Murder Victim Reportedly Seen In The Oddest Places

LOS ANGELES - It was a rainy Christmas Day in 1987. At a small restaurant on the Greek island of Mykonos, a door blew open, letting in a bitter wind, the witness recalled. A familiar figure stepped inside.

"I thought to myself, `God, I know this person," Connie Gerrard testified.

It was Ron Levin, she said. No doubt about it.

But how could that be? Levin was supposed to be dead, murdered in 1984 by members of the Billionaire Boys Club, a group of ruthlessly ambitious young men who put their money into get-rich-quick schemes.

Like Elvis, though, Levin has been sighted all over, long after he supposedly died - at the movies, at a funeral, in the Greek islands, even driving a Mercedes in Los Angeles.

The Ron Levin sightings now form the basis of an effort to win a new trial for Joe Hunt, the 36-year-old former leader of the Billionaire Boys who was sentenced to life without parole for ordering Levin's 1984 murder.

At a hearing under way in Superior Court, Hunt's lawyers contend that Levin, a con man whose body was never found, faked his death and framed Hunt.

Prosecutors insist Hunt was convicted on firm evidence. They have refused to comment on the sightings but said in court papers that they will offer witnesses who will cast doubt on the tales.

At the hearing, granted by an appeals court, Hunt's lawyers have presented these witnesses' stories:

-- Gerrard said she recognized Levin in Mykonos because she was once introduced to him by her son-in-law. "When Mr. Levin saw me, his facial expression changed," she said. "I saw the recognition on his face and he kind of paled." She said he quickly left.

-- George Gerrard, her husband, corroborated the account, recalling that his wife turned to him and said, "That's Ron Levin." The husband said that after seeing photos of Levin, "I'm sure this is the man I saw in the restaurant."

-- Nadia Ghaleb, former maitre d' at a Beverly Hills restaurant, said that one morning in 1987, she was driving to work and spotted Levin getting into a brown Mercedes convertible on San Vicente Boulevard in the Brentwood section.

"I looked over and I clearly saw Ron Levin," she testified. "I said, `Oh my God, there's Ron Levin. I haven't seen that guy in a long time.' "

She said she knew Levin in the 1970s and '80s and remembered his distinctive looks: tall, prematurely silver-haired, immaculately groomed in trendy clothes and always exuding "a slightly suspicious air."

-- Robbie Robinson, a former police reporter for City News Service, testified he was waiting in line to see the movie "Crocodile Dundee" in the city's Westwood section in 1986 when Levin stepped from the crowd, walked up to him and said, "Hi, Robbie."

"This was surprising because I hadn't seen him in 2 1/2 years and I heard that he was missing," Robinson said.

-- Ivan Werner, a funeral director, identified Levin as a mourner at a Westwood funeral in 1987. He said the man had white hair, a close-cropped beard and was impeccably groomed. Werner said he saw Levin's picture in the paper several months later and recognized him as the mourner.

The witnesses eventually told their stories to police but did not testify at Hunt's 1987 trial.

Prosecutors contend Levin was killed after swindling Hunt in a $4 million commodities scam.

A Hunt cohort, James Pittman, who pleaded guilty in 1987 to being an accessory after the fact, said on TV's "A Current Affair" in 1993 that he shot Levin in front of Hunt and helped bury the body in the Angeles National Forest.

But no body has been found.

The evidence against Hunt included a seven-page "to do" list in his handwriting, found in Levin's apartment. It included phrases such as: "Tape mouth, close blinds, handcuff, put gloves on, kill dog."