The Nation - News from March 27, 1988

Robert Chambers, the 21-year-old New Yorker who interrupted jury deliberations to admit he killed 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in Central Park, went to jail still insisting that the strangling was accidental. Meanwhile, prosecutor Linda Fairstein told United Press International that if Chambers, who was tried for second-degree murder, had not agreed to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter she would have added fraud and theft to the charges against him. She said that during jury selection in October, Chambers forged $7,000 in checks to buy cocaine, and that he also was suspected of involvement in credit card fraud in 1985. Chambers’ attorney, Jack Litman, denied the new allegations. Chambers, a former drug addict, abruptly pleaded guilty Friday to a charge of first-degree manslaughter on the ninth day of deliberations in his sensational, three-month murder trial.