Story highlights O.J. Simpson to go before a parole board hearing on Thursday

Bruce Fromong says he will support Simpson's early release

(CNN) Bruce Fromong, the only surviving victim of the 2007 O.J. Simpson-led armed robbery that led to the former football star's imprisonment, says he is going to testify at a Thursday parole hearing -- in support of Simpson's release.

Fromong told CNN in three phone conversations he plans to travel to Nevada's Lovelock Correctional Center to advocate for his one-time friend's release. "I never thought that the crime deserved that much time, that long of a sentence," Fromong said.

The Nevada Parole Board has declined to comment on whether or not Fromong is to testify at the hearing.

The other victim of the Las Vegas robbery, Alfred Beardsley, died in 2015.

Simpson, the former NFL great and movie star, was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. More than a decade later, he was convicted of kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges related to the incident in a hotel room.

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