Cable talking heads and gossip Web site owners covering the latest O.J. Simpson news can’t believe their lucky stars that an audio recording apparently from the incident has somehow emerged.

But the ex-wife of one of the suspects says it’s actually quite common for folks around the football great and former murder defendant to have a tape rolling.

“Many people carry recorders around him to see if they can catch him slipping to make money,” said Debbie Alexander, 41, former wife of Walter Alexander, 46, of Mesa, Arizona.

While the man who made this latest recording, Thomas Riccio, earned an undisclosed sum by selling his tape to TMZ.com, Ms. Alexander said that he was probably hoping for something related to the 1994 double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Mr. Simpson was acquitted of the crimes in 1995 but found liable for the deaths in a civil suit in 1997 and ordered to pay the Goldman family $38 million and the Brown family $24 million.

Ms. Alexander, who lives in West Hills, Calif., says her ex-husband told her during a visit on Monday that some of the items in the Palace Station Hotel-Casino were Simpson family photos that featured his ex-wife. It is unclear why such items were in the possession of the two memorabilia collectors, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, who told police that Mr. Simpson, Mr. Alexander and other men had robbed them at gunpoint.

They went to the room after Mr. Riccio, another sports memorabilia dealer, informed him that Mr. Beardsley and Mr. Fromong were there with several of Mr. Simpson’s items, according to Mr. Riccio.

This afternoon, O.J. Simpson, Mr. Alexander and two others with eight felony counts each in the incident. If convicted, they could face life in prison, according to KNBC.com.

Ms. Alexander believed that her ex-husband “had no idea he was walking into anything like this.”

“They were going out for their night, about to go clubbing as they do, and O.J. said they should swing by the Palace Station,” she said. “There’s no way he would place his own life in jeopardy for O.J.”