Time Warner Executive’s Son Found Shot to Death in N.Y.

NEW YORK — The 31-year-old son of the chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc. was found shot to death in his Manhattan apartment after being bound and gagged, police said Tuesday. Police were called to Jonathan Levin’s residence in a five-story red brick walk-up not far from Lincoln Center after teachers at William H. Taft High School in the Bronx, where he taught English, became worried when he didn’t attend a weekend conference or Monday classes.

When a neighbor let officers into the one-bedroom apartment on Monday night, his body was discovered face down in a pool of blood. There were no signs of forced entry.

Later Tuesday, the Medical Examiner said that Levin, the son of Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head that penetrated his skull and brain. He was also stabbed in the chest.

The victim’s feet were tied with duct tape, detectives said, and Levin’s dog, a mixed breed named Julius, was found alive and shut in a bedroom.

Investigative sources said the victim, a popular teacher at a Bronx high school, was shot with a .22 caliber weapon.

“We are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Levin,” Time Warner said in a statement, noting the killing was “a time of profound grief . . . and devastating loss for the entire Levin family.”

Detectives, searching for a motive, said it was unclear when Levin was killed.

A hardware store clerk who knew Levin last saw him between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Levin’s girlfriend, who visited the apartment and spoke with detectives, said she had not seen him for about a week.

The grief at the high school where Levin taught was intense. Sometimes, students said, he would take people in his classes to restaurants in Manhattan for meals. “He was too good a teacher to have what happened to him,” said Antoinette Lindo, a student at the school.

Levin was hired as an English teacher at Taft in 1995 after receiving his master’s degree in education from New York University.