OJ Simpson’s former friend, whose testimony put him away at his 2008 robbery and kidnapping trial, told The Post Thursday he was just following God’s orders.
Walter Alexander became one of Simpson’s closest friends after his infamous acquittal for the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her pal Ron Goldman in 1995 but said he later embraced Christianity and tried to interest the football great to join him.
“That’s not where his mind was,” Alexander said.
“He just wanted to party.”
Known as “Goldie,” Alexander told a Nevada jury in 2008 how Simpson — who died on Wednesday after battling cancer — told him and another friend to bring guns to a Las Vegas hotel room while he attempted to retrieve memorabilia he claimed was stolen from him.
Simpson, Alexander said, had tried to pin the entire episode on him.
“He was just trying to save his own ass,” he said.
“He was just doing what I think a lot of -people would do. He wanted to stay out of jail.”
But Alexander said he was unwilling to take the fall and decided to cooperate with prosecutors in the case.
His turn on the stand sank his former pal, and Simpson was found guilty.
“I’m not crying today,” Alexander said of Simpson’s passing.
“But I am mourning. At one point we were very close friends. In my mind he was a genuinely good person who made a terrible decision one day.”
Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison, the maximum term, for the memorabilia heist.
The sentence was handed down exactly 13 years to the day of his acquittal for double murder.
He served nine years in prison and was released in 2017.
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Alexander said he first met Simpson on a golf course soon just days after a jury found him not guilty of brutally murdering Nicole and Ron.
The former football golden boy, Alexander said, was despondent after being abandoned by his former circle of prominent celebrity friends.
“He was very disappointed that he found himself in a situation where he had once been had all these endorsement deals and money and fame and now it was all gone,” he said.
“He would get his check from the NFL, but it was nothing compared to what he was used to getting. He was down in the dumps.”
Alexander said he owned a successful beauty salon at the time and was a player in Los Angeles’ urban party scene at the time.
“He didn’t have a lot to do with black people before all that,” he said.
“But after the case I would take him to the black clubs, to places where he still had support. We partied a lot.”
But the 2008 robbery case ended their friendship, as Alexander said God indicated to him that he had to testify against his friend.
“I saw him coming out of the bathroom the day of the hearing,” Alexander recalled.
“I said ‘Juice, I love you but I’m not going to jail for you.’ And he said ‘I love you too. Do what you have to do.’”
Alexander, who never spoke directly to Simpson after that day, said he had mixed feelings after hearing of his death.
“He made a terrible mistake,” he repeated, referring to the deaths of Nicole and Ron.
“And he got away with it.”
