Verdicts Draw Procession to Nicole’s Grave

LAKE FOREST —  Minutes after Ascension Cemetery closed, minutes after the daylong procession of caring strangers had ended, a car drove up bearing the last visitors to the grave of Nicole Brown Simpson.

Juditha and Dominique Brown, mother and sister of the murdered woman, approached the headstone, accompanied by the family dog. They placed flowers and planted a sign reading “Always in Our Hearts/Nicole and Ron.” Juditha Brown smiled.

And in five minutes or less, they turned and departed, just like all the others who had come Wednesday to pay their respects and perhaps celebrate their belief that justice had finally been done.

Jeannette Sisola had attended the candlelight vigils for Nicole Brown Simpson. She had met the Brown family. But she had never visited Nicole’s grave site until Wednesday.

“I woke up this morning and called my friend Nancy and said ‘let’s go,’ ” the 33-year-old San Juan Capistrano resident said as she sat by the grave marker at the cemetery here. “It just felt like the perfect day to come today.”

On the day after a jury found O.J. Simpson liable in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, people all over south Orange County, where the four popular Brown sisters had grown up and attended school, seemed to feel a palpable sense of relief.

After all these months, justice had finally been served. So said the people who visited the cemetery in a steady trickle or paused at their work sites to talk about the larger-than-life case.

“I feel the families have finally gotten some justice, some acknowledgment that both of their kids got murdered,” said Theresa Sundstrom, who works at Monarch Bay Pharmacy and Gifts, a shop the Browns frequented, across Pacific Coast Highway from their gated community.

“The fact that they found him guilty, that he has to pay the fine, is enough,” Sundstrom said.

Jim Hayton, the owner of Dana Point Carwash and a friend of the Browns, joked with his customers Wednesday that a portion of all the day’s proceeds would go to O.J. “to help him keep his Bentley.” Because of the verdict, the mood in town was upbeat and everybody seemed to enjoy the joke, Hayton said.

“People here seem to be in a better frame of mind,” said Hayton, who got to know the Browns by washing the cars in the local Hertz dealership formerly co-owned by O.J. Simpson and Nicole’s father, Louis Brown. “I myself couldn’t be happier. I’m happy for the victims of domestic violence and for my customers, who feel the system didn’t completely fail them.”

But beyond relief, many in the community also shared a much harsher sentiment directed at O.J. Simpson himself.

“He will be shunned and hopefully poor--and that’s the best punishment of all,” said Leslie Cory, a real estate agent at Monarch Bay Plaza. “He may think he has his freedom, but I don’t think his life will be worth anything. I think he’ll be a miserable human being.”

That view was endorsed by Sisola and her friend Nancy McNulty of San Juan Capistrano, who motored the 10 miles north on the freeway to the Catholic cemetery and spent about 15 minutes sitting at the grave site.

Although Sisola went to San Clemente High School and the Browns attended Dana Hills High School, “we all knew who the Browns were,” Sisola said.

“It says it all right there,” said Sisola, pointing to a sign someone had been placed next to the grave marker that read “Thank you God. Truth prevailed at last.”

“He will get what he deserves,” Sisola said of O.J. Simpson. “He will speak to a higher authority someday.”

Many others who visited the cemetery expressed concern for O.J. and Nicole’s two children.

“I feel so sorry for the Browns and what they had to go through and for the children,” said Rose Gunderman-Unger, 74, of Mission Viejo, a regular visitor to the grave site. “It’s going to be very hard for them.”

The Browns’ attorney, Kimberly Knill of Laguna Beach, said the civil verdict will help them in their ongoing battle to regain guardianship of the children, which is an opinion not shared by all legal experts. Knill said she discussed legal strategy with Louis and Juditha Brown on Wednesday, and expected to reach some final decisions next week.

Simpson “could be emotionally and financially drained,” Knill said. “That could be grounds to say, ‘Hey, he’s not the best person for these kids.’ ”

Knill said she could file a motion in Orange County Superior Court requesting a change in the Dec. 20 decision that awarded Simpson full custody of Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8.

The Browns have vowed to appeal the custody decision, and Knill said the Browns could pursue their options in Superior Court and at the appellate level at the same time.

Francois Dubau, a Laguna Beach pastor who collaborated with Louis Brown on a book due out this spring, said Brown spent the day attending to business at the Nicole Brown Simpson Foundation in Dana Point.

“I know [the Browns] are ecstatic about what happened,” Dubau said. “Last night, they really got a sense that fairness and justice had come through.”

Also contributing to this report was Times correspondent Jeff Kass.