jennifer levin

Prosecutor Recalls the Chambers Case
By Sewell Chan

Linda Fairstein was the lead prosecutor in the 1988 murder trial of Robert E. Chambers Jr. for killing Jennifer Levin in Central Park on Aug. 26, 1986. She oversaw a trial that lasted more than two months and ended, abruptly, on the ninth day of jury deliberations, when Mr. Chambers pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 5 to 15 years; if he had been convicted of second-degree murder, he could have faced 25 years.
Ms. Fairstein, who lives in Manhattan, returned home late on Monday evening to find a voice-mail message from a reporter telling her that Mr. Chambers had been arrested that night on charges of selling cocaine from his Midtown apartment. Today, Ms. Fairstein has been fielding calls from a number of journalists. She made some time to talk with City Room about the case. (Read a chronology of the case here.)
"It was at the time the longest single defendant deliberation in the state," Ms. Fairstein said. "It was not a typical strangulation case. There was no evidence of manual strangulation. There was no ligature strangulation � nothing completely around her neck."
Ms. Fairstein recalled that the trial judge turned down a motion by the prosecutors to use as evidence a denim jacket that they believed was used to suffocate Ms. Levin. The jacket had blood from Mr. Chambers's fingers and Ms. Levin's mouth, as well as her saliva. The judge ruled that the DNA analysis techniques available at the time were not sufficient to allow the jacket to be entered as evidence.
"Had the case been tried two years later, in 1989, when DNA was first accepted as a scientifically valid technique in an American courtroom, it would have been different, she said.
Ms. Fairstein also argued that the case occurred before there was "greater societal understanding of interpersonal violence." She noted that when police first came upon the scene, they theorized that Ms. Levin must have been killed by a stranger. Only after interviewing her family and friends and learning that Mr. Chambers had been at an Upper East Side bar with her until late did the police visit Mr. Chambers's apartment, where his body showed signs of a struggle. He was arrested.
Ms. Fairstein still believes that the term "preppy killer" ― a moniker used repeatedly by the tabloid newspapers to describe Mr. Chambers ― helped to paint an image of him as innocent. That image, she said, was already aided by the fact that he was "a well-spoken, white, middle-class defendant" who had attended exclusive private schools.
That public image, she said, belied a troubled past that included repeated drug abuse ― and discipline problems at school ― from the time Mr. Chambers was 14.
"Nobody who worked as closely with him as the detectives and I did would be surprised that the cause that would lead to his arrest would be drugs," she said. Because Mr. Chambers never took the witness stand, she said, the jury never had a chance to learn about his drug history, which she said included being kicked out of a Hazelden treatment facility just months before the killing.
Reporters covering the Chambers trial started a betting pool, Ms. Fairstein said, with most of them predicting he would not be convicted.
"I'm not the least bit surprised that it's drugs that would ultimately lead to his downfall," she said, "but when I did get the call last night, I was shocked at the level � that he was dealing, stupid enough to be dealing out of his home to undercover cops on multiple occasions and that it was a high amount of cocaine. I was shocked at the brazenness."
Mr. Chambers was indicted today in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on seven counts of selling drugs and six counts of possessing drugs. He said he did not have and could not afford a lawyer. He was held pending an arraignment on Thursday, at which a court-appointed lawyer will represent him. He has not entered a plea.
The most serious charges carry sentences of 15 to 30 years on each count, and the fact that Mr. Chambers is believed to have sold drugs on multiple occasions means that he could be sentenced to concurrent ― rather than consecutive ― prison terms.
"If convicted of these charges, he's going to be very old man in state prison," Ms. Fairstein said.
Mr. Fairstein concluded, "He's a drug-addicted sociopath and a dropout," she said. "That 's what he was from the age of 14. This is someone who had a family wiling to help him." Even Catholic priests had tried to intervene on his behalf, she said.
Ms. Fairstein left the Manhattan district attorney's office in 2002, after 30 years as one of the city's most high-profile prosecutors. For most of that time, she was the head of the sex-crimes unit. She is often on television as a commentator, and she has written nine crime and suspense novels. (The 10th is due to be published in March.)
Jack T. Litman, who was Mr. Chambers's chief defense lawyer in the 1988, has not offered a public response to the news of Mr. Chambers's latest trouble with the law.
Prosecutor Recalls the Chambers CaseNew York Times
- Oct 24, 2007
- 2 hours ago
By Sewell Chan Linda Fairstein was the lead prosecutor in the 1988 murder trial of Robert E. Chambers Jr. for killing Jennifer Levin in Central Park on Aug. ...
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Robert Chambers "The Preppie Killer" Back in the News in Drug ... 10 hours ago
41 year old Robert Chambers, the Preppie Killer from 1986 who was convicted of murdering Jennifer Levin. Robert Chambers may be headed back to jail for selling drugs and resisting arrest. Maybe this time the system will keep him behind ...

'Preppy Killer' Arrest: A Time to Meditate 9 hours ago
People never learn. "The guy had a second chance and he blew it. He's like OJ." ―An anonymous building employee ? "Three strikes, you're out." ―Ellen Levin, mother of Jennifer Levin, the girl Chambers killed in 1986. Tabloid sources. ...

Preppy Killer Busted for Selling Coke 10 hours ago
Chambers pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 1986 death of Jennifer Levin. Chambers, then 21, met the 18-year-old Levin at Upper East Side bar Dorrian's Red Hand and later strangled her in Central Park. ...



Web results


Jennifer Levin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jennifer Levin (May 21, 1968 � August 26, 1986) [1] was an eighteen-year-old woman who was killed by nineteen-year-old Robert Chambers in New York City's ...

Robert Chambers (killer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
She was heard to express jealousy regarding the presence of Jennifer Levin as she broke up with him. He subsequently left the bar with Levin. ...

A Killing in Central Park: The Preppy Murder Case
And so began one of the most sensational murder cases in New York City's history: the brutal killing of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin that came to be known as ...

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CNN.com - Transcripts
Joining us tonight for an exclusive interview: Ellen Levin, Jennifer's ..... KING: Our guest is Jennifer Levin. Robert Chambers was invited to appear or ...
Jennifer Levin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jennifer Levin (May 21, 1968 � August 26, 1986)[1] was an eighteen-year-old woman who was killed by nineteen-year-old Robert Chambers in New York City's Central Park on 26 August 1986. The case became sensational and divisive.[2]

Ms. Levin and Mr. Chambers knew each other and dated briefly. Known in some news reports as "The Preppie Murder," both came from privileged backgrounds. Ms. Levin had been born on Long Island and lived in California briefly following her parents' divorce. She graduated from the Baldwin School, a private school in the Upper East Side neighborhood. She worked as a waitress and planned to begin studies at Chamberlayne Junior College (now part of Mount Ida College) in Boston later that year.

A cyclist spotted Ms. Levin's body two hours after she and Mr. Chambers left a fashionable nightclub. She was nearly naked and showed wounds consistent with strangulation. Mr. Chambers explained the deep scratches on his face as cat scratches to police investigators. He claimed she had raped him. Physical evidence was not consistent with his story. Nor was their substantial difference in height and weight. His good looks won him a measure of public sympathy until a videotape from a later private party became public. He appeared to be reenacting the crime by twisting a doll's head from its body while four young women wearing only underwear cavorted around him.

Robert Chambers was tried for second degree murder. Under a plea bargain agreement entered into in the midst of jury deliberations during his trial, he pled guilty to, and served out a fifteen year prison sentence for, first degree manslaughter. He was released from prison on 14 February 2003.

However, on Monday, October 22, 2007, he was arrested again for selling cocaine in his East 57th Street Apartment. To quote the New York Daily News:

"Cops said Chambers, 41, struggled with officers who tried to handcuff him on the felony charges. One detective suffered a broken thumb in the fracas." [3]


[edit] References
^ Jennifer Dawn Levin listed on Findagrave website.
^ Interview with Ellen Levin. CNN Transcripts (June 26, 2002). Retrieved on 2007-10-12.
^ Preppie killer Robert Chambers, girlfriend in coke bust.

[edit] See also
The Preppie Murder, a 1989 TV movie based on the murder.

[edit] External links
CBS News 2003 report
Court TV Crime Library
Authors Online excerpt from Nigel Cawthorne's book Sex Killers
A Killing in Central Park
This U.S. biographical article related to crime is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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Categories: American murder victims | 1968 births | 1986 deaths | United States crime biography stubs

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