LAS VEGAS -- The O.J. Simpson era in South Florida ended this weekend off the glittering Las Vegas Strip when a judge's clerk repeated the word ''guilty'' 12 times on the 13th anniversary of his double-murder acquittal.

The armed-robbery verdicts -- read while Simpson kept his eyes locked on the jurors -- brought the former football star's sister buckling to the courtroom floor, reduced his best friend to tears and will uproot Simpson from his 4,200-square-foot spread in Kendall to an 8-by-10-foot prison cell in Nevada.

YEARS FOR APPEAL

Simpson's Miami attorney promises an appeal, on grounds that the jury's biases and racial mix were stacked against his client, but that could take two years or longer.

Simpson -- the Hall of Fame running back, airport-dashing Hertz pitchman, comedic actor, sports commentator, murder defendant and, now, convicted felon -- will remain locked up in a Clark County jail until December, when a judge sends the 61-year-old to a state prison, possibly for the rest of his life.

''This isn't justice, this is ridiculous,'' said the best friend, Thomas Scotto, the owner of a North Miami Beach auto shop. He called the verdict ``a public lynching.''

'EERIE' ANNIVERSARY

Nine women and three men spent 13 hours deliberating before filing into District Judge Jackie Glass' courtroom to convict Simpson late Friday. It was exactly 13 years since a California jury declared Simpson not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman.

Simpson's longtime Miami defense attorney acknowledged the date was ``eerie.''

''It's either a very strange coincidence or someone is sending a really powerful message,'' Yale Galanter said.

It was purely coincidental, jury foreman Paul Connelly told The Miami Herald.

''It had nothing to do with the 13th anniversary, nothing to do with Mr. Simpson's past,'' Connelly, a mechanical engineer and 20-year Clark County resident, said Saturday afternoon. ``The 12 jurors on this case were not there to deliberate the decision made in that other case. We were very conscientious about that.''

The prosecutors did ''a fabulous, fabulous job'' meeting the burden of proof during trial and presenting eyewitness testimony and audio recordings of the Sept. 2007 hotel-room confrontation that led to the arrest of Simpson and five other men, Connelly said. Four of them accepted plea deals in exchange for their testimony, leaving Simpson and golfing buddy C.J. Stewart to face trial and conviction.

Connelly said jurors debated Simpson's role first, reaching unanimous guilty decisions on each count, before finding the same conclusions for Stewart. They decided to press on through the night Friday because they were close to a verdict and did not want to risk having a juror be tainted or not showing up if deliberations carried over the next day.

''That's not to say we rushed it,'' Connelly said. ``We wanted to make dang sure in our hearts that the verdict was pertaining to the charges and evidence and laws in this case.''

With Simpson behind bars, it's unlikely he will make much headway into the almost $40 million he owes the estates of his ex-wife and the Goldmans, said David J. Cook, the attorney who for years has tried to collect that civil judgment rendered in 1997.

Simpson still collects about $300,000 to $400,000 a year from his NFL and acting pensions, which Cook said is untouchable by the Goldmans along with Simpson's homesteaded property in Kendall.

''He'll be the richest prisoner in Nevada, that's for sure,'' Cook told The Miami Herald. ``He's not hurting for money.''

GOLDMAN REACTS

The Goldmans collected some of the debt by auctioning Simpson's Heisman Trophy from his football days at the University of Southern California, and they've received nominal royalty payments from the sale of Simpson's If I Did It book released last year. Other than that, Simpson hasn't ''paid a dime'' of what he owes, said Fred Goldman, Ron's father.

On Saturday, Goldman didn't seem worried about collecting the money, and he didn't mince words.

''We're absolutely thrilled to see he could spend the rest of his life in jail where that scumbag belongs,'' Goldman said on CNN.

KENDALL SHRUGS

In Simpson's soon-to-be former neighborhood, the tempers weren't so high. People who recall bumping into Simpson at the local Costco or around the block were indifferent to the fact that he won't be living here anymore.

Nothing was stirring Saturday at the Kendall home Simpson shares with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Christie Prody, who was conspicuously absent from the robbery trial and verdict.

''He kept to himself,'' said Andres Jimenez, a neighbor in the 9400 block of 110th Terrace. ``I can't say I'm going to miss him.''

At Sushi Rock in the Suniland Plaza, where manager Toya Maneesay said Simpson was a regular customer and ''everybody knew him,'' there will be no commemorative O.J. Roll added to the menu.

''He was just another customer,'' Maneesay said. ``He was calm and really quiet. He would just eat and drink beer.''

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