Federal prosecutors for the first time have publicly linked the recent slaying of a woman in a Century City parking garage to her estranged husband, revealing in court Monday that the SUV allegedly used by the killer had been rented using the husband's credit card.
The credit card was seized from the wallet of James Fayed during a recent search of his Moorpark ranch house, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Aveis. The license plate of the vehicle was caught on security surveillance cameras and traced to an Avis rental car agency near Fayed's Camarillo business, he said.
Aveis' comments came as Fayed appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to face felony charges of conducting unlicensed money transactions through the international gold trading company he ran with his wife, Pamela. Fayed, 45, was arrested Friday evening and remains in federal custody.
During the hearing, Aveis told U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky that Fayed presented a danger to the community, was a flight risk and should not be allowed to post bail.
But Zarefsky said the evidence that Fayed had attempted to obstruct justice by killing his wife so she wouldn't testify against him in the federal case was "pretty thin."
He ordered the defendant released on $500,000 bond but gave prosecutors until Wednesday to appeal his decision.
Fayed, dressed in a brown T-shirt and plaid pajama-style pants, sat expressionless as the prosecutor argued his case, recounting a meeting this summer between Fayed and his wife, who were in the midst of a bitter divorce.
Aveis said Fayed told his wife, "I could have you killed and my hands would be clean." He said the defendant then made a motion as if he were wiping his hands, according to an account Pamela Fayed gave a friend.
In addition to the credit card, authorities seized $60,000, some of it sealed in plastic wrap, and $3 million in gold bullion at Fayed's house, Aveis said. Twenty-five weapons including assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition were also seized, he said.
Though Fayed has not been charged in his wife's slaying, Aveis said he had a motive to have her killed -- "so that she could not testify against him" in the criminal case at issue in Monday's hearing.
Los Angeles Police Capt. Bill Eaton said Monday that Fayed has not been named as a suspect in his wife's death.
Fayed's attorney, Mark Werksman, told Zarefsky that the prosecutor's claims were based on third-hand information from a rookie FBI agent who had only recently been briefed on the case.
