Two co-defendants, one of them a Mesa man, pleaded guilty to reduced charges Tuesday in the O.J. Simpson armed-robbery case, agreeing to testify against Simpson and three others in the alleged theft of sports collectibles from two memorabilia dealers.

Behind the scenes, prosecutors prepared to file an amended criminal complaint increasing the number of charges in the case to 12, including a second felony charge of coercion against Simpson and two new coercion charges each against the three remaining co-defendants.

The new complaint also alleges Simpson and Charles "C.J." Stewart conspired to persuade others to tell authorities that no guns were used.

The revised document, obtained by the Associated Press, removes Walter Alexander of Mesa and Charles Cashmore from the case, while naming Thomas Riccio in the Sept. 13 meeting between Simpson and memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.

Riccio, who was given immunity from prosecution, is expected to join Cashmore and Alexander in testifying for the prosecution.

Alexander pleaded guilty to the felony of conspiracy to commit robbery.

The district attorney said he would seek a suspended sentence for Alexander, a golfing buddy of Simpson's. "I'm very much at peace at what I've done today and what I'm going to continue to do," Alexander said as he clutched a Bible outside court. "I'm not here to try to hurt or help O.J. Simpson. I'm only here to tell the truth."

Former supermarket worker Alexander Pichushkin confessed to killing 63 people with the goal of marking each death on a chessboard, which has 64 squares.

Prosecutors last month charged him with 49 murders committed between 2001 and 2006 in a park on the edge of Moscow.

Though he claims to have killed several people years earlier, prosecutors had focused on the series of killings that occurred in Bittsa Park in 2001, leading to his nickname as the "Bittsa Maniac." Most of the victims were men, whom Pichushkin had lured to the park with the promise of a drink of vodka to mourn the death of his "beloved" dog.

Pichushkin allegedly killed 11 people in 2001, including six in one month, prosecutors said, adding that he killed about 40 of his first victims by throwing them into a sewage pit and in a few cases strangled or hit them in the head, prosecutors said.

From 2005, he began to kill with "particular cruelty," hitting his intoxicated victims multiple times in the head with a hammer, then sticking an unfinished bottle of vodka into their broken skulls, prosecutors have said. He also no longer tried to conceal the bodies, leaving them at the crime scene.

The decision by the European Court of Justice also is expected to have wider ramifications across Europe, where many governments have tried to protect companies they see as vital to their economies from takeovers, particularly foreign ones.

German politicians and labor unions had argued that the law was needed to protect local jobs but the court, the EU's highest, said it was illegal. It ruled that the law limited "the free movement of capital."

The court also ruled that it discourages foreign investors from taking a stake in Volkswagen because the German federal government and the region of Lower Saxony — a major shareholder — are able "to exercise considerable influence" over the company.

"This situation is liable to deter direct investors from other member states," a court press statement said.

The law caps a shareholder's voting rights at 20 percent, whatever the size of its holding.

In its ruling, the court also rejected the right of both the German federal government and the region of Lower Saxony, which holds 20.36 percent of Volkswagen, to appoint two members of the board as long as they are shareholders of the company.

For Porsche, which has built-up a 31-percent stake in the company over recent years in anticipation that the VW law would be struck down, the ruling gives it carte blanche to take a wider stake.

Porsche AG Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking said his company was "naturally very interested in being able to fully exert our voting rights" in Volkswagen. However, he did not refer to the possibility of a takeover — which many analysts expect.

Between them, Porsche and Lower Saxony already hold more than 50 percent in Volkswagen — meaning the door is closed for any would-be foreign suitors.

The court said Germany did not explain why it needed to protect workers by keeping "a strengthened and irremovable" stake in Volkswagen. It also rejected German government arguments that its special position protected minority shareholders.

Lower Saxony's conservative governor, Christian Wulff, said the state government accepted the decision.

He said that Lower Saxony would stand by its stake in Volkswagen and that its aim was "for VW to be a successful company with high sales and satisfied employees with secure jobs, particularly at sites in Lower Saxony."

"The state government wants to ensure this along with the other major shareholder, Porsche," Wulff said.

The ruling is a triumph for the European Commission, which has fought several battles against European governments and their "golden shares" in critical companies.

European Union regulators take their cue from rights enshrined in the EU's founding treaty that proclaim basic economic freedoms such as the right to do business anywhere in the 27-nation bloc.

That right is blocked if governments interfere with companies, the EU executive said.

It took Germany to court in 2005, and has since lined up or threatened cases against Spain over allegations it is protecting energy companies like Endesa SA, Italy for blocking a takeover attempt of highways company Autostrade SpA, and against Poland for hindering Italy's UniCredit SpA from consolidating its grip over a local bank.

Volkswagen — German for "people's car" — is one Germany's best-known companies, renowned for providing well-paid blue-collar jobs. From the ashes of World War II, it has become Europe's largest automaker, with brands from the more affordable Seat and Skoda to the upscale Audi and the stratospherically priced speedsters hand-built by Lamborghini.