LAS VEGAS – It was a new O.J. Simpson trial in a different city, but a prosecutor insisted Thursday on raising ghosts of the past in his final rebuttal argument. The strategy brought vigorous defense objections and a mistrial motion that left the former football star shaking his head as he left the courtroom.

The kidnap-robbery case against Simpson and a co-defendant was placed in the hands of a jury 13 years after he was acquitted in Los Angeles of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Arguments did not end until evening and jurors were to begin their deliberations Friday morning, the anniversary of the acquittal on Oct. 3, 1995.

Prosecutor Chris Owens, defying past rulings that he could not mention the prior case, told jurors that property Simpson sought to reclaim in a Las Vegas hotel room confrontation included items he had hidden “so the Goldmans could not get it.”

Owens said Simpson brought a gang of men together to the Palace Station on Sept. 13, 2007, to retrieve items he lost while trying to hide it from the family of Ronald Goldman and the California court that levied a $33.5 million civil wrongful death judgment against Simpson.

Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass rejected the mistrial motion by Simpson attorney Yale Galanter and allowed Owens to continue because she said he could address comments made in audio tapes introduced in evidence. Some of those, she said, included mention of the Goldman issue.

Owens had the last word to jurors and told them to convict Simpson, denouncing him for “arrogance” of thinking he could commit a crime “against the dignity and the peace of the state of Nevada.”

“The kind of arrogance ... that would make them think they could come in and get away with this kind of crime and that nobody would report it and they thought they could spin it that, 'It's all OK; It was my stuff.'”

He told jurors to convict both Simpson and co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, saying, “That's the story you need to write, the story that justice demands.”

Galanter, in an impassioned 90-minute argument, painted Simpson as the target of police seeking to “get” him and the victim of people who set up the hotel room confrontation to make money by selling audio and video tapes to the media.

“This case has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement. You know that. I know that,” Galanter said in his closing argument to the jury.

“Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money – the police, the district attorney's office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson. He has always been the target of this investigation, and nothing else mattered,” Galanter added.

Galanter reminded the jury of a surreptitious recording of police investigators in the hotel room after the incident. “They're making jokes. They're saying things like, 'We're gonna get him,'” he said.

In rebuttal, Owens downplayed that recording, saying it could have been worse. “Anytime you involve something with celebrity like this, it's typical for anybody to start talking about jokes and things of that nature, but you got to hear all of that,” he said.

Owens said that rather than police and prosecutors being out to get Simpson, they were careful and waited to get facts.

“Mr. O.J. Simpson as a victim?” Owens scoffed. “He tends to think of himself as a victim.”

Prosecutors have sought to prove that Simpson conspired with others to conduct an armed robbery at the hotel.

The defense has said Simpson never intended to commit a robbery but was on a mission to reclaim personal mementos of his football career and family life that were for sale by memorabilia dealers operating out of a hotel room.

Witnesses told of Simpson's repeated declaration that he did not see any guns and did not know guns were to be present. Two witnesses who said they brought guns testified.

Galanter told the jury that the incident got out of hand in the room because of former co-defendant Michael McClinton, who has admitted displaying a gun during the confrontation.

“For whatever reason, Michael McClinton takes over,” Galanter said, “and when McClinton takes over, he starts yelling and screaming and giving people orders and telling people to bag stuff up. And O.J.'s saying, 'Don't take anything that's not mine.'”

Judge Jackie Glass gave jurors 41 legal instructions before allowing lawyers to argue their interpretation of evidence given by a cast of 22 often colorful witnesses, including four co-defendants who took plea deals in exchange for their testimony against Simpson and remaining co-defendant Clarence “C.J.” Stewart.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger, in his one-hour speech, virtually absolved the former co-defendants of blame, saying the men who brought the guns thought they were “going to a party” and that another of them was an “old guy,” a friend of Simpson dragged unwittingly into a plot.

But Galanter said the co-defendants who were given plea deals were not credible.

“They gave out so many get out of jail free cards, so many parole cards, in this case they could have gotten these witnesses to say anything,” said the lawyer.

Stewart's attorney, Brent Bryson, presented his client to the jurors as the trial's forgotten man.

“I want to take an opportunity to introduce you to the other defendant in this case, Mr. Clarence Stewart,” Bryson said, asserting that they heard more about Stewart in the prosecution's opening statement than in the entire trial.

He attacked the state's case as based largely on untrustworthy sources.

“If you can't trust the messengers, you can't trust the message,” he said.

Noting that Simpson was in Las Vegas for his best friend's wedding, Galanter challenged the idea that his client walked into the Palace Station with the intent to commit robbery.

“He is not guilty,” he concluded. “We may quibble with how it was done, what was done. You may all say he didn't use common sense. But the real issue is whether he had criminal intent to commit a crime.”

Simpson and Stewart face five years to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping, or mandatory prison time if convicted of armed robbery. Both men have pleaded not guilty. Neither man testified and jurors were instructed not to consider that fact when judging the case.

Associated Press Writer Ken Ritter contributed to this report.