LOS ANGELES -- The eldest son of Texas real estate and entertainment tycoon Henry Harrison Kyle admitted at his father's funeral that he killed him during a gunfight in their Bel-Air mansion last July, court documents disclosed Wednesday.
The alleged confession was revealed at the arraignment of Henry Harrison Kyle Jr. The 20-year-old suspect did not enter a plea because his attorneys said they needed more time to study the first-degree murder indictment returned by the county grand jury last month.
Transcripts of the grand jury proceedings claim the younger Kyle, known as Rick, told his half-sister Jackie Lynn Phillips, and her fiance, Henry Miller III, immediately after the funeral that there was something he wanted to tell them.
'Rickey said that, 'I have to tell both of you: I shot him,'' Miller testified.
'He just said that -- he just confessed that he shot him.'
Miller said Kyle claimed he awakened his sleeping 60-year-old father early the morning of July 22 and told him there was a prowler in the house, and said they looked around the residence together.
Miller said Rick then told him 'that when Mr. Kyle lowered his gun or was not so ready for an intruder, that (Rick) shot him and hit him once and missed, I guess, on the second shot; and that Mr. Kyle, on his way down, got off three or four rounds and shot (Rick) through the elbow.'
The two witnesses said Kyle also told them that he had thrown his gun, a .32-caliber Rohm revolver, into the bushes outside the mansion, and asked them to retrieve the gun. They said they refused.
Prosecutor Lewis Watnick said Kyle was implicated not only by his statements but also by the murder weapon, which police had already recovered, and by tests taken at the murder scene.
He said powder burns on the victim's body showed he was shot from a distance of only 'one inch to five inches.'
He also said the son had fired at least two shots and then tried to flee, and noted, 'Henry emptied his gun (at his son) as he was dying.'
'We have a very substantial case,' Watnick added. 'We have some compelling evidence that the defendant did kill his father.'
Superior Court Judge Ronald George released Kyle on $100,000 bail and ordered him to return to court Oct. 4 to enter his plea. Watnick said Kyle was given bail because he had waived extradition from Texas and surrendered voluntarily.
Kyle earlier told police that his father -- who built his fortune by investing in real estate, coal mines, oil-drilling equipment and banks, and who recently became president of the Four Star International movie and TV production company -- was shot by an intruder. He said the attacker also shot him in the elbow.
Michael Gibson, one of four defense attorneys, predicted his client will be found not guilty 'when all the facts are brought out.'
Authorities have not revealed the motive for the slaying, but a conspiracy investigation was begun after homicide detectives found 'significant' alterations in a new will being prepared for the victim.
The old will, dated 1978 and submitted to probate in Dallas, left Kyle's multi-million dollar fortune to his two sons, Rick and Scott, 19.
Settlement of the action was delayed indefinitely when Kyle's widow, who was not named in the will, filed a court petition indicating she will contest the document. Kyle married Vicki Yang Tu, a real estate developer and member of a wealthy Taiwan family, last November.
He had recently purchased the Mediterranean-style mansion where he was killed and was renovating it to serve as his Hollywood base. He lived at the home, near the UCLA campus, with his sons and two men who were working on the residence.
