Beverly Hills, CA—In fairness to the Beverly Hills police they don’t have lots of homicides they can use to hone their skills. They must rely on help they ask for from other agencies. First the BHPD thought that ex-con, Harold Smith’s gun was not involved in the Chasen killing. Today, they’ve changed their story saying that it was the same gun.
It seems on its face that Smith was not a hit man but a habitual criminal that among other crimes served time for robbing two Beverly Hills women in the past. Police now think that Smith shot Chasen from his bicycle in a botched robbery. That is their best guess right now until they finish their investigation.
I have problems with that theory in that it looks like Smith shot Chasen through her closed passenger door window rather than threaten or rob her. I’m not buying the robbery angle.
Smith strikes me as an irrational, dysfunctional and violent criminal. He’d be a really poor choice as a hired hit man. Smith may have had an accomplice and ruling out that angle at this point is as premature as establishing the motive with no more than a guess.
The investigation will continue. Murder investigations are about circumstantial, physical, and eye-witness evidence along with confessions and the ruling out of Reasonable Doubt.
Is Ronni's murder solved again?
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that doesn't add up is that Harold Smith before he committed suicide, claimed he killed Ms. Chasen and the Beverly Hills police initially doubted it; but now confirm it today Dec 8th 2010.
Harold Smith also claimed he was waiting for a $10,000 payoff. If Harold was not lying about the killing, was he lying about the payoff, or was he again telling the truth?
Preliminary ballistics tests on the firearm Harold Martin Smith used to commit suicide tie the gun to the Nov. 16 shooting of publicist Ronni Chasen, said Sgt. Michael Publicker, an investigator with the Beverly Hills Police Department.There is still the unanswered question of where ex-con Harold obtained the murder weapon. Doubtful it was a legitimate purchase so it must have been stolen.
The registration number will show if it was stolen from a gun shop or maybe traded in a drug deal. If the weapon was sold to Harold, then whoever sold it to him would face criminal charges.
You've mentioned it's rare for prints to be obtained off of a firearm. What about ballistics matching? Is that a lot less accurate than the TV would have us believe?
ReplyDeleteBallistic firearm identification science can be easy or impossible. In the case of revolvers there are only the expended projectiles. Soft lead that had been sent into flesh, bones and heavy clothing are often damaged beyond recognition. This is especially true for smaller caliber high velocity ammunition.
ReplyDeleteSlower moving larger bullets suffer less damage and are more easily identified.
With semi-automatic firearms examiners get a second bite at the apple, so to speak. They have the projectiles to compare but also the ejected shell casings that also have their own characteristics.
Some criminals will recover all the empty casings before the leave the scene or they can employ something called a brass catcher that makes searching for the empty brass unnecessary.
Test result possibilities are that the items submitted for identification are:
1. Inconsistent and excluded as having been fired from the weapon
2. Consistent with being fired from the weapon
3. Consistent with and having been fired by the same weapon.
It is much easier to rule projectiles and shell casings out than make a match that is consistent to a scientific certainty as having been fired by the same gun.
Because of the delay and confusion in the Chasen case I suspect that there were enough similarities in the comparisons but would not be surprised to know that the certainty is significantly less to 100%.
Remember they don’t have to prove to a jury in any courtroom that this was in fact the same gun.
I don’t know the make or model of the gun nor the caliber and type of ammunition used in the Chasen murder or the Smith suicide.
Could it be that there were other bad guys to whom Bro owed tons of dough (drugs & gambling & cash loans), who wanted to be paid their cash!!! NOW!!
ReplyDeleteA hit on Sis would definitely send a message to Bro to pay up, with the successful hit on Sis revealing very different form of gambling & extortion...
As a fan of "Cellular" sounds like something Bro could have written, a hit on Sis- as a wake up call to pay now.
I really hope not - but you never know...