Prosecutor Rebuts Digestion, Time Of Death Theory

LOS ANGELES - A prosecutor ridiculed an O.J. Simpson expert's knowledge today, suggesting Nicole Brown Simpson would have had to eat more than a gallon of food for dinner the night of her murder for the expert's theories of digestion to be correct.

Deputy District Attorney Brian Kelberg launched a second day of a fierce cross-examination of forensic pathologist Michael Baden by grilling him on his interpretation of the stomach contents found in the body of Nicole Simpson during an autopsy.

Baden had said the presence of rigatoni in Nicole Simpson's stomach suggested she had snacked at home following an 8:30 p.m. rigatoni dinner at Mezzaluna.

Baden said the restaurant pasta should have mostly emptied out of the stomach by the time she was killed hours after the dinner.

Kelberg said if Nicole Simpson didn't have a late-night snack, Baden's fast-digestion theory would require her to have eaten five quarts of food at dinner to account for the amount found in her stomach.

"Doctor, if in fact at autopsy we find identifiable food in the stomach and that indicates death within two hours (of eating), that would be inconsistent with your view that the stomach empties 90 to 95 percent of its contents within that same two-hour period, wouldn't it sir?" Kelberg asked.

Baden said Kelberg was misconstruing his theories.

"I cannot tell you from the stomach contents the difference between being killed at 10:30 or 10:40 or 10:50. I have not said that and I would not claim that," Baden said. "There's no way of looking at that stomach contents and determining whether Nicole Simpson was murdered at 10:15, 10:20, 10:25, 10:30, 10:40, 10:50. I'm not claiming that, and I don't want to have to defend it."

Prosecutors have placed the time of the murders of Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman between 10:15 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., based mostly on the sounds of a howling dog. The defense has challenged the time of death, contending the murders occurred later when Simpson had an alibi.

The way the prosecution got to the gallon of food is this: The coroner's office calculated that 500 cubic centimeters of food were left in Nicole Simpson's stomach at the time of death, and Baden contends that in general, two hours after a meal only one-tenth to one-20th of it remains in a person's stomach.

If Nicole Simpson were killed roughly two hours after she last ate, she would have had to have eaten 5,000 cubic centimeters or more of food at the meal for there to be 500 cubic centimeters left at the time of death - if you agree with Baden's claim that almost the entire meal is out of the stomach by that time. Five thousand cubic centimeters is well over a gallon.

Yesterday, Baden told the jury the explanation Simpson gave police for hand cuts: He hurt himself at his house before going to Chicago the night of the murders, and again in Chicago.

Baden's recounting of a conversation with Simpson generated immediate and visible interest among jurors, who started taking notes all at once.

How much this actually helps Simpson, however, remains to be seen, legal analysts said. The explanation helps Simpson account for blood with Simpson's genetic markers in his Bronco, on his driveway and inside his house. It's the explanation Simpson himself gave police during his interrogation - although the jury doesn't know this.

But it requires jurors to accept the notion that at almost the exact time Simpson's ex-wife and her friend were being slashed to death on June 12, 1994, Simpson happened to be bleeding as well.