Robert Durst: real estate mogul accused of killing his close friend speaks out

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Durst, once again, denied killing Berman and said he didn’t know who killed her.

During the first hour and a half of testimony, Durst gave long and drawn-out answers when asked about his mother’s death, his relationship with his father, and how he met Berman in the late years. 1960. Prosecutors often objected and asked the judge not to allow Durst to respond in “narrative” form.

Durst, 78 and frail, was scheduled to testify last week, but the trial was adjourned Thursday after someone in the courtroom tested positive for Covid-19, the court said in a statement. Judge Mark Windham has determined that the trial will resume on Monday with continued cross-examination of memory expert Dr Elizabeth Loftus.

Durst is charged with first degree murder in Berman’s death in 2000 at her Beverly Hills home hours before she was about to speak to investigators about the mysterious disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, who was last seen in 1982.

Durst has long denied killing Berman, and his lawyer said he panicked and fled after finding his body. He pleaded not guilty.

The trial began early last year but was suspended in March 2020 after just a few days due to the coronavirus pandemic. It finally resumed in May and prosecutors completed their case last week after several months of testimony.

Durst’s awaited testimony is just the latest chapter in an unusual life story that reached mass audiences through the miniseries “The Jinx” in 2015.

He was arrested in New Orleans the day before the show’s last episode, making the finale a TV staple. And in his final moments, Durst went into the bathroom, seemingly not realizing his microphone was still on, and made a series of comments that turned infamous.

“This is it. You’re caught,” he said in a series of seemingly unrelated sentences. ” He was right. I was wrong.

Real estate mogul Robert Durst admits to writing note showing location of body, lawyer says

” What did I do ? I killed them all, of course.

The comments were taken to the audience as a mind-boggling confession. However, transcripts of the audio recording in court revealed that the quotes had been pasted and edited to be in a different order and context, The New York Times reported.

Durst’s health has deteriorated since then, and he looks fragile in court. He is slim, hunched over and in a wheelchair and speaks in a low voice.

Earlier this week, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Windham rejected Durst’s latest offer to delay or end the trial due to his health concerns. Durst has bladder cancer and has had several surgeries, including inserting a shunt into his head to relieve pressure on his brain.

“I am worried about his health,” said his longtime lawyer Dick DeGuerin. “I worry about his ability to survive and his ability to understand complex issues, both live and on cross-examination.”

What to expect from his testimony

Testifying in one’s own defense is rare for those accused of murder, but the tactic worked for Durst in a previous murder trial.

In 2003, an animated Durst testified that he shot a neighbor, Morris Black, in self-defense and admitted that he cut his body up with surgical precision and threw it into Galveston Bay. He said he did so in a panic, while prosecutors said he wanted to steal the man’s identity and escape the investigation into his wife’s disappearance.

The Texas murder trial revealed more about Durst’s often eccentric behavior, including how he was posing as a silent woman while in hiding in Galveston.

The Texas jury accepted Durst’s self-defense claim, acquitting him of the murder.

Durst’s testimony is expected to last several days, and legal analysts warn he needs to be careful with what he says.

His testimony “could open the door to all types of past misconduct that he might be questioned about,” said Joey Jackson, CNN legal analyst. “If the jury thinks he’s lying, is evasive or unsympathetic, a conviction is assured.”

Medical issues could also come into play.

“There is still a small chance of eliciting sympathy from a member of the jury,” said Stan Goldman, professor at Loyola Law School.

But Jackson thinks Durst needs to be careful with how jurors view his medical issues. “If he testifies and fakes illness or disability, the jury will see right through it,” Jackson said.

In addition, Judge Windham could further delay the trial due to Durst’s poor health, Goldman said.

“That’s if the judge changes his mind and determines that Durst’s condition renders him unfit to testify at this time or for the foreseeable future,” Goldman said.

How we got here

Prosecutors allege Durst shot Berman in the head from behind to prevent him from incriminating him in Kathleen Durst’s disappearance in 1982. They say Durst confided in Berman that he killed his wife and that she had helped him cover his tracks.

Durst will likely be cross-examined by Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney John Lewin, who relentlessly pursues Durst over Berman’s murder.

Lewin and Durst clashed in a New Orleans jail cell in 2015 after Durst agreed to an interview that would last three hours, without his lawyers present, making potentially damaging claims and lamenting his many physical ailments.

“My life expectancy is around five years,” the eccentric millionaire said in the 2015 interview.

There is little physical evidence in the unsolved death of Berman at nearly 20 years old. There are no eyewitnesses and no murder weapon.

A key piece of evidence is the so-called “corpse note,” an encrypted letter sent to the police with Berman’s address and the word “corpse” in all caps that led detectives to his body.

In “The Jinx”, Durst said the letter could only have been sent by Berman’s killer. Defense attorneys have previously denied that Durst wrote the note and tried to exclude handwriting evidence on it from the trial.

But in a court file late last year, lawyers for the real estate mogul backed down and admitted that Durst made the anonymous note. “It doesn’t change the fact that Bob Durst didn’t kill Susan Berman,” DeGuerin said at the time.

Also in the documentary, the filmmakers confronted Durst with another letter he once sent to Berman, with almost identical handwriting to the “corpse” note. In both cases, Beverly Hills was misspelled as “BEVERLEY”.

Lewin, in the interview with Durst, asked him, “Why do you think the killer would have left a note?”

“I’m going to stay away from this,” Durst replied.

CNN’s Augie Martin, Cheri Mossburg, Ray Sanchez and Amir Vera contributed to this reporting.

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