Robert Chambers (killer)

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Robert Chambers (born 25 September 1966) is an American murderer, nicknamed the Preppy Killer. He killed 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in New York's Central Park during the early morning of 26 August 1986.

1 Life before the Central Park killing
2 Levin's Murder
3 Chambers' Arrest
4 The trial, in court and in the media
5 Aftermath
6 References
7 Dramatization
8 External links

[edit] Life before the Central Park killing

Chambers was raised by his mother Phyllis, who emigrated from Northern Ireland to New York City. He served as an altar boy. He attended a series of prep schools, but had problems with poor grades and behavior, including stealing and drug abuse. He attended St. David's, Choate Rosemary Hall, and Browning before ultimately graduating from York Preparatory School in Manhattan, and was accepted into Boston University, where he completed one semester but was asked to leave because of difficulties involving a stolen credit card. He subsequently committed other petty thefts and burglaries in connection with his drug and alcohol abuse.

Unable to hold a job, he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct one night after leaving the Upper East Side bar "Dorrian's Red Hand," at 300 East 84th Street (screaming obscenities in the middle of the street). As the police drove away, Chambers tore up the summons and yelled: "You fucking cowards, you should stick to niggers!"[1]

He attended and was discharged from Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota, an addiction treatment center, just prior to the killing. He lived with his mother in an apartment in a townhouse at 11 East 90th Street.

[edit] Levin's Murder

Chambers's girlfriend Alex very publicly broke up with him at "Dorrian's Red Hand", the night of the killing. 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.

Levin's dead, strangled, and semi-clad body, which had bruises, bite marks, and cuts on it, was found by a bicyclist beneath an elm tree on a grassy knoll near Fifth Avenue and 83d Street behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[2][3] Her bra and shirt were pushed up to her neck, and her skirt was around her waist. [4] The city Medical Examiner's office said Levin died of asphyxia by strangulation, and police officials said there were numerous bruises on her neck, both from the strangulation and from her own fingernails as she clawed at her murderer's hands. Later, Chambers watched from nearby as police officers investigated and found Levin's underwear some 50 yards away.

[edit] Chambers' Arrest

Police were given Chambers's name by patrons at the bar, which he had been seen leaving with Levin. When they called to question him at his home he had fresh scratches on his face and arms, which he initially said were cat scratches, and was taken in for questioning.

Though he changed his story several times (for example, his cat had been declawed; he didn't part from Levin immediately upon leaving the bar; his story that she had parted from him to purchase cigarettes was invented, as she didn't smoke), his ultimate confession claimed that some time after he and Levin had left the bar she sexually assaulted him, asked for "rough sex," tied the 6'5" Chambers's hands with her panties, hurt his genitals as she painfully masturbated him, and that she had been killed accidentally when he freed his hands and pushed her off him.

Confronted with this explanation, the examining Assistant District Attorney Saracco said: "I've been in this business for a while, and you're the first man I've seen raped in Central Park."

Before booking, Chambers was permitted to see his father, to whom he said, "That fucking bitch, why didn't she leave me alone?"

[edit] The trial, in court and in the media

The media labelled the crime "The Preppie Murder." Part of the media reported the more lurid aspects of the case; e.g. New York Daily News headlines read: "How Jennifer Courted Death" and "Sex Play Got Rough." Levin's reputation was attacked, and she was portrayed as a "teenage vamp," while Chambers was a handsome Kennedy-esque "preppie altar boy" with a "promising future," and the couple were portrayed as tragic lovers emblematic of the wasted lives of modern socialite idle youth. The (imagined) wealth of the two was emphasized, as were their good looks, and Chambers' explanations were accepted at face value: his criminal past and drug addicted, drug dealing present went unreported for several months. Some initial media coverage took as a given that a girl who drinks with a man in a bar late at night and goes to the park for sex deserves what happens to her.

Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, New Jersey, (now Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington) wrote a letter of support for Chambers's bail application. (He had known Chambers and his mother because Phyllis had been employed as a nurse by Terence Cardinal Cooke).

In an unusual turn for a murder case in which the defendant has no job, bail was granted, and Chambers was bailed out by his family and the owner of the bar, Jack Dorrian (who used his $650,000 East Side townhouse to secure $150,000 bail for Chambers).[5] He remained free on bond for the two years of his trial, reporting regularly to Monsignor Thomas Leonard, a former teacher and a family friend.

Chambers was charged with, and tried for, two counts of second-degree murder. His defense was that the killing had happened during "rough sex."

Chambers was defended by prominent lawyer Jack T. Litman, who had previously used the "blame the victim" strategy in his defense of Richard Herrin for the murder of Yale University student Bonnie Garland. The prosecutor Linda Fairstein stated: "In more than 8,000 cases of reported assaults in the last 10 years, this is the first in which a male reported being sexually assaulted by a female." The defense sought to depict Levin as a sexually wanton woman who kept a "sex diary." No such diary existed; Jennifer instead owned a small notebook that contained the names and phone numbers of her friends. Such tactics were met with public outrage, with protesters (some calling themselves "Justice for Jennifer") demonstrating outside the courtroom.

With the jury deadlocked for 9 days, a plea bargain was struck in which Chambers pled guilty to the lesser crime of manslaughter in the first degree (a Class B felony), and to one count of burglary (a Class C felony) for his 1986 thefts. This meant he stood convicted of two felonies, and would be subject to the "three strikes" law if he were to commit another felony in the future, and therefore would be subject to a life sentence.

He was sentenced to serve 5 to 15 years (with the sentence for burglary being served concurrently).

After the trial, the tabloid television program A Current Affair obtained and broadcast (in April 1988) a home video showing Chambers cavorting at a party when he was free on bail, amidst four lingerie-clad girls, choking himself with his hands while making loud gagging noises, and twisting a Barbie doll's head off, saying in falsetto: "My name is…. Oops! I think I killed it."

[edit] Aftermath

Chambers served most of his 15-year sentence at Auburn State Prison, but was later moved to Clinton Correctional Facility, due to his infractions which cost him all his time off for good behavior. He assaulted a correctional officer, and was cited repeatedly for weapons and drug infractions, some of which resulted in additional criminal charges. Ellen Levin, mother of Jennifer Levin, also pleaded before the New York parole board to deny him parole.

Nearly 5 years of his term were served in solitary confinement. He was discharged from prison on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2003, at age 36, after having served the entirety of his prison term due to his numerous infractions.

The owner of Dorrian's Red Hand came to a private settlement with Levin's parents on their claim that the bar had served alcohol to Chambers in excess.

A wrongful death lawsuit to which Chambers pleaded no contest provides that his future income (up to $25 million), including any income from book or movie deals, will be turned over to the Levin family. The family has said all the money it gets from Chambers will go to victims' rights organizations.[6]

Ellen Levin became an activist for victims' rights, helping to secure the passage of 13 pieces of legislation.

After leaving prison, Chambers settled in Dalton, Georgia, with his girlfriend from before his sentencing who was in the infamous Barbie doll video, Shawn Kovell. The two lived there for eight to nine months. He found a job at the Pentafab dye factory.

Chambers and Kovell moved to an East 57th Street (near Second Avenue) Sutton Place apartment in New York when it was left vacant by the death of Kovell's mother in the autumn of 2003. Chambers found a job at a limousine company in Queens, and later in a New Jersey sports trophy manufacturer engraving plant.

Shortly before Thanksgiving 2004, Chambers was stopped in his Saab for driving with a suspended drivers license in Manhattan on Harlem River Drive at 139th Street. A search of the car he was driving found glassine envelopes with an unknown substance. Chambers was charged on November 29, 2004, with possession of heroin and cocaine, driving with a suspended license, and driving a car without a valid inspection sticker.

He pleaded guilty in July 2005, and on August 29 he was sentenced to a reduced sentence of 100 days in jail and fined $200. The judge added 10 days to what prosecutors and Chambers' lawyer had agreed on because Chambers was an hour late for the hearing. He faced up to a year in jail if he had been convicted after trial.[7]

[edit] References

Benedict, Helen, Virgin or Vamp, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Carr, C., "Who's On Trial?" The Village Voice, 27 October 1987.
Freedman, Samuel J. "Sexual Politics and a Slaying: Anger at Chambers' Defense", The New York Times, 4 December 1986.
Johnson, Kirk. "$150,000 Bail Set in Park Slaying Case," 30 September 1986; "Levin's Last Night Recalled by Friend," 21 January 1988; "Chambers, With Jury at Impasse, Admits 1st Degree Manslaughter", The New York Times, 26 March 1988.
Kunen, James S., Carter, Alen and Johnson, Kristina. "Art Imitates Death in the Preppie Murder", People, 25 September 1989.
Margolick, David. "Accused of Putting the Victim on Trial, a Top Defense Lawyer is on Trial Himself", The New York Times, 22 January 1988.
MSNBC Television. Headliners and Legends: Robert Chambers, 2001.
Riley, John. "An Aggressive Defense, or Obscene Quest", The National Law Journal, 13 April 1987.
Shipp, E. R. "Decision to Bargain", The New York Times, 26 March 1988.
Taubman, Bryna, The Preppy Murder Trial, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1988 ISBN 0-312-91317-6
Tavernise, Sabrina, "Drugs Send Chambers, '86 Killer, Back to Jail," The New York Times, 30 August 2005
Uhlig, Mark A., "Jurors Describe 'Wild Shifts' of Opinion", The New York Times, 26 March 1988.
Wolf, Marvin J. and Mader, Katherine. "The Right Sort of Friends", Rotten Apples, Ballantine Books, New York.
Wolfe, Linda. Wasted: The Preppie Murder, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1989. ISBN 0-671-64184-0