Phillip Vannatter's scariest day on the Los Angeles Police Department's homicide division didn't involve guns, knives or murderers.

Instead, it found him sitting on the witness stand in the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson, testifying in front of not only a jury, but much of the world.

"I came home after the first night of testifying, and my wife was still awake," he said.

Vannatter said his wife is usually the first one to bed, but when he came home that late that night, she was sitting in front of their television.

"You're on every channel," she told him. "They said 100,000,000 people had watched your testimony today."

Vannatter went back to testify the next day, with a defense team "trying to make a rear-end out of me. I just hoped I didn't stutter or embarrass the LAPD."

Vannatter was a guest lecturer at Ivy Tech Community College Wednesday night.

Ivy Tech, which just approved a criminal justice program, intends on bringing in a special guest speaker every semester, program chairman Gary Dunn said.

Vannatter, who retired in 1996 as a senior homicide investigator with the LAPD, was the lead detective in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Despite "overwhelming" evidence, Simpson - who was charged with both murders - was found not guilty.

Vannatter showed several slides during his speech, including graphic photographs of the murder scene.

"The man should be in jail," he said of Simpson. "If any one of us had this evidence against us, I think we'd be on death row right now out in California."

Vannatter told the audience of around 100 people several stories about the case and trial.

When investigating Simpson's house right after the murders, Vannatter said Simpson had nude pictures of women lining one of the hallways.

But when jurors were taken to his home during the trial, "all of a sudden, there are pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus and a Holy Bible" where the nude pictures had previously been.

Vannatter recounted several pieces of evidence that never made it to trial, including blood samples found on Nicole Brown Simpson's back. A worker in the coroner's office washed her body shortly after it arrived to their office, preventing them from testing it for DNA.

Several blood drops found at both Nicole Brown Simpson's house and O.J. Simpson's house "matched O.J.'s blood."

Vannatter attacked theories that members of the LAPD planted evidence in the case.

"How could we be good enough to plant fibers?" he asked.

Several fibers from O.J. Simpson's hair and Ford Bronco were found in a knit cap found at the scene.

Vannatter still believes the state should have won the case.

"We did everything we possibly could," he said. "But I wish we could've done more."