Robert Heidstra, a car detailer who worked in the Brentwood and Beverly Hills area, was called as a defense witness to challenge the prosecution's timeline of the murders. Living near Bundy Drive, he testified about what he observed and heard on the night of the killings, and his account became contentious enough that the defense treated him as something of a star witness. His cross-examination by Christopher Darden stretched across multiple rounds and grew heated — a question about whether a voice he heard sounded "black" triggered explosive sidebars, personal confrontations between attorneys, and the dismissal of the jury, deepening the racial tensions that pervaded the trial.