Posts Tagged “Dateline”

Teen Text Murder Victim Mike Yepremyan

Once in a while our justice system works as it should.

GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN MIKE ‘GOMBERT’ YEPREMYAN TEEN TEXT MURDER TRIAL

Zareh Manjikian and Vahagn Jurian guilty of murder and other charges.

Hovic Dzhuryan and his sister Khatun ‘Kat’ Vardanyan guilty of conspiracy to commit murder

Mike Yepremyan was murdered November 2009 and the trial began just a few weeks ago June 2012. Mike is the first highlighted teen text murder case in the U. S. involving the California Homicide Detectives, the U. S. Marshalls as the murderers fled the U. S. and the FBI for those hiding here.

On the Yepremyan murder case it was the lawyers, Michael Levin, Esq. Alex Kessel, Esq., Levin is representing Zareh Manjikian and Kessel is representing Vahag Jurian. Also present everyday is Hovic Dzhuryan and his sister Kat Vardanian, Anthony Brooklier is representing Kat and George Mgdesyan is representing Hovic.

Judge Gregory A. Dohi of the Los Angeles Superior Court is presiding, Dept. E. Judge Dohi has only been a judge since being appointed August 29, 2007. Prior to that he attended a mid level university back East, Harvard!! And then went to Boalt Hall School of Law, one thing we can say is that this guy has educational credentials in the highest categories of law.

Judge Dohi was admitted to the bar in 1991 and joined the District Attorney’s office as a prosecutor.

Artak and Arni Yepreyman was in the court for the reading of the verdicts. Let’s hope as each GUILTY!!! was read they found some peace in God’s hands, that our justice system although slow, can work! We do not know if Danielle, Mike’s former girlfriend was present but as we get updates you will get updates.

Ani and Art with picture of Mike Yepremyan

Special thanks to Lt. Hamilton and Detective Thomas Townsend, of North Hollywood Division of the L.A.P.D. Homicide and their team of team of homicide cops, The Los Angeles Grand Jury for indicting these four and Office Kirkpatrick and John J Nazarian Celebrity PI who just could not walk away from this case.

As Nazarian once said; “These people who were involved in the killing of Mike Yepremyan are looking at a whole lotta of time, and the district attorney’s office is going to be sure they get all that they got coming to them and more, time is wonderful unless you are in a state prison.”

In a L. A. Times article today by Robert Faturechi;

“the indictment also named another member of the group, Lazar Petrosyan, who authorities said is being treated as a witness, not a suspect.

We will be verifying this as soon as possible, but my bet is because of the flight risk, Kat and her brother will be spending their first night in jail the first of many.

R.I.P. Mike and may your family be comforted by knowing they stayed the course and may sure you were remember both of your organ donations, but also they never tired, they saw your killers brought to justice.

As many of you know we have closed the forums here at Rose Speaks.com as we just did not have the time to do a good job moderating it for all of you. We are glad to announce that we have paired up with The Parenting Channel.com to carry a lead in to any of the cases we cover that has anything to do with a child or teen. We are ecstatic to have been able to do this. So lead in-ins for our blog articles will appear on The Parenting Channel’s blog and a section of The Parenting Channel forums has been set up on any trials we cover of children and/or teens. I encourage all of you to join both the blog and the forums, it is going to take off where Rose Speaks.com left off after the Anna Nicole Smith and Casey Anthony trials

Follow Us On Face Book and on Twitter and see who Rose Speaks is following. Be sure and “Like” The Parenting Channel Face Book page for the latest in parenting and grand parenting.

©Rose Turner
August 3, 2012
All Rights Reserved, do not reproduce in whole or in part without the express written consent of the author.

The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.

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Teen Text Murder Victim Mike Yepremyan

As reported by John J Nazarian:

The Yepremyan murder trial is wrapping up after several weeks, it is the process that is also a real killer. Can you begin to imagine the Yepremyans sitting day in and day out within feet of those responsible for the murder of their only son. Having to sit and watch all of the evidence that at times was gruesome. There were photos of the autopsy, their boy laying there dead. And worse yet was the silly shit the defense attorneys would pull on witnesses, and the shenanigans (one would have to wonder what redeeming qualities lawyers like this have? What would it be like to have their son or daughter laying on a stainless steel table with a bullet hole in the head? Getting ready to be sliced and diced during an autopsy). Just me thinking our loud.

The defense attorneys have pulled out all the stops. Kessel was the most annoying in so much that he does his job and enjoys it. What job do you ask? Get the guilty out of the belly of the beast at all costs and this trial was no exception. Just like ‘OJ’ everyone knew Simpson killed his wife and the kid. And he was found not guilty by a gaggle of some of the dumbest human beings to ever walk the face of this planet…it all caught up with him in time (this was probably one of the rare examples of a “jury of your peers” ).

Likewise, everyone with any brains knows exactly what happened that night in North Hollywood, who killed Mike Yepremyan, who put it all into motion and all of the players. The truth has little or no place in a criminal court, it is defense games and police detectives and prosecutors who waltz around with the freedom of those in the jaws of the system. The jury system as I have often stated is a total joke for the most part, “a jury of your peers.” Really? So would I have 12 former cops on a jury, does a doctor get a jury of other doctors to decide ones innocence or guilt? Of course not, jury selection is a science for those who want to spend the money on professionals who can pick certain ‘candidates’ with certain characteristics that will be favorable for your client.

That was not the case in the Yepremyan murder case, Not Guilty or Guilty is not going to bring back Mike ‘Gombert’ Yepremyan from his grave in Forest Lawn. One big help for the defense was the fact all of Mikes ‘friends’ that night seemed to have forgotten and lied about a shotgun that was in the trunk of Mike’s car. For sure it was not put there by Mike, but by one of his friends who thought that his military career was going to be helpful in the event of something happening. In the end it may well have gave the defense a gift, sure a real big gift to the defendants. Sure, they all lied (Mike’s friends who all watched and did nothing) about an issue that if it had been told to the cops at the time would have been a non-issue. Having any long gun in your trunk is not an issue, tell the cops the truth and all would have been fine, but to lie? The whole bunch of you may have given rise to letting the killers off, we will see.

Worse yet was that this same group that were standing feet away when Mike was murdered also lied to the grand jury! WTF were you thinking guys, you never used the gun obviously, are you all that f’n ignorant? You soldier boy should have got it and used it at the fleeing murders who had just shot your best friend in the neck. But nooo, you and the others decided to try and lie and forget about a non-fucking issue. Congratulations, the whole bunch of you may very well be responsible for Mike Yepremyan and his Mom and Dad never seeing justice…all because you lied!

Now if the jury is smart and the prosecutor is as good an actor as some of the members of the defense team. This jury may well understand that they are sitting and looking at those responsible for the murder of Mike ‘Gombert’ Yepremyan. If these defendants are to be found not guilty, as I said when ‘OJ’ was found not guilty, the defendants took the risks, they played the game and payed dearly for a great defense team… this is after all our system of justice.

One other note, as many of you will recall in my earlier writings on Desperateexes.com I talk about the “Armenian Factor.” This “Factor” is as real as dead fish will stink, fruit will rot and for law enforcement the “Armenian Factor,” encompasses all of this and much more in investigating crimes involving this element.

As many of you know we have closed the forums here at Rose Speaks.com as we just did not have the time to do a good job moderating it for all of you. We are glad to announce that we have paired up with The Parenting Channel.com to carry a lead in to any of the cases we cover that has anything to do with a child or teen. We are ecstatic to have been able to do this. So lead in-ins for our blog articles will appear on The Parenting Channel’s blog and a section of The Parenting Channel forums has been set up on any trials we cover of children and/or teens. I encourage all of you to join both the blog and the forums, it is going to take off where Rose Speaks.com left off after the Anna Nicole Smith and Casey Anthony trials

Follow John J Nazarian On Face Book and on Twitter; follow John and see who John J Nazarian is following. Most Important subscribe to John J Nazarian on You Tube, see John Unleashed on the latest stories of today.

©Straight Talk with John J. Nazarian, Private Investigator
August 2, 2012
All Rights Reserved, do not reproduce in whole or in part without the express written consent of the author.

The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.

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Teen Text Murder Victim Mike Yepremyan

As reported by John J Nazarian:

Mike Yepremyan was murdered November 2009 and the trial began just a few weeks ago June 2012. The jury selection is always one of the more uninteresting aspects of the process, ‘Select a Jury’. Let me just say this for the defendants how the lawyers select a jury can be a crap shoot. On many real big high profile cases there are ‘specialists’ who help with the process. These experts will look at the shoes,’shined not shined’, the hair, all kind of mannerisms to try and pick the most favorable. Little like how I pick peaches at the market, all by hand!

On the Yepremyan murder case it was the lawyers, Michael Levin, Esq. Alex Kessel, Esq., Levin is representing Zareh Manjikian and Kessel is representing Vahag Jurian. Also present everyday is Hovic Dzhuryan and his sister Kat Vardanian, Anthony Brooklier is representing Kat and George Mgdesyan is representing Hovic. Did either Brooklier or Mgdesyan assist in the jury selection? I am not sure, all of these guys are well trained and respected for their work as ‘Get me off the hook’ go to guys. The biggest name in the bunch is of course is Anthony Brooklier, one of the biggest names in defense in So. Cal. right up there with Harland Braun, Esq. Kessel and Levin are very good at their craft also, Mgdesyan, I have never heard of until this trial.

I met with Brooklier with one of the defendants in the Anna Nicole Smith trial and after a great lunch of Spaghetti and Meatballs my client ‘flew the coop’. I was done with her and Brooklier was not retained, I still see that as a big mistake…..welcome to my world of making suggestions.

Judge Gregory A. Dohi of the Los Angeles Superior Court is presiding, Dept. E. Judge Dohi has only been a judge since being appointed August 29, 2007. Prior to that he attended a mid level university back East, Harvard!! And then went to Boalt Hall School of Law, one thing we can say is that this guy has educational credentials in the highest categories of law.

Judge Dohi was admitted to the bar in 1991 and joined the District Attorney’s office as a prosecutor. (Judge Dohi handled the pre-lim of Robert Blake Feb. 26, 2003 after he supposedly ‘whacked’ his wife after a nice Italian dinner at Vittello’s in Studio City). I wonder if they had ‘Meatballs’?

When Judge Dohi is not siting on the bench he is a professor at Southwestern School of Law. His honor ran for his ‘bench seat’ in 2010 and won the election, no one else it appears ran against him, this is often the case for sitting judges. Judge Dohi also sent Jodie Foster’s father, Blake Foster, to prison for 5 years for scamming home owners. Not bad, Judge Gregory A. Dohi, welcome to being a jurist in Southern California.

The only issue that I have is that with this education, with this employment background he has to know the law backwards and forwards. On paper this guy does not look like he would be easy to sell a bridge to…..we will see.

Some feathers are being ruffled as to having Mike Yepremyan’s parents, Artak and Arni sit outside the courtroom while certain witnesses testify. Former friends of Mike’s that both of the parents had spoken to after the murder of their son. Is this any kind of violation of ‘victims rights’? I am not sure. What I am hearing and understanding, is a Judge not wanting to make any mistakes that in the event of a conviction, so will start the appeal process. If there are convictions and there is any money left certainly there will be an appeal, that is fairly common in cases like this.

Remember, I promised to do all I could to make this story known around the world. I got it in the Los Angeles Times, Column One front page above the crease, we discussed it throughout the internet, all of the local news channels and the icing on the cake for me is Luce Villareal, taping for what will be a segment on DATELINE. If you will, prior to my participation in this case this was a ‘two line story’ on the L.A. Times webpage……not anymore!

I am not positive as I have not been served yet with a subpoena, maybe when I return from vacation in a few weeks as to my having to testify? We will see! My reason and thoughts on this was last week’s question by Mr. Kessel to Danielle, Mike’s former girlfriend, ‘Do you know a Mr. Nazarian? ‘ or something along those lines. I am very sure, everyone knows Mr. Nazarian, just Google me! Hell, I Google myself sometimes when I am bored to see what Mr. Nazarian is doing.




As many of you know we have closed the forums here at Rose Speaks.com as we just did not have the time to do a good job moderating it for all of you. We are glad to announce that we have paired up with The Parenting Channel.com to carry a lead in to any of the cases we cover that has anything to do with a child or teen. We are ecstatic to have been able to do this. So lead in-ins for our blog articles will appear on The Parenting Channel’s blog and a section of The Parenting Channel forums has been set up on any trials we cover of children and/or teens. I encourage all of you to join both the blog and the forums, it is going to take off where Rose Speaks.com left off after the Anna Nicole Smith and Casey Anthony trials

Follow Us On Face Book and on Twitter and see who Rose Speaks is following. Be sure and “Like” The Parenting Channel Face Book page for the latest in parenting and grand parenting.

©Rose Turner
July 7, 2012
All Rights Reserved, do not reproduce in whole or in part without the express written consent of the author.

The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of Rose Turner or our featured authors, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners. If comments to this or any other articles are not related to the article or does not meet the terms of use for Rose Speaks, they will be removed by the moderators.

Please also read our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.

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Ani and Art with picture of Mike Yepremyan

Congratulations to Lt. Hamilton and Detective Thomas Townsend, of North Hollywood Division of the L.A.P.D. Homicide. Why you ask am I saying this you ask????? Well let me just start by saying whenever you have DATELINE or 60 MINUTES knocking on your door you just know things are going to go to shit! The only thing worse I guess might be peeking out your little dingy window and seeing none other than Detective T. Townsend, that being he is a homicide cop and you are being charged with having something to do with killing someone. ( oh no! the lawyer said dont worry….LOL, they always say that….get another retainer ready! ) Who would have ever thought of the Grand Jury…..oh well going to be writing some bigger checks to them defense attorneys!

Poor Hovik Dzhuryan, Officer Kirkpatrick and crew bagged another ‘Armo’! This has to be funny, right, you know at one point I am sure you could have been a good guy and cooperated and been a decent human being and helped the police figure out which MoFo shot and killed an innocent boy. But nooooooo you are going to be a ‘tough Armo’ and play the part, well now you can either post bail (Mo Money out the window) or maybe be nice to that ‘MoFo’ with a badge and no neck. Just ask around, I am sure most of your family must know Detective Townsend by now. (if you see Townsend eating DO NOT MAKE ANY LOUD NOISES) And that the odds are you are going to be needing another bail agent, can I suggest, Chickies Bail Bonds? Chickie will post the bail and get your useless ass out of jail….unless your bail is 3 million or 8 million. The funniest part is ‘someone’ now has to hire another F’n lawyer, LMAO, right? Lt. Hamilton and Detective Townsend should be on at least four Defense Lawyers Christmas card list….think of the money these goofy SOBs have paid to defense attorneys to make all this better. That money would have done better in stuffing it someplace tight and dark with a little ‘lube’. hell at this point when you folks come home and slip out of your ‘Armo’ slippers, by the way this is both in L.A. and Glendale, you should look around and and say hello to the team of ‘watchers’ and bring some of that ‘Armo’ coffee out to the cops and investigators who are watching you and your family members…. and could there be more to come…..hmmm I am thinking, yup!

Through months and months of hard work by Detective Townsend and Lt. Hamilton’s team of homicide cops, The Los Angeles Grand Jury has indicted Khatun ‘Kat’ Vardanyan aka ‘get me some lube’, Hovik Dzhuryan aka ‘ I was not there’-’ my phone was there, not me’ Vahagn Jurian aka ‘ the short one ‘ or by now ‘snuggles’ and Zareh Manjikian ‘ my heart goes out to the family ‘……. before I forget, a BIG THANKS for the attorney of Manjikian for putting his client on national television before turning himself in! Big Smoochies to you! And of course all of our hearts go out to you too…..

Folks, November will be the two year anniversary of the murder of Mike ‘Gombert’ Yepremyan. One has to wonder, now there will be four (4) lawyers, and now 2 bails and can it get any more costly? How can the murderers and the people responsible for Mikes murder be paying for all of this? ‘ did we hear someone yelling ‘I am going broke!’ Well if I was rep’n one of these murderers I would go for the ‘roll’ as in ‘rollover’, and for ‘Bro’ & ‘Sis’, that would be a no brainer, ‘lets make a deal’ would be my favorite new show……as I said before, as a retired cop there was no way I could believe that a system would allow pure scum to kill an innocent boy and just walk away. I was right again, the system works and ‘lady justice may get a little sick at times but she never dies’.

These people who were involved in the killing of Mike Yepremyan are looking at a whole lotta of time, and the district attorney’s office is going to be sure they get all that they got coming to them and more, time is wonderful unless you are in a state prison. Can you all remember the good O’l days when you all thought ‘ Ha!, we all got away with killing this kid ‘. Silly Armos, it brings to mind a friend of my fathers, one of the worlds most incredible singers, Connie Frances, one of her all time hits was, “ Whose Sorry Now “.

In a L. A. Times article today by Robert Faturechi;

“the indictment also named another member of the group, Lazar Petrosyan, who authorities said is being treated as a witness, not a suspect.

Authorities are planning on trying all four defendants together.

“This sends a message to everyone,” said John Nazarian, a private investigator hired by the slain teen’s family. “You can’t just kill an innocent boy and with some clever manipulation get away with it.”

Follow John J Nazarian On Face Book and on Twitter and see who John J Nazarian is following.

©Straight Talk by John J. Nazarian, Private Investigator
September 16, 2011
Used with the permission of John Nazarian P. I. – writer
All Rights Reserved, do not reproduce in whole or in part without the express written consent of the author.

The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of our featured author, John Nazarian, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners.

Please also read our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.

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Ani and Art Yepremyan with son Mike in happier days

Lately I have been flooded with “Where is John’s response to the arrest of those responsible for the murder of Mike Yepremyan?” Well it is coming and coming real soon, I am holding off for awhile, but here is a sample, “The Armenian Factor.” What is that you ask? It will be a piece based on my experience and from my perspective of a group known for being liars, cheats and thieves. Got your attention well standby. Here is another truth, I have spoken to well over a dozen American Armenians, get 10 Armenians in a room, 8.25 of them will be ‘bad news’, the other 1.75 will be like the Yepremyans. You know, hard-working people who have real family ties and values…unlike those responsible for the COLD-BLOODED murder of their only son. It is “The Armenian Factor” that so hindered this investigation, that closed ranks to protect killer scum in their midst even though they were responsible for the senseless murder of a “fellow” Armenian.

Zareh Manjikian’s release by that moron in Puerto Rico is an insult to every real judge that ever sat on the bench. Zareh Manjikian was arrested in May in San Juan, Puerto Rico as a suspect involved in the San Fernando Valley murder in 2009 of Hombert “Mike” Yepremyan. Judge Gloria Maynard Salgado of the Research Division for the Puerto Rico Judicial Branch Court ignored an extradition request and a no bail order and allowed for Manjikian to be bailed out on a $50,000 bond on the condition he return to Court. Curiously enough, the Court listed the case as a civil case of miscellaneous criminal matters. Manjikian never returned to Court. For me I would have been happier if Manjikian had been arrested in Mexico…they love catching American killers and holding them, it is like a trophy for our friends in Mexico.

Hello Puerto Rico, THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS ISLAND NEEDS TO IMPEACH THIS MORON, I CANNOT BRING MYSELF TO USE THE WORD, ju*&e, YOU KNOW? No one should ever address this idiot of all idiots as such! None of us could have ever predicted that Manjikian would have gotten away in such a manner. I went public in wondering if there was a pay-off…what else could explain behavior like this? I am still wondering, and you? Can anyone tell me if Her Honor is still taking the bus to work? Or is she now driving a nice shiny new Maserati convertible or perhaps a SL550…let’s all watch!

Well luck has not been too good for Vahagn Jurian, 22 years old, he was arrested for murder by the Federal Bureau of Investigation aka F.B.I. There will be more on this story and his arrest in the weeks to come. When Jurian gets our of prison, BMWs will have wings, we hope. The family has hired a criminal defense lawyer to assist in his defense, (what, “I was not there, I did not run, I did not help the shooter escape and I did not flee the U.S.”?), I am thinking $30,000 which will go fast, real fast.

Our predictions are as follows: it is a new and fresh world since the arrest of Khatun Vardanian, who was arrested for murder and soon after released when the judge decided that the evidence was not “strong enough.” My opinion, that will not be an issue anymore in all future arrests and there will be more to come…I hope that everyone has saved a lot of money for bail and lawyers. For sure the Yepremyans will never be as they were, a wonderful and happy family with great dreams. Those dreams were shattered when their son had to deal with the “The Armenian Factor.”

I have been active in this investigation for a very long time and I have seen it all and heard it all. You know, the LAPD did this or that…folks, the LAPD and Detective Townsend did the best, the very best and were there mistakes? You could call it that if you want to, but let me say this, Detective Thomas Townsend and his team are fast studies and have mastered “The Armenian Factor“ and in doing so will be sending someone or two or ????? to the gray bar motel aka state prison to pay for the murder of Hombert “Mike” Yepremyan.

NEWS UPDATE: DateLine as well as 48 hours are actively pursuing this story for a national audience. Mike is about to get the national press his teen text message murder is just going to continue to be highlighted until a fair trial of the people involved in this has dealt out justice.

Stay tune to what I predict some hard hitting and to the point of the Teen Text Murder of Mike Yepremyan by John J. Nazarian on his Desperate Exes.com site.

http://desperateexes.com/2011/06/12/a-murder-investigation-runs-into-the-armenian-factor/

Be sure to drop by and interact in our COMMUNITY , get the most out of the site by learning your way around in the community where you can discuss things about the cases in a debate area of the site. Diamond Girl runs that entire section don’t hesitate to contact her to make suggestions on how this forum is more user friendly.

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©John J. Nazarian
June 12, 2011
Used with the permission of John Nazarian P. I. – writer
All Rights Reserved, do not reproduce in whole or in part without the express written consent of the author.

The expressions in this blog article are based on the opinions of our featured author, John Nazarian, please remember we are not lawyers and those opinions expressed here are each of our individual opinions and should not be taken as legal advice and/or legal opinions. The comments following this blog article are the opinions and sole property of the blog site members and do not necessarily reflect those of the site owners.

Please also read our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.

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Harold Smith and Ronni Chasen

Dateline NBC tonight, December 17, 2010 is going to look at the investigations and questions surrounding what now appears to be the senseless murder of Ronni Chasen by Harold Smith.

The views in Hollywood are varied, here is some of what I found that the famed Beverly Hills crowd are musing about.

In the extreme you have one “unnamed source” telling Deadline, “After listening to the details of the press conference, one of my police sources familiar with the investigation questioned the credibility of the investigation and quipped, “If I’m murdered and you find my body in Beverly Hills, please drag my body to LAPD. Even if you have to leave a bloody trail.”

I will be adding some additional details in a few minutes but Date Line NBC should be interesting and our favorite Hollywood PI, John J. Nazarian will be on talking with others. The Ronni Chasen case will not be covered with the whole show as there are other interesting crimes scheduled for tonight on the program.

The Beverly Hills police held a press conference on Wednesday stating that they believe that Harold Martin Smith, a career criminal who served time in state prison, shot and killed Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen. Police announced that lab tests revealed a preliminary match between the murder weapon presumed to have killed publicist Ronni Chasen and the gun used by Howard Smith to kill himself. The Beverly Hills Police stated that Smith acted alone in killing Chasen and police don’t believe the murder was a professional hit, but rather a “robbery gone bad.” The police theory is that Smith was on his bicycle and intended to rob Chasen, but she sped off after he shot her.

The Daily Beast gives us a synopsis of facts and just how this murder might have been a random act.

Police believe Smith carried out the shooting on foot as Chasen waited for the light to turn. He could well have staked out the corner, waiting past midnight into the wee hours of Nov. 16, a weekday, when traffic is at its lightest. He would have waited for a clear stretch without other passing cars, then made his move for Chasen’s vehicle, goes the police’s theory.

Smith reportedly killed Chasen with a .38 revolver, which can take regular or hollow-point bullets. A revolver does not discharge cartridge casings, as has been endlessly speculated.

In the botched robbery, Smith unloaded five bullets at the veteran publicist, then dashed back to his seven-speed and fled the scene, police say. Chasen did not surrender her purse, jewelry, money, or car, but lurched leftward onto Whittier, where she crashed into a lamppost.

Questions were hurled back at the Beverly Hills Police Department. A black man cycled seven miles to Whittier and Sunset, a cornerstone of ivory-white Beverly Hills, and no one clocked him when police are famously alert to African-American men in the area? Not a snippet to be found on any of the security cameras at the grand homes along Sunset Boulevard? No spent cartridge casings in the street? In short, the general complaint went, a thief simply does not accost a Mercedes on the most famous boulevard in Southern California in order to rob its driver and take nothing for his efforts, all with just a bicycle for transportation.

Harold Smith, a lifelong drug and alcohol abuser who was in and out of prison for much of his adult life, was indeed crazy.

On that point, the denizens of the Harvey Apartments, the benighted rooming house worthy of a Raymond Chandler novel, on Santa Monica Boulevard near Vine Street, tend to agree.

“He was always wearing these over sized gray gardener’s gloves,” said his neighbor Robin Lyle. “I think it was some germ phobia thing of his. Even if he shook my hand, he put the glove right back on.”

John Kratzel, 60, a self described “survivor of Vietnam, the Marine Corps, and 14 foster homes” maintains a well-kept room down the hall “He was always roaming the halls trying to engage me,” said Kratzel, who added that he told Smith more than once not to come into his room. “He was troubled and he was in trouble. He had several different bikes, stolen bikes. He used to keep them next door by the Dumpster.”

A longtime employee of the Harvey said Smith had four or five bikes during the few months he lived at the Harvey. “All stolen,” he added. Smith’s favorite, and the one he kept in his room, he said, was a burgundy-colored seven-speed, which the LAPD have taken into evidence. “I saw him once on that bicycle with the banana seat and curled handlebars,” said neighbor Terri Gilpin, 46, who occasionally chatted with Smith, “and he was holding a can of soda in his right hand. And he could ride with both hands in the air.”

That’s where Smith ended his misery with a bullet to his skull with a .38 revolver on Dec. 1 at 6 p.m., when police arrived to question him. It was the same gun that police say is a ballistics match with the one used to kill Chasen.

About two weeks before Smith took his life, he showed up excitedly outside Robin Lyle’s door. He had received “a few thousand dollars” from a lawsuit filed on his behalf by personal injury law firm of Larry H. Parker, though he complained about the lawyers “taking most of it.”

Michael Baden, the chief pathologist for the New York State Police, never doubted that Chasen’s murder did not require a trained hit man. But the Beverly Hills Police Department’s press conference, he said, raised more questions than it settled: “What is the provenance of the gun?” asked Baden. “When did he get the gun? Was it a hot gun someone wanted to get rid of? Were there other fingerprints on the weapon? And most importantly, did the bike have trace evidence on it?

That said, “trace evidence,” in the words of one police source, was found at the intersection of Sunset and Whittier, referring to the shattered glass of Chasen’s passenger window. The source also clarified that the investigators were not suggesting that Smith accosted Chasen’s Mercedes on his bicycle—but rather on foot.

The blowback from “the industry” was fast and fierce: from the friends and clients of Chasen to her fellow publicists, and even the local newspapers, websites, and bloggers who had run with the assumption that a professional assassin or mob hit man was the killer. “I don’t believe it for one minute,” Kathie Berlin, longtime Chasen friend and fellow publicist, told KNBC. “And not one person I’ve talked to believes it. You’re going to shoot someone in the heart five times from a bicycle and then just ride off?” Chasen’s friend, the film producer Lili Fini Zanuck, was nonplussed: “Anyone watching CSI can do better. It’s from an SUV?! It’s from a bike?!” she said. “What the fuck?”

While “the industry” scoffs at the police’s resolution of Chasen murder, Hollywood’s tourist industry has found a way to embrace the tragedy. The Starline bus tour, which features the homes of the stars, now drives by Sunset and Whittier, with its bullhorn announcing the intersection as the famed murder site of Ronni Chasen.

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