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Updated June 23, 2004, 12:46 p.m. ET

Kimes says he and mother killed 3 people

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Convicted killer Kenneth Kimes told jurors Tuesday that he and his mother cut a trail of murder and greed from the Bahamas to the United States, killing an Arab banker, a wealthy New York socialite and a Los Angeles businessman.

Kimes, who was convicted with his mother, Sante Kimes, in 2000 of killing New York socialite Irene Silverman, testified last week that he also killed Los Angeles businessman David Kazdin in 1998 at his mother's direction and dumped his body in a trash bin near Los Angeles International Airport.

But Tuesday was the first time he admitted to killing Syed Bilal Ahmed. The 55-year-old Bahrain native was working at a bank in the Bahamas in 1996 when he vanished shortly after a meeting in Nassau with Kimes and his mother. His body has never been found, and the two have long been reported to be suspects in his disappearance.

In chilling testimony, Kimes told how, at a rented house in the Bahamas, he gave Ahmed a drink laced with a date-rape drug that knocked the victim unconscious. He said he and his mother then drowned Ahmed in a bathtub and that he took the body by boat off the coast of the Bahamas, weighted it with an anchor and threw it overboard.


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Kimes, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his hair knotted in a ponytail, was called back to the witness stand Tuesday as a rebuttal witness to his mother, who proclaimed her innocence during rambling, often angry testimony on Monday.

After his mother also returned briefly to the stand, both sides rested their cases. The case was expected to go to the jury for deliberations today.

Kimes, who pleaded guilty in November to killing Kazdin, said he was making the admissions now to put the case behind him.

"I'm here to end things and I'm here not to face the death penalty," said Kimes, 29, who has been sentenced to life in prison without parole in exchange for his testimony. If convicted, his mother would also face life without parole. Both are serving lengthy prison sentences for the Silverman slaying.

As he testified, Kimes rarely looked at his elderly mother, who was seated in a wheelchair and sobbed and stared at him intently as he spoke.

Despite his damning words, she called out as he left the courtroom, "God bless you, Kenny. I'll fight for you until I die."

Kimes had denied killing Silverman when he and his mother were convicted of her murder in 2000, but he has admitted during this trial to strangling her.

Like Ahmed's, her body has never been found, and Kimes said Tuesday he stuffed it in a duffel bag, loaded it in a car, took it from Manhattan across the Hudson River to Hoboken, N.J., and dumped it in a trash bin.

Prosecutors say the duo killed Silverman in an effort to get the six-story Beaux Arts mansion in Manhattan that she owned.

In the Ahmed case, Kimes said his mother wanted the banker dead after he wouldn't help her secure a loan from his bank.

He testified earlier that she wanted Kazdin killed as well after he discovered she had fraudulently taken out a $280,000 loan by forging his signature so he shot him in the back of the head and dumped the body. He said his mother, a professional con woman, had a family motto: "No body, no crime."

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Duo gets life for businessman's death

Verdict

Judge lets Sante speak again

Son testifies he and mother killed three

Sante testifies she 'loved' victim

Kenneth Kimes testifies against his mother

Complaints of chest pain delay trial

Emotional outbursts mark second day of trial

Opening statements

Case background

Read the indictment

Case in pictures

In-depth




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