Southeast : Heiress’ Stolen Jewels Were Sold for $62,000

Doris Duke’s jewelry may have been worth a small fortune, but her deathbed nurse got only $62,000 when she sold off some of the heiress’s favorite pieces at Beverly Hills jewelry stores, a Los Angeles police detective revealed Thursday.

At a preliminary hearing providing the most detailed account yet of the theft case against the nurse, Detective Tom Donnelly told a Santa Monica judge that 28-year-old Tammy Payette began trying to sell off some of Duke’s jewelry--including three pearl necklaces with diamond clasps--even before the billionaire’s death Oct. 28, 1993.

But after telling local jewelers that the pieces were from “her great aunt’s estate,” Payette only received $62,000 and a ruby ring--that in trade for one of the necklaces, Donnelly said. A jeweler later told police that without counting the pearls, the pieces were worth about $200,000.

Payette splashed into the news this year when she claimed that Duke, 80, was murdered with overdoses of morphine, an allegation that threw the tobacco heiress’s $1.2 billion estate into turmoil.

But the nurse was later jailed in lieu of $1 million bail, facing felony counts alleging that she helped herself to valuables--ranging from a chinchilla stole to sterling silver corn holders--while providing home care to Duke and six other patients from 1993 to this year.