LAS VEGAS -- Thirteen years after a rhyming defense attorney, a racist cop and a spacey houseguest highlighted the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the former football star again finds his fate in the hands of a jury.

But this time, South Florida's most recognizable resident might not leave the courtroom a free man.

Simpson, of Kendall, will find out early Saturday if a nine-woman, three-man jury will send him to prison for his ringleader role in an armed confrontation in a Las Vegas hotel room last year.

A verdict was expected to be announced about 1:30 a.m. EST. To read the latest, go to www.MiamiHerald.com.

Deliberations in the armed robbery and kidnapping case against Simpson, 61, and golfing buddy Clarence ''C.J.'' Stewart, 54, lasted all day Friday -- exactly 13 years to the day since a California jury acquitted Simpson of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

The mostly white jury -- the panel includes an Asian woman and a Hispanic woman but no blacks.

COLORFUL TESTIMONY

The jurors had to sort through conflicting and colorful testimony from 22 witnesses to decide whether Simpson and Stewart were guilty of the 12 crimes with which they were charged.

The 12-day trial was streamed live on the Internet but failed to receive the kind of circus-like media attention that kept millions glued to Simpson's 1995 murder trial. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the Wall Street meltdown and presidential-year politics kept the spotlight mostly off the Simpson case the past two months.

In Simpson's 1995 trial, which lasted nine months, jurors deliberated for four hours before returning a not-guilty verdict on Oct. 3 in the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. The trial featured eyebrow-raising testimony from Kato Kaelin, Simpson's former houseguest, and Mark Fuhrman, an LAPD detective later convicted of perjury for lying about his use of the N-word.

A civil court later levied a $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment against Simpson, which has grown to almost $40 million with interest. Simpson has ''never paid a dime'' of it, Goldman's father, Fred, has said.

The 1995 jury's gender makeup was similar to the current one, with 10 women and two men, but the racial mix was different: Nine of the jurors were black, two were white and one was Hispanic.

Many viewed the 1995 verdict along racial lines, with some saying Simpson rightly prevailed in a justice system that is unfairly stacked against minorities, while others contended he got away with murder.

Simpson, a Hall of Fame running back who also had an acting career in commercials and The Naked Gun movies, moved from Los Angeles to Kendall after the murder trial. He's lived there since 2001 with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Christie Prody. Police have had to break up several spats between the couple, but neither has ever filed charges.

Since sending his youngest children off to college, Simpson has lived a mostly quiet life, popping up on South Florida's golf courses, always happy to sign an autograph.

But the quiet ended last year when he was arrested in Las Vegas on felony charges.

Simpson and Stewart were accused of leading a group of armed men into a memorabilia dealer's guest room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino on Sept. 13, 2007. Once inside, prosecutors said, Simpson ordered that no one leave the room while his men took dozens of items -- from autographed footballs to clothing Simpson wore at the murder trial.

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