John Kelly represented Nicole Brown Simpson's estate in the civil litigation and appeared for the estate at the October 31, 1995 criminal-court motion to return property, alongside Michael Piuze. In depositions, Kelly examined O.J. Simpson, Allen Cowlings, Robert Kardashian, and Ms. Fischman. In the civil trial, he delivered an opening statement depicting Simpson as an obsessively controlling abuser whose domestic violence escalated to murder, and he joined plaintiffs' counsel in closing arguments asserting that Simpson harbored rage, lied about owning Bruno Magli shoes, and was feared by Nicole Brown Simpson as documented in her own accounts.