[5] Chambers grew up attending fancy prep schools in New York City's wealthy Upper East Side.
Though not affluent, Chambers' mother worked to pay for his childhood attendance at the prestigious York Preparatory School on the Upper East Side, though scholarships assisted in this.
[4] Chambers was accepted by Boston University, but was asked to leave after one semester[4][6] for reasons which included the use of a stolen credit card.
Unable to hold a job, Chambers was issued a summons for disorderly conduct one night after leaving Dorrian's Red Hand, a bar located at 300 East 84th Street in Manhattan.
[3] A bicyclist found Levin's half-naked corpse on August 26, 1986, at about 6:15 a.m.,[8] in Central Park near Fifth Avenue and 83rd Street,[4] behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
[8][11] Deep red marks were across her neck, her left eye was swollen, and her fingernails were bruised, suggesting that in her final moments she had tried to pull down whatever had been strangling her.
He was defended by Jack Litman, who had previously used the temporary insanity defense on behalf of Richard Herrin for the murder of Yale University student Bonnie Garland.
Litman claimed Levin was promiscuous, saying she had a sex diary and that her sexual history was admissible as evidence, prompting headlines such as "How Jennifer Courted Death" in New York's Daily News.
[8] Alandy testified on February 9 that pinpoint hemorrhages observed in the soft tissue around Levin's eyes could be caused by a constriction of the blood vessels in the neck.
[13] When Chambers' attorney, Jack Litman, suggested on cross-examination that Chambers could have choked Levin in an arm lock that could cause death in seconds, and that the marks on her neck could have been made when she quickly moved her head from side to side in a struggle for air, Alandy stated that while such an occurrence was possible, this did not occur in Levin's case.
[21] When the jury failed to reach a verdict after nine days of deliberation, the prosecution and Chambers agreed to a plea bargain.
The piece, subsequently titled "Christmas: Present", appeared in the book Undoing Time: American Prisoners in Their Own Words.
[22] Written while Chambers was incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York, the essay is an entry from one of his journals, which he calls "a record of the meaningless hope and frightening losses of a person I don't even know.
[24] The same day, Dateline NBC interviewed Chambers, who continued to claim that he strangled Levin accidentally in an attempt to stop her from hurting him during rough sex.
[26] In July 2005, Chambers pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge and on August 29 was given a reduced sentence of 90 days in jail and fined $200 for a license violation.
[30]Commenting on his new arrest, former Assistant District Attorney Linda Fairstein, who had prosecuted Chambers for Levin's death, said: Doesn't surprise me.