Las Vegas ? O.J. Simpson went on trial for kidnapping and robbery Monday with a judge determined to find a jury unaffected by his long-ago “Trial of the Century.”

“What happened then, happened then,” Judge Jackie Glass told prospective jurors.

“If you are here and think you are going to punish Mr. Simpson for what happened in 1995, this is not the case for you,” she said, urging them to confess if they had such a motive. All stayed silent.

While asking many questions about the past, the judge stopped short of asking the big question that Simpson’s lawyer wanted: Do they consider Simpson a murderer?

The new case debuted as a pale postscript to the murder trial that riveted America in the 1990s when Simpson, a former pro football star, was charged with murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, and ultimately was acquitted.

Missing were the crowds that surrounded the courthouse when Simpson was arrested last year for allegedly robbing two sports collectibles dealers in a hotel, and the media throng that has followed him over the years was dramatically diminished.