WHEN WAS O.J. A SUSPECT?

Detective Phillip Vannatter took the stand to deny that he told mob informer Larry "The Animal" Fiato that he considered O.J. Simpson a suspect in the murders before he even entered Simpson's Rockingham estate. "Anybody that has personal contact with a murder victim before they're eliminated is a potential suspect and can be a potential suspect," the detective said matter-of-factly. But FBI agent Michael Wacks testified that he had overheard Vannatter call Simpson a "suspect" in his conversation with Fiato just hours after the murders. The term "potential suspect" is the crucial distinction, notes TIME's James Willwerth. "You can't say someone's a 'suspect' until you have probable cause, and when they went to the Rockingham estate, there definitely was no probable cause. But what Vannatter was saying today was that Simpson was just a possible suspect at the time, nothing more."