Drugs And Weapons Part of Suspect’s Life In Chasen Murder
A suspect in the killing of movie publicist Ronni Chasen who shot himself to death in a Hollywood apartment building served two sentences in prison for weapons and drugs.
The suspect — identified by several media outlets as 43-year-old Harold Martin Smith — committed suicide shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Harvey Apartments on Santa Monica Boulevard, where Beverly Hills police were serving a search warrant.
Former prosecutor Robin Sax told “Good Morning America” on Friday that her LAPD sources said Chasen’s West L.A. home had been burglarized.
“It wasn’t just your run of the mill, looking for cash kind of burglary, but it appears it was something that was very personal in nature,” she said.
According to Sax, stolen property included family heirlooms and other things that had emotional value.
Court documents were released Thursday showing Chasen had an estimated worth of more than $6 million. She reportedly left a lot of money to various charities and her niece Melissa, but she apparently intentionally snubbed her niece Jill Gatsby, leaving her $10.
Smith was described by a building resident as a “strange” man who loved his bicycle.
“He bragged all the time that he was the one who killed the publicist, and he was always talking about how he was going to get paid $10,000 for it,” Terri Gilpin said in a televised interview.
A resident of the Harvey Apartments, which are in the 5600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, near Western Avenue, who said his name was Pete but declined to give his last name, told a news video cameraman that Smith always had his bicycle with him, kept it in in his apartment and talked about it when he engaged in small talk with neighbors.
Police investigating Smith’s suicide collected a bicycle from his apartment as evidence, RMG News reported.
Chasen was shot five times in the chest at close range at about 12:30 a.m. Nov. 16 while she was driving her Mercedes-Benz sedan near Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, according to police accounts.
Chasen was driving to her condominium on Wilshire Boulevard near the grounds of the Los Angeles Country Club from a party after the premiere of the movie “Burlesque.” Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad two weeks ago said police had determined Chasen was the intended target of the shooting.
The Beverly Hills Police Department put out a statement Wednesday after the suicide shooting saying, “At approximately 6 p.m. on 12-01-10, the Los Angeles Police Department responded to a call of `Shots Fired’ in the 5600 block of Santa Monica Boulevard. When they arrived, a male subject (No Further Description) had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“He was later pronounced dead at the scene. At the time of the shooting, Beverly Hills Police Department detectives were on scene conducting a follow-up investigation. There were no other injuries related to the incidents. Due to the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, there are no further details available at this time.”
Los Angeles police have video from inside the lobby of the apartment building taken the night of the suicide, said Officer Bruce Borihanh of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“Detectives have reviewed the video and are confirming that this incident is a suicide due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head by the victim,” Borihanh said. “The weapon used, which was a handgun, has been recovered by the Robbery Homicide Division and is pending ballistic testing.”
Four law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that detectives considered Smith a suspect in Chasen’s killing.
The sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified because the investigation was ongoing, said detectives received information suggesting that Smith would be in his apartment on Wednesday evening.
Smith had been under surveillance for some time, the sources told The Times.
When police officers approached him in the lobby of the apartment building, he backed up and refused their orders to raise his hands, The Times reported.
Smith then pulled out a pistol and shot himself in the head, the sources said. He died at the scene.
Brandon Harrison told The Times that Smith described himself to other residents as an ex-convict who served two stints in state prison, the most recent for weapons and drug convictions. Smith said he would never go back to prison, according to Harrison.
“He told me several times, `If it ever came back down to me going to prison, I would die first,’ ” Harrison told The Times.
Smith moved into the building some months ago, Harrison said, but was evicted. Smith had returned to the building repeatedly and asked Harrison and others if police had been looking for him, according to The Times.
Harrison told The Times that Smith said he was supposed to be getting $10,000, either for a job he did or from a lawsuit.
Harrison said he had no way of corroborating Smith’s claims.
“The man was very strange,” Harrison told The Times.
The Harvey Apartments are home to a diverse mix of tenants who pay month- to-month rents, including a number of elderly people and others on fixed incomes, as well as younger people, The Times reported.
Gilpin, 46, said she stepped out of the elevator and saw blood splattered on the ground floor.
Gilpin said she had heard what sounded like a car backfiring.
“I really didn’t think anything of it because I was kind of drowsy,” Gilpin told The Times
Then a neighbor knocked on her door saying someone had been shot. Gilpin said the entryway had been cordoned off as Los Angeles police officers gathered near the door.
John Walsh, host of the Fox Broadcasting series “America’s Most Wanted,” told The Times a tip provided by the show helped lead police to Smith. A segment on the killing was featured on the show on Nov. 20.
“I believe they responded to a tip that we had passed on. BHPD reached out to us,” Walsh told The Times. “We have been working closely with Beverly Hills (police).”
The Beverly Hills Police Department did not immediately respond to a request from City News Service for a response to Walsh’s comments.
