him in civil court. >> iched her neck. >> what do you mean you could have touched her. this was aviolent episode, wasn't it? >> yes it was. >> he was forced to answer the questions he did not answeriminal trial. these are deposition tapes aired on the a&e documentary. >> did you ever strike her. >> no. >> did you ever hurt her? >> >> did you ever physically hurt her? >> yes. >> he spent days hammering at the relationship with caused scars on her face, didn't you? >> that's incorrect. >> eventually simpson admitted to hurting nicole but wouldn't say how. >> you never hurt correct. >> no, i hurt my wife, yes. your hands. >> i never punched her yes. >> ever bruise her. >> yes. any marks that's on her i take fullfor. i don't know what else you want me to do. >> why. >> because i shouldn't have handled the s

. >> the o.j. simpson murder case. the country fixated that the knife could be the missing murder weapon. tonight police casting doubt. still investigate the case that continues to captivate the but first the nightline 5. >>> good evening, thank you for joining us. it was a las vegas night turned deadly. a mother shot and killed after giving her daughter a driving lesson. the mystery solved in court today. was road rage really the cause? here's deborah robinson. >> reporter: today in a l revealed. >> did you kill tammie myers? >> reporter: in the case that baffled the nation, it seemed like an instance of road rage. that las vegas mom of four supposedly followed home and gunned down. >> i was screaming and crying saying mom's been shot. >> all because of road rage. >> the mother tarktgeted. >> her family destroyed by grief. but was the first story in the headlines. >> apparent incident of road rage. >> the whole story. >> wait, what happened? >> so much of this story has changed. >> a lot more complicated than the firs

the o.j. simpson murder case. e lapd confirming they are now testing a knife, allegedly found buried at simpson's former estate. we ask,hy is it jus being tested now? >>> the fallout after the republican debate. trump defending his own words on that stage. >> and he referred to my hands. if they are small, something else must be small. i guarantee you, there is no problem. i guarantee you. >> the urgent effort to block trump. with many asking, is this helping hillary clinton? >>> the friday commuter nightmare. the storms. several chain reaction crashes. snow and ice sweeping through. the next system we're watching already. >>> the cdc now on the scene tonight. the mystery illness in the heartland. a rare infection. 18 people have died. >>> and breaking news in the erin andrews case. what we've just learned. >>> good evening. great to have you with us on a friday night. we begin with the new headline in the o.j. simpson murder case. the l.a. police confirming they are testing a knife found on his former estate. cha

that is where we are with the o.j. simpson case. i shouldn't say the o.j. simpson case. this is the nicole brown case, this is double homicide that is still open and ongoing. so the, investigators will continue to look at that. that item is recovered by robbery homicide investigators. it is treated as we would all evidence. with our lab and they will study it and examine it for all forensics including serology and dna and hair samples, and that is ongoing as we speak. with that i take a couple questions. i may not be able to answer all your questions. let me start right here first. >> [inaudible]. give us reaction, allegations -- [inaudible] what is your reaction to this? >> i was really surprised. i would think that an lapd officer, if this story is accurate as we're being told would know that anytime you are, you come into contact with evidence that you should and shall submit that to investigators. so i don't know what the circumstances are, why that didn't happen or if that is entirely accurate or if this whole story is possibly bogus from the get-go involving a vari

you can never try o.j. simpson again. >> reporter: police are still vetting this story. they say over the years igators have looked at up to knives none were found to be the weapon. abc news, los angeles. >> and late today los angeles police said the knife is likely not the weapon usedo kill nicole brown simpson and . the real murderweapon was larger. >>> bart will spend the weekend trying to fix a technical problem delaying it was at the west oakland stations where one of the power sources were off line to stop the problem. since last month 80 cars hit with mysterious voltage spikes that damage the each time a car has beenll service that means more people h to pack in the remaining cars. >> definitely more crowded. especially here it is packed and people don't want to move for you. r since the strike it seems like there is somethinge) going wrong. it is just par for the se. >> bart is trying to track down the exact s frob -- the problem and they expect be back in on monday. what are your thoughts on the crowded trains? use the # dear bart. this is from the 2013 bart str

simpson's former property. o.j. simpson, by the way, is in love lock, nevada, in state prison there. you may recall he, of course, was sent away for a very long time following that bungled raid, for lack of a better term, in a las vegas hotel room when he attempts to get back a whole batch of his memorabilia. and many people had said that they almost felt like the jury had thrown the book at him in that case because they felt that he owed to pay for whatever sins or transgressions or people believe murder here in los angeles. so it would be interesting to hear if he would ever say anything, o.j. himself, about this knife if it's indeed found to be true that it was on his property. what if this is all a hoax, too? we have to be very mindful of that. this could be something c concocted so that would have to be determined as well. >> a very healthy dose of sk skepticism until we hear from the lapd. paul vercammen is there. we'll have much more of this breaking news out of los angeles. the lapd set to have a press confe

that is where we are with the o.j. simpson case. and i shouldn't say the o.j. simpson case. this is the nicole brown case. this is a double homicide that is still open and ongoing. >> that came in from the lapd a couple of hours ago. jonathan hunt is live for us in los angeles covering this story. jonathan, what do we know about this knife at this hour? >> well, we know all of two, two facts. one, that the lapd has it in its possession a knife they believe was found on the property where o.j. simpson lived at the time of the murders. two, we know that they got the knife from a retired lapd officer who apparently kept it for 18 years or more. now, beyond that, we are as the la p pd officer put it, looking at a story, the story they are being told is that the retired lapd officer got the knife, was handed it by a construction worker, who was working on o.j.'s former estate. around the time it was being demolished by the new owners in 1998 and the lapd officer for some reason, which is a mystery to everybody, simply decided to keep it, but now that it is in the possession of th

o.j. simpson was right-handed. severing the throat that would cut the carotids and there would be a great deal of blood. the head have very cass cuellva. he may not have gotten a tremendous amount of blood on his clothing but we'll never know. he did track blood into the vehicle, though. the vehicles. >> i got to go but just from a show of hands, did everyone who remembered exactly where they were in wh this started, show of hands when you saw this information today. i know i did. i was like this is way too weird. i feel like it's 1994 all over again. jim bei jim, quickly, what happens next? >> we continue to watch the movie. the lapd is going to conduct tests on this and determine whether it is the type anyway and all that. . see for yourself at t-mobile.com slash coverage. hyeah?m. we've got allstate, right? uh-huh. yes. well, i found this new thing called allstate quickfoto claim. it's an app. you understand that? you just take photos of the damage with your phone and upload them to allstate. really? so you get

it would be one more nail in simpson's coffin. the o.j. frenzy today trending all day on twitter, erupting as "people vs. o.j. simpson" is currently airing on fx. >> we've got two victims in brentwood. on bundy drive. it's pretty brutal. >> reporter: also reminding us of simpson's house, that epic slow-speed chase through l.a., and of course that yearlong trial. murder, but was convicted in 2008 in an unrelated case, and is eligible for parole next year. law enforcement official tell us this could be bogus. investigators checked into and investigated up to 150 knives. none of them had dna matching simpsons or the victims'. david? >> this knife was discovered nearly 20 years ago. it's just now being tested? >> that would mean that no matter what they found, they would have a real problem using this for anything substantive. you have a guy giving it to another guy, who holds it for more than a decade. >> and if they were able to find dna on the knife, they can't re-try o.j. simpson. >> right, double jeopardy. he could confess tomorrow, no tr

that is where we are with the o.j. simpson case. i should not say the o.j. simpson case, the nicole brown case, a double homicide still open and ongoing. the investigators will continue to look at this. that item has been recovered by robbery homicide investigators, being treated as we would all evidence. it has been submitted to our labs. they will study it and examine dnaor forensics, including and hair samples. that is ongoing. with that, i can take a couple of questions and may not be able to answer all your questions. jummy: we will listen in on the news conference and pass along details on our .com. let's check with the weather, a lot of you waking up is no but out of here -- waking up to snow but out of here. brian: there could be a few flurries or sprinkles tomorrow evening and by sunday they move out. we may have one last chance of a flurry. only 38 degrees. a live picture from the white house where skies are overcast. temperatures across the region, not moving a lot, mid-30's. quantico at 38. college park, 39. mid and upper-30's across the area. lo

o.j. simpson: american crime story." back with me, alan dershowitz who was part of the o.j. simpson defense team. and jeffrey toobin. the miniseries is based on the book about his trial, "the run of his life: the people versus o.j. simpson." i am obsessed. >> good. >> jeffrey knows i'm obsessed because i called him and he sent me the link -- or he got fx to send me the link. so i watched the episodes in advance. but i didn't see last night because i was traveling. jeffrey, when you look at this and everyone's obsessed with it, everywhere i go people are talking about it. you're watching this and you see the police, you see the treatment of african-american men, you see what happened with the jury and many say it was a manipulation of the african-american community and the jury. are you surprised now in particular this still has ramifications to this day? >> it is kind of remarkable for events 21 years ago, a book i wrote 20 years ago has such contemporary relevance. for this series to come out in the wake of ferguson and all the other cases about the relationship between afr

the o.j. simpson saga back in the news with a new twist. a knife found years ago on his former estate. y police are only just now testing it for evidence. >>> hotel horror. following days of tearful testimony, a jury will soon decide whether to award erin andrews $75 million after a stalker secretly taped her inside her hotel room. >>> and stopping peanut allergies. what doctors say you could be doing now that might prevent a lifetime of potentially deadly complications for your child. "nightly news" begins right now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening. republicans voting in four primary and caucus states tomorrow may still be frying to process the takeaway from last night's debate in detroit. besides the schoolyard bickering and taunts that we've now come to expect, the debate did resurface some inconsistent positions on key issues by front-runner donald trump, and he followed that up today with another surprising about-face. while trump's campaign has p

after spending more than 15 months behind bars, o.j. simpson tonight is a free man. and tonight, more than 20 years after the 1994 murder of nicole simpson and her friend ron goldman, a new wrinkle in the case. a knife that was reportedly found at o.j. simpson's former home is now being analyzed by los angeles police. jonathan hunt has our report. >> reporter: los angeles police are investigating the story of a knife reportedly found buried on o.j. simpson's old estate. a construction worker supposedly found the knife during demolition of the brentwood home years ago and turned it over to a now retired police officer who kept it. >> it's been submitted to our lab. they are going to study it and examine it for all forensics, including serks rology and dna and hair samples. >> reporter: simpson was acquitted of the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, nicole brown simpson, and her friend ron goldman. what became of the murder weapon has been a mystery for decades. >> i was involved way back then. more than a dozen knives that were found in the area, none of them matche

you can never try o.j. simpson again. >> reporter: police are still vetting this story. they say over the years investigators have looked at up to 150 knives and none were found to be the weapon. abc news, los angeles. >> and late today los angeles police said the knife is likely not the weapon used to kill nicole brown simpson and ron goldman. the real murder weapon was larger. >>> bart will spend the weekend trying to fix a technical problem that was delaying commuters. it was at the west oakland stations where one of the power sources were taken off line to stop the problem. since last month 80 cars were hit with mysterious voltage spikes that damage the motors. each time a car has been pulled out of service that means more people have to pack in the remaining cars. >> definitely more crowded. especially here it is packed and people don't want to move for you. >> ever since the strike it seems like there is something going wrong. it is just par for the course. >> bart is trying to track down the exact source of the frob -- the problem and they expect to be back in ser

o.j. simpson was acquitted. he can't be tried again because of double jeopardy and we have no interest in it. and on that basis, he says he put it in his toolbox where it sat for almost 15 years. so that's his position that he was actually given the okay by west lapd to do what he did. >> which is a very significant detail because people have been saying, oh, this guy got the knife and he's been sitting around with it, never turned it in. harvey reporting the guy says -- the police officer said he did and they said go away. we can't retry the guy. keep it to yourself. they are now doing dna testing. >> they are. and i think in the end it's highly unlikely that you'll come up with evidence linking him to the murder. as much as i would like to see that happen, and the reason i say that is even if simpson's blood were on the knife and nicole's, his wife's blood, that could be explained away. she used to visit the rockingham estate to pick up the kids. you really need ron goldman's dna on the knife. now there you'd

i don't see anyone prosecuting o.j. simpson for anything related to this case again. >> reporter: ton multiple sources are expressing skepticism about the knife and about its possible value in the case in part because it may physically be too small to have left wounds on the victims and in part because it's so tantalizing, because it surfaced at precisely the time that this case is once again on everyone's lips. lester? >> josh mankiewicz >>> and a programming reminder, "date line" will air "the people versus o.j. simpson, what the jury never heard" this sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern. >>> closing arguments wrapped up late today in the erin andrews civil trial. the sports reporter is demanding $75 million after she was secretly filmed in a hotel by a man later convicted of stalking her. and beginning monday the case will be in the hands of the jury. we get more from nbc's morgan radford. >> erin andrews is a victim. >> reporter: erin andrews' legal team making its last attempt to convince a jury that she's still emotionall

the o.j. simpson estate. that the knife, he would not describe it, he says it's a knife, not a machete, that it still may have dna that's going to be tested. it's being sent to thor e serol labs and to be tested for hair and other dna evidence. but he says this is still an open case, not a closed case, the double murder of nicole brown simpson and ronald goldman. but that it is not properly described as the o.j. simpson case, because he was acquitted of that case and cannot be retried under those specific charges under double jeopardy. kelly o'donnell still with us. kelly, you covered the case. this is intriguing. we don't know the chain of custody. obviously, a lot of questions about this weapon and whether it is even involved. but clearly, he also said, captain newman that certainly an lapd officer, current or retired at the time, should have known that this was potentially something that should have been turned in immediately, not all these years later. >> and i can only hear the late johnnie cochran, who

o.j. simpson was found not guilty so he cannot be tried or the crimes. if this knife is linked to the case, authorities will determine whether or not the retired officer will be charged. >> his former miami-based attorney wonders if the timing he spoke with cbs4 on the phone today. story. i have heard stories like this through the years. i think it is very coincidental that affects fx -- is showing a miniseries and news like this pops up. >> we have more for you later in the newscast. entertainment tonight has a special reports as they go one- on-one with marcia clark. >>new video just into the newsroom, a 13-year-old girl possibly running for her life. a man in an suv i just tried to adopt her and pompano beach. we have the safety alert. >> reporter: this is a nice quiet neighborhood. there are a lot of schools around here. the girl was walking home in the middle of the day when a man try to shove her in his it was caught on video. take a look.>> she got free of him. he was not pleased with that action so he got back in his suv and try to pursue her. >>

the new twist in the infamous o.j. simpson murder case. that knife allegedly found buried in o.j.'s old estate. >> the facts of the case remains an open case and that is the >> how it suddenly turned up and the new crucial details. what we're just learning about it now. >>> high-tech heist. how armed robbers stole $5 million in gold. their daring highway truck robbery. >> there's a couple of guys that look like they just got their hands zip tied behind their back. >> the remote control device disabling the drivers in a plot straight out of a movie. >>> and the verdict is rich. the judge on vacation who reeled in a giant lottery jackpot chartering a jet to claim his winnings. what he did the minute he found out his life was changing forever. >>> hey, good morning. we're going to get to the overnight headline, the o.j. story in a moment but we start here with a big day in a presidential campaign that will probably be talked about for generations. >> that's a good point. there are five states in play today. clinton and bernie sanders will compete in 3 states for 126 delegates and sand

but o.j. simpson has to be one of the dumbest men in the world. when you look at the fact that he possibly got away with murder and now is in jail serving a sentence in las vegas, you must say there may very well be poetic justice here. >> can i gefr you a hypothetical. i understand the concept of double let's say they discover this knife was the weapon, o.j.'s dna, nicole brown simpson, ronald goldman's dna. is there something wrong with our system that he couldn't be tried again? >> you may say there's something wrong with our system but our system is one of justice. our system is one of law enforcement gathering evidence, presenting it to a prosecutor, prosecutors moving forward with what they have. and once you charge a person as a speedy trial act, and that person actually can be prosecuted. so it's now unfortunately behind the time period of the actual murders. but no matter how you look at it, and i'm being slightly redundant, there has been some justice here. because what goes on in vegas, stay in vegas and o.j., you're staying in vegas. >

there's double jeopardy. >> reporter, of course, o.j. simpson is already behind bars. he is serving a prison sentence in nevada on an unrelated case. as for this newly found knife, scott, the l.a.p.d. said they are not sure when they will get the test results on that knife. >> pelley: ben, thanks. there was a long-awaited groundbreaking today in flint, michigan. a crew dug up a corroded lead pipe outside a home where an expectant mother and eight-year-old girl live and replaced it with a copper pipe. one down, about 8,000 to go. here's adriana diaz. >> i'm toni. i'm one of the nurses from the health department. >> reporter: nurse toni larocco was checking on stephanie bradley's one-year-old daughter who tested positive for lead in september. >> has she been retested? >> she was retested and it was >> reporter: this is one of five house calls they will make lead poisoning. how has the load of homes you have to visit increased? >> it's gone up huge, and the numbers of families we've seen have exponentially grown. >> reporter: stephanie bradley said she drank the contamin

o.j. simpson was charged. it was the trial of the century, but he was acquitted and there is no way or matter and this knife the real deal, no way you will reopen the case are you? >> double jeopary saids no, you you are not. o.j. simpson was charged and tried and acquitted of both of the murders of nicole brown simpson and ron goldman. criminally charging o.j. simpson something he was tried for absolutely not. >> it may be that the former police officer that had the knife, again, the details are a little murky, but they were knocking down o.j. simpson's old mansion and a construction worker found the knife and a cop working a security on a movie set. it is not chlor, the department doesn't know. and the guy walked up to him and said i found this. the cop may have thought that the case is over and it is not good to anybody and i will keep the thing. >> but he could be facing obstruction charges. if he obstructed the investigation and what time he found it and alerted to the discovery of the knife. he could hav

that is the -- where we are with the o.j. simpson case. i shouldn't say the o.j. simpson case. this has the nicole brown case. this is a double homicide that is still open and ongoing. so the investigators will continue to look at this. that item has been recovered by robbery homicide investigators. it is going treated as we would all evidence. it has been submitted to our lab. they are going to study it and examine it for all forensics, including sear sereolgy and dna. you may be able to take a couple of questions. >> reporter: [inaudible question] . >> i was surprised. i would think an lapd officer, if this story is accurate as we're being told, would know that any time you are -- you come into contact with evidence, that you should and shall submit you that to investigators. so i don't know what the circumstances are, why that didn't happen, or if that's entirely accurate, or if this whole story is possibly bogus from the get-go involving a variety of people. so we're looking into that. but i was quite shock. so in terms of charges, the officer is retired. so in terms of adm