OJ Simpson returns to Las Vegas court to ask for armed robbery retrial OJ Simpson listens to testimony at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A WEARY-LOOKING OJ Simpson weighed down by shackles and four years in prison has shuffled into a Las Vegas courtroom hoping to eventually walk out a free man. His arrival in court on Monday to ask for a new trial in the armed robbery case that sent him to prison in 2008 could be heard before he was seen - as a loud rattling of the chains that bound his hands to his waist and kept his feet together. His lawyers had argued to forego the restraints but were overruled. After the 65-year-old Simpson was seated, a guard removed his handcuffs and clicked them onto the chair arms next to him. The once glamorous sports hero, who is more than four years into a minimum nine-year prison sentence, was subdued as the hearing began. Greyer and heavier, he flashed a smile and tried to mouth a greeting to people he recognised before being stopped by a bailiff who had cautioned against any communications. OJ Simpson writes a note on a pad of paper before exiting the courtroom at the end of the first day of an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wearing a dingy blue prison uniform, Simpson listened intently to testimony presented as his lawyers contend he had poor legal representation in the trial involving the gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in 2007 in a Las Vegas hotel room. Simpson, with eyeglasses perched on his nose, took notes and listened intently. His expression was flat and he showed no reactions. When it came time to leave the courtroom for lunch, bailiffs hooked up his handcuffs to the heavy shackles again and he had trouble lifting himself from the chair. Still, a close friend saw a flash of the old, magnetic Simpson personality. OJ Simpson stands up to leave the courtroom after the first day of an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. "Not much muscle tone," observed Sherman White, a former NFL defensive lineman, teammate and friend of Simpson since they both played for the Buffalo Bills. But you saw a little of the OJ pizazz when he came in. White joined a family row in the courtroom that included two Simpson cousins who had flown in to give him support. Simpson's drab appearance contrasted with the fancy clothing he wore during his acquittal in his historic, high-profile 1995 murder trial in Los Angeles in which he was acquittal of slaying of his wife and her friend. Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil wrongful death lawsuit and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. In contrast to the national swirl surrounding his "trial of the century" in Los Angeles and the circus-like atmosphere during his trial in Las Vegas, Monday's proceedings attracted none of the fans, protesters or attention-seekers typically drawn to celebrity cases. Except for an extra television truck or two, it was business as usual outside the courthouse. When the hearing opened the courtroom was partly empty and an overflow room with closed-circuit hookups wasn't needed. Of the 22 allegations of conflict-of-interest and ineffective counsel that Palm raised, Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell has agreed to hear 19. Simpson is expected to testify that to this day, he doesn't know there were guns in the room. Simpson has testified just once in open court before - during the wrongful death lawsuit.