Houseguest Kato Says Simpson Feared Affair

LOS ANGELES - Nicole Brown Simpson was upset and accused O.J. Simpson of manipulation after he persuaded Brian "Kato" Kaelin to move to a guest house at his estate, Kaelin said today.

Kaelin had been living in a guest house at Nicole Simpson's and planned to move into a room in the condominium she bought in January 1994, he has said.

"She was upset" when he moved in at Simpson's instead, Kaelin testified today.

"Did she feel you had betrayed her?" prosecutor Marcia Clark asked.

"She felt I was manipulated," Kaelin said. "Those were her words."

"Did she try to get you to move out of (Simpson's estate on) Rockingham?" Clark asked.

"Yes," he said.

Asked if his relationship with Nicole Simpson changed after that, Kaelin said yes.

"It wasn't, we were not talking as much. . . . It was different. I always liked Nicole, but she wasn't talking as much, so . . ." Kaelin said, trailing off.

Kaelin is a crucial witness for Simpson, who is accused of killing his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman on June 12. He accounted for Simpson's whereabouts much of the day but was unable to vouch for him between 9:37 p.m. and about 11 p.m., the time prosecutors say the murders occurred.

Kaelin said he started looking for other places to live after the disagreement with Nicole Simpson.

He testified he had planned to pay Nicole Simpson between $450 and $500 for a room at the condominium.

"Did anyone else try to make up that money to her?" Clark asked.

"No, not that I know of," Kaelin said.

Clark tried to get Kaelin to say why Simpson might have wanted him at the Simpson estate rather than with his ex-wife.

Kaelin said: "Maybe he was thinking, Kato could be with Nicole.

"Nicole and I were friends but there was . . . no sexual relationship. We were friends, and I was friends with the children, and that was it," he said.

Asked again what he thought was on Simpson's mind, Kaelin said: "He didn't say, `because of having romance with her.' That didn't come up . . . because I think it was a given that I wasn't. But he was saying, it wasn't right for you to be . . . in the same house with his children and Nicole."

Clark pressed Kaelin once more on what Simpson had said. Finally, Kaelin said of Simpson's fears of a sexual relationship, "It couldn't have been anything else."

Yesterday, Kaelin underwent tough questioning by Clark aimed at showing that Simpson had time to commit the murders before catching a flight to Chicago.

She grilled Kaelin about his trip to McDonald's with Simpson that night, about thumps he heard coming from an area where police later found a bloody glove, about Simpson's demeanor when he left in a limo for the airport and about blood in Simpson's foyer.

Kaelin testified that Simpson and his lawyers, aware that Simpson was a prime suspect, quickly homed in on Kaelin as one who might clear him.

They tracked Kaelin down at his friend Grant Cramer's house the day after the slayings. Later, Kaelin said, he and Simpson met face to face.

"O.J. said, `Kato, you know I was in the house,' " Kaelin recalled. But he said he told Simpson then what he said on the witness stand - that he never saw Simpson go into his house after they returned from the trip to get hamburgers.