Man In Suit Seen In Ice-Cream Shop With Nicole Simpson

LOS ANGELES - Nicole Brown Simpson and her two children were with a young man in a suit when they stopped for ice cream the night Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed, the manager of a Ben & Jerry's shop said yesterday.

Bill Chang said he did not believe the man was Goldman, whom he has seen in photographs.

Simpson, 35, and Goldman, 25, were found stabbed to death outside Simpson's condominium June 13. O.J. Simpson has pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered his ex-wife and her friend.

Newsweek magazine reported that a cup of ice cream was found near the bodies. Sources told Newsweek that O.J. Simpson's lawyers may use the ice cream to dispute when the killings took place.

Prosecutors have said Simpson and Goldman were killed between 10:15 and 11 p.m. on June 12. But police found the cup of ice cream, much of it still frozen, near the bodies sometime after 12:10 a.m. on June 13, suggesting that the two were alive after 11 p.m. since the ice cream would have melted in the 60-degree heat, Newsweek said.

O.J. Simpson was on his way to Los Angeles International Airport by 11 p.m.

Chang said the four came into his store between 9 and 10 p.m., or perhaps a little later, apparently after dining at the Mezzaluna restaurant across the street. The store is less than a mile from Nicole Simpson's condo.

As Chang recalled it, Nicole Simpson's children, Sydney, 8, and Justin, who turned 6 on Saturday, both ordered four-ounce cups of ice cream - Chang can't remember what kind - and Simpson ordered the same size cup.

The man accompanying them, whom Chang described as being about 6 feet 1 and in his late 20s, didn't order anything.

Chang said private investigators working for O.J. Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro had questioned him about Nicole Simpson's visit, but police and prosecutors have not spoken to him.

O.J. Simpson's trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 19. An evidentiary hearing is set for tomorrow.