Billionaire Boys Club Murder Case Goes to Jury

An 11-woman, 1-man jury will begin deliberating Monday in the murder trial of Billionaire Boys Club leader Joe Hunt, who listened intently Thursday as a Santa Monica Superior Court judge read lengthy jury instructions that the so-called “boy genius” helped draft.

The Byzantine case, in which the body of admitted con man Ron Levin has never been found, went to the jury after four days of impassioned closing arguments. The defense insisted that Hunt was merely a cocky young man who made false boasts to appear tough to his buddies.

He was no “monster,” said defense attorney Arthur Barens. Hunt’s only crime, he said in arguments that included references to “God Bless America,” the Constitution and “War of the Worlds,” was “human limitation and a belief in himself that exceeded his abilities.”

Could Face Gas Chamber

Hunt, 27, is charged with the murder and robbery of Levin, 42, who disappeared from his Beverly Hills home June 6, 1984. If convicted, he could face the gas chamber.

The prosecution contended that Hunt killed “in cold blood” for revenge and profit and even took a hand-written, seven-page list of things “to do” with him on the night of the murder, a list he inadvertently left behind.

“A lot of things the so-called boy genius did weren’t so well planned and were bungled in the execution,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Wapner.

Said Wapner: “What happens when he says, ‘I knocked off Ron Levin’ and then Levin shows up the next day? Joe Hunt didn’t have to worry about that, did he? He knew Levin wasn’t gonna show up. The reason he knew is because he and (his bodyguard) Jim Pittman killed him.”

The usually cool Hunt, showing uncharacteristic emotion after the jury retired and Judge Laurence Rittenband denied a prosecution motion that he be jailed until the verdict, smiled and hugged Barens as they left the courtroom. Hunt was clutching a tiny plant presented to him by an admirer at the end of the 2 1/2 months of testimony.

“Big guy, you’re still with us,” Barens told Hunt, who helped in legal research and in drafting the closing argument and jury instructions.

Packed Courtroom

The case has continually attracted a packed courtroom because the club included the sons of prominent Los Angeles families, such as witnesses Tom and Dave May, whose father headed the May Co. department store chain; Dean Karny, whose real estate developer father played a part in the founding of Israel, and Ben Dosti, a defendant in a second murder whose mother is a Los Angeles Times food writer.

The young men were drawn to the charismatic Hunt, a former classmate at the private Harvard School, and the vision he had of a corporation in which business and pleasure would blur. It would be governed by a kind of situational ethics Hunt called “paradox philosophy.

Earlier Thursday, after heated discussions in the judge’s chambers over jury instructions, Hunt told his attorneys to go for all or nothing. With the court’s approval, they deleted a second-degree murder option, ensuring that the jury must find him guilty or not guilty of first-degree murder.

In closing arguments, in which each side said the other’s witnesses lied, prosecutor Wapner pointed to Hunt and told the jury that “there’s only one reasonable conclusion you can reach: That that man is guilty of murder; that he killed Ron Levin in cold blood, robbed him. . . .”

62 Witnesses

To fail to convict him “just because the body has not been found” would literally be “allowing him to get away with murder,” Wapner said, pointing to the testimony of 62 prosecution witnesses.

According to the prosecution, Hunt killed Levin to get even with him for having duped him in an elaborate commodities trading hoax and to get $1.5 million to save his troubled business ventures.

Hunt then allegedly dumped the body in a remote canyon, where the remains of a second alleged victim of the BBC, former high-ranking Iranian official Hedayat Eslaminia, were later found.

Hunt and three members of the BBC, including the victim’s son, are scheduled to be tried in that slaying next fall.

But the defense claimed that Levin engineered his own disappearance to avoid prosecution for theft and fraud and that Hunt was only “posturing” when he took advantage of that disappearance by bragging to fellow club members that he and Pittman had “knocked off” Levin.

Not Dead, Defense Says

Two defense witnesses testified that they saw a man at a Tucson gas station last fall that they are almost certain was Levin.

“Whatever the seven pages may mean or not mean,” Barens said, “Levin’s not dead, plain and simple.”

Furthermore, the defense pointed to testimony by Hunt’s former girlfriend and her mother, who insisted that Hunt was home getting ready for bed, already brushing his teeth at the time of the alleged murder. However, Barens decided against putting Hunt on the stand, although he had promised the jury that he would.

Jurors were cautioned by the judge not to let that affect their decision, but Wapner hammered on the fact that the defense offered no explanation for the list they concede Hunt authored, except to hint that it might have been the makings of an extortion plan.

It contains such chilling items as “close blinds,” “tape mouth,” “handcuff,” “put gloves on,” “explain situation” and “kill dog.”

Never Explained

The defense never explained how the pages got in Levin’s house. In fact, the prosecution asserted that Hunt telephoned Levin’s stepfather to try to retrieve the papers.

Barens insisted: “If there really is a victim in this case, it’s Joe Hunt.”

“This is the real killer,” retorted Wapner. “It’s paradox philosophy. Ron Levin is not the victim. You just turn it around 180 degrees until Joe Hunt’s the victim.”