Robert Durst speaks out in his own trial



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A televised still image of Robert Durst appears on a screen as Assistant District Attorney John Lewin begins his opening statements during court proceedings in his murder trial at the Inglewood courthouse on May 18, Calif. .
A televised still image of Robert Durst appears on a screen as Assistant District Attorney John Lewin begins his opening statements during court proceedings in his murder trial at the Inglewood courthouse on May 18, Calif. . Al Seib / Pool / Getty Images

Real estate mogul Robert Durst speaks today after being charged with the murder of longtime friend Susan Berman.

Durst is believed to have killed Berman in an attempt to silence her over the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack, in 1982. However, Durst’s defense attorneys maintain his innocence in the Berman and McCormack cases. Previously, Durst was acquitted in 2003 for the murder and dismemberment of his neighbor, Morris Black, for self-defense.

Durst was arrested for the murder of Berman shortly after the release of a six-part HBO documentary series titled “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” in 2015.

From Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling, the series examines the disappearance of Durst’s wife, the murder of her friend, and the dismemberment of her neighbor. Durst voluntarily contributed to the documentary series and participated in interviews.

Dick DeGuerin, Durst’s attorney, told the Los Angeles Times he believed the arrest was deliberately timed for the finale of the HBO documentary.

“Do I think it’s a coincidence? Hell no, “he said.” There have been rumors and innuendos and speculation for a number of years, and now we’re going to have our day in court on this. “

According to Susan Criss, a former Texas District Court judge who presided over the 2003 trial for the murder of neighbor Durst, the show’s producers provided police with whatever evidence they gathered. Criss said it’s likely Durst’s statements on the show are part of the new case against him.

“This case has been in preparation for several years,” she said. “The investigation is ongoing. The fabrication of the cases has been underway. And I think that’s evidence that’s going to be used, and it’s going to be very powerful evidence. “

However, the evidence is not entirely new. Investigators had most of the information before the show aired, Criss said.

“They handed over the writing sample a few years ago, at least two or three years ago,” she told CNN. “They told me when they did. The police had it. The police didn’t just learn about it by watching TV. They got this.

However, what the documentary brings to the table is incriminating information coming directly from Durst himself.

On the last stroke of the final, Durst went to the bathroom, unaware that his microphone was still on.

“There he is. You’re taken,” he said. He then rambled on a series of seemingly unrelated sentences before saying, “He was right. I was wrong.” Then, Durst added, “What did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

While it’s not clear what these words mean or how they can be used against him, Criss told CNN that this was not the first time Durst had made statements that appeared to be incriminating himself while he was recorded.

“At our trial he was recorded on the phone talking to his wife and friends, making a lot of confessions, and the state never used that,” she said. “But he knew he had been taped, saying things that might implicate him in the murder we were trying. Earlier in these interviews, in a previous interview for this same program (“The Jinx”), there was a pause where he was caught practicing his testimony. And so he realized he knew he had a mic on. This is the third time he’s made this mistake.

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