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Hi Crime Junkies, it's Brit and we are heading back to the Big Apple New York City.
And we can't wait to get back here in person soon.
There's truly nothing like walking the streets of Times Square, seeing the Statue of Liberty, or crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
But as we all know Danger likes to hide in beautiful places, including the concrete jungle.
So today we're going back to October 2019 when we first told you the story of how in 1986 Danger found its way to Central Park.
Hi Crime Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Brit. And the story I have for you today is a time capsule.
We are going back to New York City in 1986 where one case went from a local homicide to a media firestorm all across America.
And though this is far from our first episode, there is a first here.
The team over at AMC reached out to us to collaborate on this episode.
They asked us to watch their upcoming docuseries called the Preppy Murder, Death in Central Park and use it as our source material to tell you guys about this case.
So if you get as enthralled in this story as I did, you can watch the five -part series on AMC and Sundance Channel over three consecutive nights starting Wednesday, November 13th at 9 p .m.
Eastern. And I'm telling you you're going to be so invested because this case horrified and captivated the public while setting off bitter debates about sex privilege, legal ethics, parental responsibility, socio -economics, victims rights, and so much more.
Because before there was the OJ Simpson trial, there was the preppy murder.
Our story begins in the early morning hours of August 26, 1986.
A woman named Pat Riley is on her bike riding through Central Park on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.
As she's riding along near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, something catches her eye.
It looks like a young woman who's laying under a tree.
Instantly, Pat knows something is wrong.
She can tell just by the way the woman's body is positioned.
It doesn't feel right.
She's got one leg up, one arm up, and as she gets closer to the woman, she can tell that she isn't moving and all of her jewelry is missing.
Horrified, Pat hurries to call police and by 6 o 'clock in the morning, the area is swarming with law enforcement.
They cordon off a large area all around the body and instantly start to work on figuring out who their victim is and what happened to her.
As they survey her body, they see vicious red marks around her neck and bruises on her face that are so bad one of her eyes has been swollen shut.
Her blouse and her bra are pushed up over her breasts and her skirt has been hiked up to reveal that she isn't wearing any underwear.
It's a grim, grim scene, but police react accordingly.
They shut down the entrances and exits not just to the park but to the entire city.
All bridges, all tunnels, everything.
By the time morning rush hour is over, the woman in the park is positively identified as 18 year old Jennifer Levin.
McGee Hickey, who was a reporter who actually covered this case in the story, said quote, if something happens in Central Park to a white person in the 1980s, everybody pays attention to it.
And he went on to say that basically back then in the 80s, murder was basically like chalked up to only being related to gangs or crack epidemics like bad things happened in bad neighborhoods.
And obviously we all know that bad things happen everywhere to everyone regardless of race or religion or economic status.
But this was kind of the attitude back then and this murder was rocking the community and especially Jennifer's close -knit community of friends.
They'd never known anyone who'd been hurt like this.
Stuff like this again didn't happen to people like them.
They were young and rich and carefree and youth often carries with it a sense of invincibility.
Bad things happen to other people.
Death is so far in the distant future and there's no reason to be afraid of it.
They were basically all these like private school elite kids of the Upper East Side and they lived in these glass houses of wealth and privilege and access.
Now though Jennifer hung out with this crowd, she wasn't like these other kids in the friend group.
She actually grew up in Long Island.
She was Jewish, she lived in this downtown Soho apartment area rather than on the Upper East Side where they were.
And her friend Peter said quote everything that was different about Jennifer is what attracted me to her, end quote.
And she's really just like fresh face with her cute little 80s hair and just the sparkle in her eye that is is amazing.
Jennifer was popular, she had a lot of friends and her best friend in 1986 is a girl named Jessica.
They met back in 84 when they were both working at a clothing store and they hit it off right away.
Now while they might have had their differences, they did have one big thing in common.
They both like to party and like hard.
Alcohol is everywhere in this community and drugs are easy to get.
Plus, everyone's parents are away a lot.
Like there's always some nice empty apartment to throw a little weekend rager and then clean up the mess before mom and dad get home.
Wait, where are these kids parents?
You're you're telling me that they just leave their teenagers for days at a time by themselves.
Apparently, this was like super common.
Like it is a far cry from the uber religious Midwest background you and I grew up in.
So it's a yeah, it's a little hard for me to wrap my head around it.
But I guess like these parents would go on vacation or they'd go out to the Hamptons for the weekend or to a country house somewhere and they would just leave their kids behind in the city with no supervision.
And it's just not a big deal to them.
But like I said, Jessica didn't grow up like them.
This wasn't her norm.
Although she did really embrace this after her parents divorced and she moved in with her dad in Soho.
Jessica and Peter and her prep school classmates were kind of her getaway into a new scene.
All of it's new and cool and like an adult right?
Like it's very grown -up thing to have all this freedom and this whole crowd makes the most of their freedom.
Now as police start learning about this friend group they also start piecing together where she was and who she was with the day before she was found.
What they learn is that on August 25th Jennifer is out in the Hamptons staying with her friend Peter.
Now she's getting ready to leave New York and head to Boston for college so she's basically like making her round.
She wants to make sure that she sees everyone before she goes and says her goodbyes.
So once she has a chance to see Peter in the Hamptons and see her friends out there, police find out that Jennifer was going back into the city to spend the night at her friend Alex's house.
So they go talk to Alex and retrace Jennifer's steps the night that she died.
Alex tells police that she and Jennifer went to Dorian's red hand bar and this is like the place to be.
This is the preppy hangout if you're one of the kids in the upper -class crew.
Everyone knows that it's easy to get served alcohol there.
Pretty much all you need to buy a drink is a fake ID and it doesn't even have to be a good fake ID at that.
And they might not even ask for And it isn't just like a Dorian's thing.
These kids could party almost anywhere and we're talking like super exclusive nightclubs like Studio 54 where there's like money and beautiful people and again as I'm watching this I like cannot believe that this is like really happening.
These kids had access to any place and anything.
I mean they're in these clubs like drinking, smoking marijuana, doing ecstasy, cocaine, pills, you name it.
Again we grew up in a completely different world so I might just be like totally oblivious to this but this doesn't feel like normal high school partying.
Like the kinds of substance you're talking about they're like some really hard drugs and the amount that these kids are partying I feel like there could be like some legit substance issues.
Oh listen and you're not wrong and even some of the people who were in that crew can see that looking back.
Like Jennifer's best friend Jessica said quote we were having a great time but we were not okay.
End quote. So to go back to police like piecing together her night Alex gives a bunch of names to the police about who all was at Dorian's that night and police go talk to those people to get more names and start building a timeline of who was there, at what times, who left early, who stayed late, who left
with who and as they talk to more and more people one name keeps coming up over and over and over.
Robert Chambers. Robert knew Jennifer because he also knew Jennifer's best friend Jessica and Jessica is actually the one who introduced them back on Valentine's Day 1986 at a mutual friends quote champagne birthday party.
Like what is their life?
Seriously if this isn't a sign again of how rich these kids are or were and how much they party I don't know what is.
So police go over to Robert's mom's apartment to talk to him and get his story about what happened last night.
As soon as he comes to the door they see that he has scratches on his face like fresh deep scratches.
He also has a weird hand injury which the lead detective recognizes as being common among boxers who like hit wrong.
Now initially Robert's like super polite, super cooperative and he even volunteers to go to the police station so that they can talk there at the precinct.
When they go to the station they begin their formal taped interview and police ask Robert about the scratches on his face and he actually like jokes about it and lifts up his shirt to show them matching scratches on his chest and he says that all of these scratches like face and chest are from his cat and police
are like okay well then let me ask you about a specific friend of yours.
When is the last time you saw Jennifer Levin?
Now Robert tells the police that yes I was at Dorian's I saw her there and the last time though that I saw her was like right outside of Dorian's but we said goodbye kind of went our separate ways and I didn't see her again.
Now the whole time that they're talking Robert is uber calm like not nervous like you think he would be sitting in an interrogation room but almost his attitude is like kind of mildly annoyed about this whole thing like it's just so inconvenient that he's there and after a couple of hours he actually
starts to get rude and basically like he's put out by the police disturbing him for something as silly as a murder investigation and it's then hours later among his annoyance that he starts to change his story.
Now he says well I actually left Dorian's with Jennifer.
He tells police now that they decided to leave at the same time they didn't just like part ways outside of Dorian's now he has them walking together up 86th Street in the direction of Central Park.
Now at this point the police pump the brakes for a second like it's usually a sign of something big when statements start changing and they're thinking okay we may have our prime suspect in our hands right here right now which would be great because the media is already all over this thing so to make
sure nothing is missed they call in the assistant district attorney and they ask Robert if he's willing to make another statement and they want this one recorded so he's like yeah for sure let's let's have the tape start rolling.
So watching the video the thing that gets me the most is Robert's whole attitude.
Like I don't know if you've ever watched any of like the Brat Pack movies from the 80s but he's got this very entitled air about him like if you've seen pretty and pink he totally reminds me of like the James Spader rich boy attitude like consequences for other people and even in the second recorded
interview he's still super calm as he starts to tell his story about what happened the night before now according to Robert he does see her at Dorian's they do leave at the same time but this time they aren't just like walking up the street together this time his story is that Jennifer wanted to go
into Central Park with him and he says he wasn't interested in any of it and he just wanted to go home but went with her anyway and he goes on to tell police and the ADA that she went to the bathroom like somewhere off in the shadows when they got to the park then she came back and started putting the moves
on him even tying up his hands behind his back with her own underwear because according to him she says that she thinks he looks cuter if he's tied up as Robert continues with his story he tells police that Jennifer then sits on his chest facing away from him reaches into his pants and sexually assaults
him scratching his chest while she did it and he says he's in pain he's scared he couldn't get away because his hands were tied and now right away red flags are going up for the cops in the ADA because they don't buy any of this now a lot of their skepticism came from the idea at the time that they
believed men couldn't be raped which we know is totally false right it can happen to anybody regardless of gender but I gotta say I'm kind of with the police on this one I'm having a hard time buying the story that he like couldn't get away was Jennifer like super tall or strong like I guess I'm wondering
how was she able to overpower him so no she wasn't like super tall or strong she actually had a pretty slight build when you see pictures of her meanwhile Roberts over six feet tall and nearly 200 pounds like realistically he'd have no trouble getting a girl of Jennifer size off of him and I'm gonna get
you're not like tied up with handcuffs or zip ties like a single piece of underwear if that's really what happened and both the ADA and the police don't think there's any way she could have done what Robert's saying unless he let her do it now Robert continues with his story and it doesn't become any
more believable according to him eventually he gets one hand free and manages to toss Jennifer off of him he says after he pushed her off then she just doesn't move and at first he says he thinks that she's just like kidding around but here's the thing when he's talking about her to police like telling
them this story I push her off he says something really strange he doesn't use her name he calls her the body like the body didn't move which is super strange but it's also a contradiction because if you thought she was joking around and kidding like then she's not just a body yeah she like you wouldn't
think she was a dead body it doesn't make sense so when police ask him what he did next no one could have expected his bizarre response Honda biggest event is back happy Honda days are here with our best savings of the year all remaining 24s must go say thousands with 1 .9 % financing award -winning Honda cars
SUVs trucks vans hybrids and EVs are all in stock like the 2024 Honda Accord now with low 1 .9 % APR financing do not miss it DAB happy Honda days search a local Honda dealer you know that feeling when you're at Ross and you find the best gifts for way less like brand -name sweaters the coolest kids toys
and plush dog beds get that feeling with every gift and save 20 to 60 percent off other retailers prices at Ross yes for less Robert says he didn't try to do CPR on her he didn't call the police he didn't even leave the scene he says after all of this he just stayed in the park wait what yeah apparently
he just hung out there in Central Park and watched police show up and he's saying this on tape with nothing in his voice to suggest that he gets how this could sound weird the police arrest Robert right then in there and they're feeling really good about it they've got a prime suspect in custody he's
on tape confessing this is a home run it seems simple but we know no case is ever simple the murder of Jennifer Levin in Central Park is already a media circus but once Roberts arrested it gets even worse it is front page news all over New York City because it had all the homeworks of a case that they
knew the public would eat up young wealthy privileged good -looking kids caught up in drugs and sex and now murder and the thing that the media latches on to the most was the good -looking part over and over again you'd see them talk about how handsome Robert was what does his appearance have to do with any
of this nothing but the media makes this a huge part of the narrative and I can't tell you how many voiceovers I heard from news reporters that kept going on and on about it and it only gets worse when Robert's mom Phyllis gets him one of the most famous criminal lawyers in New York at the time it was an attorney
named Jack Lippmann and Jack takes zealous advocacy to a whole new level like hardcore crime junkies are probably familiar with legal ethics and you'll know that part of a lawyer's responsibility to their client is to promote their client's position whatever that may be and they're supposed to do everything
they can within the laws boundaries to get the result that they want and this is exactly what Jack does right away Jack sees the media bonanza around Robert and he sees an opportunity to spin a whole new narrative about what happened the night Jennifer died he starts a strategic and prolonged public
relations campaign to paint Jennifer Levin as a promiscuous sexual deviant and basically paint Robert Chambers as the real victim here according to Jack's narrative Robert is this classic all -american success story like he's not from a rich family but he's working hard to get into society's upper echelons
his mom Phyllis is this Irish immigrant who works long hours as a private nurse for New York's most wealthy family so she could send him to like the best private schools he tells the public you know he's an altar boy growing up he's a devout Catholic he's on sports teams at school he's handsome look
how handsome he is and he'd never force himself on anyone and it's only natural for girls to be attracted to him and I mean so much as saying basically like girls already throw themselves at him why would he like need to force any girl to do anything and he just keeps reiterating like he's a good boy
she was a bad girl and Jack tells everyone if Jennifer hadn't wanted rough sex then she'd still be alive and this tragic accident never would have happened that is the story that he's pushing out to the public and the phrase rough sex becomes a huge part of this case and it portrays Jennifer as the aggressor in this scenario
instead of the murder victim that she is and this phrase is everywhere all over the headlines in huge letters and Jack Lippmann runs with it it's actually appalling like Jennifer's family is devastated her friends are devastated it's basically heaping trauma on top of trauma it kind of sounds like they're
saying she was asking for it Oh Roberts defense team is doing everything but putting it in those exact words like their strategy feeds into the sexism and misogynistic double standards of the time but it's controversial too because a lot of people are just totally disgusted by it like feminist groups
end up getting involved activists start protesting and it really does split public opinion about Jennifer and about Robert so while all of this is going on the police and the new assistant district attorney on the case Linda Farstein are trying to come up with a strategy to counter -attack Jack's version of Robert
now ironically it's Robert himself who gives them their best weapon against him because on the night that he was arrested he brought his phone book to the police station with him and police have all these names and addresses of people he hung out with friends associates all carefully documented in his file
effects Linda and the police start making calls and going through every single number in Robert's book and it's not much of a shock that most of his friends get kind of defensive or they don't want to talk like none of them want to believe that Robert was capable of murder like they just kept saying
oh you know it's an accident or Robert would never do that he must have had a bad moment like excuses excuses galore but the calls aren't totally hopeless though and little by little a different picture of Robert emerges it turns out that Robert had a reputation among the prep school circles because things
had a funny habit of going missing when he would be at house parties things like for coats and expensive jewelry would just disappear anything valuable that was easy to grab Robert Chambers was well known for being a thief but no one had ever confronted him about it because as Jessica says like it was the glorious
80s and no one wanted to be responsible was her quote okay but like why like is he selling this stuff is he like does he need it for money well it's because Robert had a cocaine habit a big one and it went all the way back to middle school when it started Linda and the police learned that Robert's been
in and out of rehab for years but it didn't stick and his addiction continued and since he needed money to pay for drugs he turned to stealing he also stole credit cards from girls that he spent time with even using one to spend over three thousand dollars with a friend one weekend in early 86 now all
of the times this happened like again people knew he was stealing but the police were never called and Robert was never held accountable he went to rehab again skipped out early and by August he was back in New York and back at Dorian's so by September of 1986 Robert's been in jail since his arrest
waiting for his bail hearing Jack is still pushing hard on this whole he's a good kid from a good family with no record kind of angle and Linda and the lead detective Mike go the total opposite they know Robert's not the choir boy that Jack wants everyone to think he is and they're convinced that they'll
be able to keep him in jail until the case goes to trial but Jack has a secret weapon Honda's biggest event is back happy Honda days are here with our best savings of the year all remaining 24s must go say thousands with 1 .9 % financing award -winning Honda cars SUVs trucks vans hybrids and EVs are all
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sweaters the coolest kids toys and plush dog beds get that feeling with every gift and save 20 to 60 % off other retailers prices at Ross yes for less at Robert's bail hearing Jack pulls out a letter now this isn't totally uncommon a lot of times suspects will get character references from people to
say like oh yeah they're actually super great they're not a flight risk like I know them they have ties the community things like that but this isn't a letter from an old teacher or a coach this letter is from Theodore McCarrick the archbishop of Newark he is a big -time player in the Catholic Church
and he's on track to becoming a Cardinal and he holds a lot of weight in the New York City politics scene this guy has so much power that even just the name McCarrick instantly puts people including the judge on high alert and Linda is stunned of all of the people Jack could have gotten to write a letter
this one was so big and so far out of left field that no one could have ever predicted it she even drives out to Newark to talk to the archbishop and ask him why he would possibly write this letter for a man that he's seemingly not connected to and McCarrick admits he's like I don't know anything about the case
but he basically like points to his faith as the reason for getting involved I'm sorry no there is no way a power player like that is going to get so personally involved and like risk their own career for a defendant in like this crazy high profile murder case just because their faith told them to like
not unless they knew the person and that's what I said and that's what Linda thought too so she and detective Mike do some digging and it just so happens that the archbishop is also Robert's godfather and according to New York magazine he sponsored Robert through his confirmation as a teenager now Robert's
mom Phyllis also nursed a cardinal during his last days and knew the New York Archdiocese so she pulled some strings and got good old godfather Teddy to throw his political might behind her son so it looks like there was a little more behind this than just faith however the archbishop's letter does
the trick in front of a packed courtroom the judge sets Robert's bail at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars which is a lot of money at the time and remember Robert's family isn't like these Upper East Side people they're not wealthy so they don't have the hundred and fifty grand to spare or even
enough to put up for the bail bond so Robert supporters and members of the church rally around him and raise the money themselves Jack Dorian the guy who actually owns like Dorian's red -handed bar where Robert was that night Jennifer was killed even puts up his own penthouse as collateral they get the money
and Robert is released on bail but instead of going home he goes to stay at a parish as part of Jack Lettman's hole like look how pious and innocent this kid is thing as if the letter from McCarrick wasn't enough Robert being allowed into the parish puts the whole city on high alert that the Catholic
Church has chosen a side as soon as Robert gets out Jack calls a press conference Robert reads a statement about how sorry he basically is for this whole tragic accident like he's really piling it all on while still sounding like he did in his confession like he's not even trying to fake empathy at this point
and it's a little hard to watch and it's even worse for Jennifer's family and her friends because as soon as he's out of jail Robert wastes no time and getting right back to his normal life he even goes back to Soho Jennifer's neighborhood where she lived strolling around with his Walkman smirking for the cameras
without a care in the world okay so he's popular and he's free again but like everyone in his friend group knew that he was a thief right yeah totally I guess I'm kind of surprised that they weren't more disillusioned with him like earlier on and I'm shocked that he didn't get caught before this well
here's the thing it goes back to that whole idea of Robert being like handsome and not fitting the mold of a criminal that everyone had in their minds because he almost was caught for a burglary that took place back in 85 so after Robert gets out on bail Linda gets a call from a detective in another
precinct who's investigating this burglary from 1985 now during this burglary over $70 ,000 worth of stuff was taken from someone's home so it's actually a felony at this point not just a misdemeanor and wouldn't you know it at the scene they found Robert Chambers ID on the fire escape now at the time
when this initially happened they asked Robert about it they tracked him down and Robert's like oh you know I must have lost it oops what a funny coincidence a thief must have picked up and then like dropped it at the crime scene and listen at the time they bought it like my god he didn't make sense
as their perp they never fingerprinted him and they didn't really look at him anymore after that like it really did seem like a strange coincidence but now that he's been arrested for something else they decide maybe they should run his prints against their scene and he might have had an excuse for why
his ID was there but what he can't explain though is why his latent fingerprints matched those in the medicine cabinet at the apartment where all of this took place and now when Linda has this she knows this is huge this isn't Jack Litman's pristine client this is a well -established criminal and this is a huge
chink in his purity armor now they knew for sure that in order to finance his drug addiction Robert wasn't just stealing from people he knew he was stealing from total strangers and what they find out is that he wasn't alone Robert had an associate a young African -american man named David who was already
well known to police for raping and trying to murder a student in her dorm room at Columbia University yeah their mo was always the same Robert being like the white guy who just like fit in in the neighborhoods used his access in his social standing to get into these really exclusive buildings over
Park Avenue and basically he'd walk right past the doorman he'd go upstairs and he would basically start trying doors until one of them opened just to see who left their apartment unlocked meanwhile David who couldn't get past the doorman like Robert could would stay down on the ground and wait for Robert
to toss him whatever he could pick up like I said that's for coats it's pills it's jewelry wait Jennifer's jewelry was missing right yes it was and what was also missing was money from her purse and so really I think this was the first time they had some kind of real connection to what the motive might have been
like maybe he was trying to get money from her maybe she caught him again there's still kind of a question mark but clearly we're starting to see a pattern and there's just like underlying issue that he has armed with this new information Linda and detective Mike start looking into other unsolved burglaries
around the city trying to see if they can pin any more on Robert and yeah they're able to find over 30 provable crimes that Roberts connected to and while this is happening Robert gets formally indicted for felony burglary now of course as soon as this happened Roberts lawyer Jack goes into PR spin mode
and this time he gets Robert on the cover of New York magazine and not just a feature article but like the full cover story he's immaculate like very clean -cut very preppy in his like suit and tie looking like the 1980s American Dream like going for that full John F Kennedy jr.
vibe and listen I read the entire piece which was published back in November 10th I think of 86 it was written by Michael Stone and it is a puff piece to the nth degree it is exactly the image the defense wants to portray Jennifer's best friend Jessica describes it the best I think she said quote he
was portrayed as the white symbol of beauty power intelligence and money and quote Wow meanwhile during all of the pretrial stuff Jack's also busy trying to get a hold of Jennifer's diary because they want to use it as proof that like oh hey remember how we said this girl's like a bad person for being
sexually active and daring and enjoying sex with men like they want to use it as proof of that and they finally get their hands on this diary and they tell the press aha like we've got proof in her own words that she was like basically sex crazed but the problem is it's total BS what they're calling
a diary is a freaking date book and when they give it to the judge to see if it can be admissible in trial he's like no what are you even talking about there's literally nothing sexual in this thing at all right but I think it was a total play because by this point it didn't even matter what was in it
it was all a show and the defense knew that there wasn't anything sexual but they got enough people talking about it in the press and in the public that all of the headlines started to read sex diary right there alongside rough sex as part of the public narrative about Jennifer Levin mm -hmm at this point
Roberts defense isn't even pretending that they're not engaged in victim blaming here and it kind of backfires on them the people who were already pissed get even more mad and more are inspired to take action a group called the Guardian Angels gets really involved in protesting and they accused Jack
of basically murdering Jennifer's reputation which I think is totally fair especially since one of Roberts other lawyers even says in the documentary quote there's nothing illegitimate end quote about using a victim blaming as a tactic like are you kidding me oh my god that's awful yeah what a monster
but Jennifer isn't the only one being blamed though the night she died Robert was confronted at Dorian's by a girl named Alex and this is a different one that Jennifer was supposed to spend the night with but this Alex basically humiliated him in front of his friends including Jennifer and members of their
social group turned to her and basically kind of point the finger saying like you made Robert snap and it's your fault that Jennifer's dead the lengths these people are willing to go to to shield Robert from his responsibility it honestly just blows my mind like it sounds like the prosecution is up
against this crazy huge wall like not only are they trying to build their case but they defy all of this at the same time yeah they totally are which is why they kind of had to get creative and they do so on the night that she was murdered Jennifer was wearing a denim jacket it's really like kind of ashed
wash very 80s anyways so police have this jacket which happens to have stains on it stains that look like blood and saliva and they want to see if they can get those stains to match Jennifer directly with this revolutionary technique the FBI has called DNA testing now this was well before modern DNA
analysis and this is the very very beginning of this whole science and at this point it hadn't been used yet but basically the FBI was super excited about this new science they had and about its potential and they kind of wanted to get some media attention as well so they agreed to work with the prosecution kind
of partner on this so detective Mike takes the jacket and drives it personally all the way from New York City to the FBI's labs down in Quantico while Linda gets to work on establishing a motive now mind you nowhere in Robert's videotape confession did he mention anything about why he might have killed
Jennifer and the public wants to know too like maybe he couldn't perform sexually and was embarrassed like it's totally possible for heavy drug users like Robert because long -term cocaine use can have sexual dysfunction effects but then they think like maybe money was the motive like a lot of people
speculated that maybe she caught him stealing from her purse like if you remember as soon as they got to the park he says she went off to use the bathroom like maybe she came back and saw him rifling through her purse and they had some kind of confrontation do they need the motive to go to trial so you
don't you can go to trial without a motive but it's more of an uphill battle because like Linda says it's the thing everybody wants to know motive or not though the prosecution has to move ahead with the case before trial the preliminary DNA results come back and they say yes the blood and saliva on the jacket
are Jennifer's which originally when I like was like watching this and saw that they were trying to do the testing I thought for a second that they were trying to like link him to her jacket but then I yeah that's what I thought you were gonna say no but then I realized like duh he like admits being
with her what they were trying to do was prove that the jacket was the murder weapon that he like held it over her face to try and kill her okay now having this DNA and proving that it was hers proving that it was held to her face is huge for the prosecution because it shows intent and it proves that Jennifer
didn't die accidentally like Robert says but there's a big problem the judge won't allow it to be admitted into evidence because the DNA science is just too new because it can't be allowed into evidence they also can't even mention it at trial and the judge also tells them that they can't mention Jennifer's
missing jewelry either so when you look at what we know what the public knows but what the jury won't hear about that means we have no DNA no murder weapon no theft that night like there's nothing that we can tell the jury and beyond that it's really tricky to sit 12 fair and impartial jurors because of the non -stop
media attention that this case got but eventually they manage it and the trial starts on January 3rd 1988 with Robert accused of second -degree murder right from the start the media goes bananas like more than they already have we're talking worldwide coverage now Linda focuses on humanizing Jennifer
as much as possible so the jury sees her as this vibrant living person and not just the dead girl in Central Park Jack on the other hand keeps doing what he's been doing as far as smearing Jennifer's reputation except now the case isn't just about rough sex gone wrong he also brings the police force
into it and says that basically they're an amateur level police force who totally ruined the scene and like botched the investigation all of this is incredibly difficult for Jennifer's friends and family to watch some attend court and some of them take the stand even to tell the jury about the girl
that they once knew and loved the woman who found Jennifer's body testifies the medical examiner testifies and both sides call expert witnesses who pack in a lot of scientific stuff that's really hard for the average person to understand and this is done on purpose Jack does this because he wants not only
to confuse the jury but to also place those little seeds of doubt in their mind now another part of Jack's strategy to make Robert look good involves him showing up to court every day with a pretty new girlfriend named Sean like surely no smart attractive girl like Sean would go out with Robert if he
was this vicious killer that prosecutors claim so he must be harmless right Linda's just hoping against hope to get him on the stand for cross -examination away from Jack so she can finally crack his facade and show the world who he really is but unfortunately for the prosecution Jack never calls Robert
to testify the jury goes to deliberate without ever hearing from Robert himself one day goes by without a verdict then two then three then five no one wants to believe that this case could come back with a hung jury but it's looking more and more likely and everyone is starting to get really nervous
because the stakes are so high here and the longer the jury deliberates the bigger the chance that they're stuck on something they're under a huge amount of pressure to deliver a verdict and even the jurors themselves start to crack with all this tension fights are breaking out in the jury room one
of the jurors even fakes a heart attack to get excused like there's no doubt that Robert killed Jennifer Levin I mean he admits it but he says it's an accident the jury is stuck on his intent did he mean to kill her in the midst of this deliberation the defense team does something that sends shockwaves
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dog beds get that feeling with every gift and save 20 to 60 % off other retailers prices at Ross yes for less on day nine Robert's defense makes a call to the prosecutor's office they suggest a plea deal instead of second -degree murder which requires intent they offer up manslaughter which doesn't after consulting
with the Levin family and delivering the heartbreaking news Linda accepts wait that's it mm -hmm like after all that manslaughter mm -hmm did the jury see the same pictures we did like the horrific bruises on Jennifer's neck and and how badly she'd been beaten like all that and they can't agree on intent
like how do you not see that I know and truly that's exactly how Jennifer's friends and family feel like basically they've been cheated Jennifer's mom Ellen who only agreed to this deal in order to avoid the trauma of a second trial was horrified by this Robert is sentenced to just five to 15 years
in prison even if he serves the maximum is 15 years fair payment for a life and everyone agrees absolutely not oh oh my god no like does the media at least leave them alone now for a little while yeah the trials over the press moves on until a popular tabloid journalist gets his hands on a videotape
that neither the prosecution nor the defense had any idea existed it was taken while Robert was out on bail back in 87 before the trial when he was supposedly being this like wholesome young man staying at his local parish and in this video he's surrounded by four girls in their underwear and they're
all partying goofing around having a grand old time and at one point Robert picks up this doll and starts like talking in this creepy high -pitched voice while he pretends to strangle the doll only stopping to joke about killing it when the dolls head pops off it is absolutely disturbing and there's
no universe where this is funny especially considering like the circumstances around it and while it does do a lot of damage to the public view of Robert ultimately at this point it doesn't matter because the trial is over and Jennifer isn't coming back Robert winds up serving his entire 15 year sentence
because he gets into a lot of trouble in prison he's released in 2003 and within a year he's arrested again and this time for drugs he does a hundred days in Rikers Island and then in 2007 he's arrested for drugs a third time this time for selling but he's not alone he's arrested with a woman named
Sean the same Sean who accompanied him to trial every day and who also appeared in that creepy doll tape now this time Robert is sentenced to 19 years in prison which is great like this guy deserves to be away forever but it's a little bit crazy to me that he goes away longer for this drug charges than he
ever did for the murder of Jennifer Levin yeah he's currently incarcerated at the Sullivan maximum security correctional facility in New York State and is scheduled for release in 2024 when he'll be 58 years old now there's still one final twist though Brett you remember Robert's godfather yeah the Archbishop
right right so in 2018 Theodore McCarrick now Cardinal McCarrick resigns after being accused of sexually abusing not only adult male seminarians but also of sexually abusing children in particular altar boy my god now NBC News did a huge story about his resignation and a lot of other outlets covered
it because McCarrick is one of the highest ranking church leaders in the United States to be removed in connection with the Catholic Church's ongoing sexual abuse scandal now if you remember Robert was an altar boy and also was sponsored by McCarrick for his confirmation as a teenager now to be clear
there's never been any suggestion that Robert was among one of McCarrick's victims but I kind of think it's a question that has to be asked yeah definitely now partly because of the media attention and the public fascination with Jennifer Levin's murder this case has become a staple in pop culture references
People Magazine listed a few of them there was a movie back in 1989 a 1990 law and order episode a sonic youth song and even as late as 2004 the killers put out Jenny was a friend of mine I hate to say that any good came of this whole thing because Jennifer should still be alive none of this should have ever
happened but her mom Ellen turned her grief into action she became a staunch advocate for victims rights and got 13 pieces of legislation passed in 10 years to protect victims including expanding New York's rape shield laws to limit how much of a victim sexual history can be mentioned she turned her
pain into power and hopefully in the process allowed Jennifer's memory to rest a little easier thank you so much to the team at AMC for reaching out and asking us to cover this case their reporting was immensely helpful and you guys the docu -series is legit amazing for a list of other sources we use
for cross -referencing and to supplement this story you can visit our website crimejunkiepodcast .com and be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode crime junkie is an audio check production so what do you think Chuck do you approve Honda's
biggest event is back happy Honda days are here with our best savings of the year all remaining 24s must go save thousands with 1 .9 % financing award -winning Honda cars SUVs trucks vans hybrids and EVs are all in stock like the 2024 Honda Accord now with low 1 .9 % APR financing do not miss it dab happy
Honda days search a local Honda dealer dealer for financing details for what qualifiers offer ends 1 2 25 you know that feeling when you're at Ross and you find the best gifts for way less like brand -name sweaters the coolest kids toys and plush dog beds get that feeling with every gift and save 20
to 60 percent off other retailers prices at Ross yes for less
