Billionaire Boys Club Leader Denied New Trial

Saying the evidence that Joe Hunt committed murder is “overwhelming,” a judge Friday ruled that the charismatic founder of the Billionaire Boys Club is not entitled to a new trial.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger dismissed claims that Hunt did not kill con man Ron Levin and that Levin is still alive.

Although five witnesses testified at a specially ordered hearing that they saw Levin alive after he disappeared, Czuleger said those “sightings” either were not believable or did not “point unerringly to [Hunt’s] innocence.”

The judge’s ruling wraps up three years of fierce legal wrangling over the “sightings.” It also closes yet another chapter in the long-running saga of the Boys Club--a drama that is likely far from over.

Defense lawyer Michael Crain said Friday that Hunt can appeal further, and almost surely will. Calling Czuleger’s ruling an injustice, Crain said: “I don’t think the public ought to be satisfied with the way this case stands right now. There’s a bad smell about all this.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Imogene M.N. Katayama called the ruling the right one, saying that it “protects the public from a person I truly believe is dangerous.”

Founded in 1983 by Hunt, the club was an investment and social fraternity of young men from prominent Southern California families devoted to fast cars, trendy nightclubs and get-rich-quick schemes.

However, by 1984, the group’s schemes were foundering. According to prosecutors, Levin, 42, a skilled con man, duped Hunt in a high-stakes commodities swindle.

On the night of June 6, 1984, Hunt and his bodyguard, Jim Pittman, killed Levin, then hid the body in Angeles National Forest, according to prosecutors.

Levin’s body has never been found.

Hunt was arrested after several club members said he told them it was the “perfect crime.”

At Hunt’s trial in Santa Monica Superior Court, a key piece of evidence against him was a list--in his own handwriting, found at Levin’s Beverly Hills duplex--that contained such notes as “tape mouth,” “handcuff,” “put gloves on” and “kill dog.”

In April, 1987, Hunt was convicted of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Pittman was tried twice for murder; both times the jury deadlocked. He pleaded guilty in 1987 to a lesser charge--being an accessory to murder after the fact--and was sentenced to the 3 years and 6 months he had already served.

In 1993, Pittman said in a TV interview that he had been the triggerman. He boasted that double jeopardy barred another trial.

Meanwhile, Hunt was accused of murder in a separate case in which two other club members would ultimately be convicted--the kidnapping and killing of wealthy businessman Hedayat Eslaminia, 56. Eslaminia died in what prosecutors said was an extortion plot to salvage the club’s fortunes.

In 1992, a jury in the Eslaminia case deadlocked 8 to 4, favoring Hunt’s acquittal. Prosecutors later dismissed the charges.

In 1993, the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld Hunt’s conviction in the Levin case. Nonetheless, the court ordered a hearing to explore the defense claim that Levin was still alive. That hearing began in March before Czuleger.

A funeral home director said he saw Levin among the mourners at a 1985 funeral--but did not know it was Levin until he saw his picture in a newspaper two years later. Czuleger labeled that “not credible.”

A City News Service police reporter said he saw Levin in Westwood outside a movie theater in 1986. “Lacks all credibility,” Czuleger said.

The maitre d’ at a Beverly Hills restaurant said she saw Levin getting into a car in Brentwood in 1987. Her fleeting glance, Czuleger said, does “not inspire great faith.”

Another woman, Connie Gerrard, said she saw Levin on a rainy Christmas Day in a taverna on the Greek island of Mykonos. Her husband corroborated her account, and Czuleger said he has “every reason to think that she believes that she saw Levin alive in 1987.”

But the judge concluded that that was not enough to order a new trial. Czuleger said Hunt had the motive and opportunity as well as the animosity toward Levin to commit murder.

The evidence against Hunt “overcomes Gerrard’s evidence by great margin,” Czuleger said.