Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- O.J. Simpson, the professional football Hall-of-Famer acquitted 13 years ago of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison for robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint.

Nevada State Judge Jackie Glass, who handed down the sentence today in Las Vegas, said most of the 10 counts Simpson was convicted of, including attempted armed kidnapping, would run concurrently. A court spokesman said the sentence range takes into account parole. Simpson, 61, was found guilty by a jury Oct. 3 and faced as long as a life term.

“I wasn’t there to hurt anybody,” Simpson, who played for the Buffalo Bills, said today before the sentence was read. “I didn’t want to steal anything from anybody. I didn’t want anybody else’s stuff -- just my own stuff. I’m sorry.”

Simpson will appeal, his lawyers said. He was convicted along with five others of robbing Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley at the Palace Station hotel casino in Las Vegas in September 2007. Prosecutors said Simpson took items including footballs with his autograph.

Lawyers for the former football star argued Simpson was trying to recover stolen personal memorabilia and that he didn’t know there were guns in the hotel room.

“It was much more than stupidity,” Glass told Simpson in court. “You used force. You took property, whether it’s yours or someone else’s. In this state, that amounts to robbery with a deadly weapon.”

Tourists, Workers

The guns could have injured a tourist or a hotel worker even if Simpson’s group hadn’t planned on using them, Glass said. “It was clear to the court that you believed you could do in Las Vegas what you couldn’t do elsewhere,” she said.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said the sentence was “fair and just under the circumstances.”

Simpson will remain in custody while he appeals.

A jury of nine women and three men deliberated for almost 13 hours before finding Simpson and his codefendant, Clarence Stewart, guilty of all 12 counts against each man. The other codefendants, Charles Ehrlich, Michael McClinton, Charles Cashmore and Walter Alexander, pleaded guilty to robbery and testified against Simpson. Today the judge dismissed two counts.

Stewart, also sentenced today, received a prison term of from 7 1/2 years to 27 years.

Thomas Riccio, the man who set up the meeting between Simpson and the memorabilia dealers, tape-recorded the alleged robbery and previous conversations at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. Riccio sold the tape to celebrity-gossip Web site TMZ.com and other media outlets.

‘Intimidating Best’

In the recordings of Simpson, played by prosecutors during the trial, the former running back said “I gotta be at my intimidating best” and “We gonna get it all back” before the crime.

Surveillance videotapes from the hotel lobby showed Simpson and his codefendants arriving at the Palace Station and later carrying boxes as they left.

Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, argued throughout the trial that his client wasn’t guilty because he had no intent to commit a crime and didn’t know if anyone with him was carrying a gun.

Thomas Scotto, a Simpson friend who testified during the trial, and Simpson’s sister, Carmelita, cried as the verdict was read in October. Carmelita fainted in the courtroom at the time and paramedics were called.

Defense Appeal

“It could have been a lot worse,” Galanter said after the sentencing, adding he will file a notice of appeal today challenging jury selection, instruction and misconduct.

Simpson was the prime suspect in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He was acquitted after a state court trial in Los Angeles in 1995. Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil lawsuit and ordered to pay damages totaling $33.5 million to the victims’ families.

Simpson dispersed property to friends in an effort to avoid its confiscation to satisfy the damages award, prosecutors told the jury at the start of the robbery trial.

“You didn’t want all of those items to fall into the hands of the Goldmans,” Glass said today before sentencing Simpson. “You were heard on the tape making reference to them as the gold- diggers.”

One of the friends who got memorabilia from Simpson was Mike Gilbert, who allegedly sold it to Beardsley and Fromong. The two were hoping to make $50,000 to $100,000 by selling it, prosecutors said.

‘If I Did It’

A Florida bankruptcy court awarded publishing rights to a book by Simpson to the Goldmans as part of the unpaid civil judgment. HarperCollins, the book’s original publisher, canceled publication after the contents of the book drew criticism.

The Goldman family, in an effort to raise money, published “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer,” an account of the alleged murders that Simpson has said is hypothetical.

The case is Nevada v. Orenthal James Simpson, 07-237890, Nevada District Court, Clark County (Las Vegas).

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in Nevada District Court in Las Vegas at elarson4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 5, 2008 19:52 EST