O.J. Simpson released after serving 9 years in Nevada prison

— -- Former football legend O.J. Simpson became a free man Sunday after serving nine years for a botched hotel room heist in Las Vegas.

Simpson was released at 12:08 a.m. PT from Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada, state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press. She said she did not know the driver who met Simpson upon his release and didn't know where Simpson was immediately headed in his first hours of freedom.

"I don't have any information on where he's going," said Keast, who watched as Simpson signed documents and was let go.?Her department released video on social media of Simpson being told to "come on out" by a prison staffer, exiting through an open door. He could be seen responding "OK" as he left, wearing a ball cap, denim jacket, jeans and white tennis shoes.

Simpson attorney Malcolm Lavergne said Simpson's immediate plans were to "reacclimate to normal life ... enjoying the very simple pleasures ... having good food, enjoying time with family, friends, catching up on technology, trying to get through all of that, wearing regular clothes again."

Lavergne, speaking in an interview with SportsCenter, also said Simpson has no immediate plans to talk to media.

Lavergne confirmed that Simpson is still in Nevada but would not specify where. He said he was not the person who picked Simpson up.

Tom Scotto, a close friend of Simpson's who lives in Naples, Florida, said by text message that he was with Simpson following his release. Scotto didn't respond to questions about where they were going or whether Simpson's sister, Shirley Baker of Sacramento, California, or his daughter, Arnelle Simpson of Fresno, California, were with him.

The three attended Simpson's parole hearing in July at the prison where Simpson spent his term and was released just minutes into the first day a parole board set for his possible release.

State Parole and Probation Capt. Shawn Arruti, who has been handling Simpson's case, said in a news release that instead of requiring him to promptly report to a parole field office, the procedure was handled before his release "in the interest of public safety and to protect the privacy interests of those who use the Division of Parole and Probation's facilities, as well as to protect the safety and privacy interests of Mr. Simpson."

Simpson has said he wants to move back to Florida, where he lived before his armed robbery conviction in Las Vegas in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers.

Florida's Corrections Department said Sunday that it has not received a request to oversee Simpson's parole. The department "has not received any transfer paperwork from Nevada,'' Corrections department spokeswoman Ashley Cook said.

Keast said the dead-of-night release from the prison, about 90 miles east of Reno, Nevada, was conducted to avoid media attention.

"We needed to do this to ensure public safety and to avoid any possible incident," Keast added, speaking by telephone. She spoke from Lovelock, where she said she witnessed Simpson signing documents to be released.

The 70-year-old Simpson gained his freedom after being granted parole at a hearing in July. Unlike the last time he went free, 22 years ago, he will face restrictions -- up to five years of parole supervision -- and he's unlikely to escape public scrutiny as the man who morphed from charismatic football hero, movie star and TV personality into suspected killer and convicted armed robber. In 1995, Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife and her friend in what became known as the "trial of the century" in Los Angeles.

Simpson was looking forward to reuniting with his family, eating a steak and some seafood and moving back to Florida, LaVergne said recently.

Simpson also plans to get an iPhone and get reacquainted with technology that was in its infancy when he was sent to prison in 2008, his attorney said.

The Florida Department of Corrections, however, said officials had not received a transfer request or required documents, and the attorney general said the state didn't want him.

"The specter of his residing in comfort in Florida should not be an option," Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Friday. "Our state should not become a country club for this convicted criminal."

Simpson lost his home near Miami to foreclosure in 2012. Two of his children, Justin and Sydney, live in Florida.

He could live at least temporarily in Las Vegas, where a friend let Simpson use his home for five weeks during his robbery trial. His five years of parole supervision could be reduced with credits for good behavior.

It's a new chapter for the one-time pop culture phenomenon whose fame was once again on display when the major TV networks carried his parole hearing live.

He told officials that leading a group of men into a 2007 armed confrontation was an error in judgment he would not repeat. He told the parole board that he led a "conflict-free life," an assertion that angered many who believe he got away with killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994 in Los Angeles.

Simpson was once an electrifying running back dubbed "Juice" who won the 1968 Heisman Trophy as the nation's best college football player for USC and became one of the NFL's all-time greats with the Buffalo Bills.

Handsome and charming, he also provided commentary on "Monday Night Football," became the face of Hertz rental car commercials and built a movie career with roles in the "Naked Gun" comedies and other films.

Simpson fell from grace when he was arrested in the slayings after a famous "slow-speed" Ford Bronco chase on California freeways. His subsequent trial became a live-TV sensation that fascinated viewers with its testimony about a bloody glove that didn't fit and unleashed furious debate over race, police and celebrity justice.

A jury swiftly acquitted him, but two years later, Simpson was found liable in civil court for the wrongful deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman and was ordered to pay $33.5 million to their survivors, including his children and Goldman's family.

He is still on the hook for the judgment, which now amounts to about $65 million after the addition of interest and court costs, according to a Goldman family lawyer.

On Sept. 16, 2007, Simpson led five men he barely knew to the Palace Station casino in Las Vegas in an effort to retrieve items that Simpson insisted were stolen after his acquittal in the 1994 slayings. Two of the men with Simpson in Las Vegas carried handguns, though Simpson still insists he never knew anyone was armed. He says he wanted only to retrieve personal items, mementoes and family photos.

He went to prison in 2008, receiving a stiff sentence that his lawyers said was unfair.

If the nation's Simpson obsession waned for a while, it had a resurgence last year with the Emmy-winning FX miniseries "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" and ESPN's Oscar-winning documentary "O.J.: Made in America."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.