The man who turned in publicist Ronni Chasen’s murderer to the police will receive the $100,000 reward that the Palm Springs Film Festival offered to catch her killer, TheWrap has learned.
“We are prepared to pay the reward as soon as the Beverly Hills Police Department tells us this is the correct thing to do,” said Harold Matzner, chairman of the Palm Springs Film Festival. “The magic word is: the case is solved. My belief is we will give him the reward.”
Read more: Looks Like Ronni Chasen's Friends Were Right: Killing Was Random
Chasen, who was shot dead on her way home from a premiere on November 16 of last year, was a longtime publicist to the festival.
Her killing deepy shook the entertainment industry.
And the payment to the tipster has been held up by ongoing concern within the Hollywood publicity community that someone other than, or in addition to, Harold Martin Smith was responsible for her shooting death.
Smith shot himself dead on Dec. 1 as police approached him for questioning at the Harvey Apartment buildings on Santa Monica Boulevard.
The tipster, who lived in the same down-at-the-heels hotel as the ex-felon Smith, remains anonymous. He called in his tip to “America’s Most Wanted,” and police followed up from there.
Ballistics tests found that the gun Smith used to kill himself was the same used to kill Chasen, a beloved, veteran publicist.
The police detectives support paying the tipster for his information.
Nonetheless, there is vehement resistance to closing the case among Chasen’s friends.
Matzner met with BHPD on Tuesday and told them about the widespread skepticism in the Hollywood community.
“We discussed the fact that even though with definitive proof and some video from security cameras, that all these people have strong beliefs that this guy was hired to do it,” Matzner told TheWrap afterward.
Through most of the invetigation, police have said they believed Smith killed Chasen in a random act of violence -- most likely a desperate "robbery gone bad." Ballistics testing indicated a match between the gun that he used to shoot himself and the murder weapon.
They told Matzner on Tuesday that they had unearthed no evidence to suggest that anyone else was involved in the killing.
“They have video that shows him in this general area at this approximate time," Matzner noted. "They’ve got him in the area with film. That’s good enough for me.”
That video footage has not been released to the public.
Smith had a long history of criminal behavior, including burglary and drug possession in California and New York State.
But those who heard Smith talking about a hit at the time also heard him refer to $10,000 reward money. And that detail has never been explained.
