Robert Durst will face life in jail with out parole after being discovered responsible final month for first-degree homicide.
On Thursday, Durst, 78, was convicted by a jury in September for taking pictures Susan Berman, 55, in her home in 2000 in Beverly Hills. She was believed to be getting ready to talk to investigators in regards to the disappearance of Durst’s first spouse Kathleen McCormack Durst. McCormack Durst had disappeared and was final seen in 1982.
Both sides delivered their closing arguments on Thursday. The trial started in early 2020 proper earlier than the pandemic and was paused after two weeks. It resumed in May 2021 with the identical jury.
Durst was the main focus of the six-part HBO documentary “The Jinx,” which coated the three accusations of homicide for which he was by no means convicted. Toward the tip of the sequence, Durst is proven going into a rest room and made feedback with out realizing he was being recorded with a mic nonetheless on. It appeared to be a confession.
The “bathroom confession” featured within the documentary proves his guilt in an impartial approach, Judge Mark Windham stated on Thursday.
The New York actual property inheritor has been on trial for months main as much as Thursday’s sentencing. He denied killing each ladies, saying that he discovered Berman on her bed room ground with a gunshot to her head. Her physique was by no means discovered, and no suspect was ever charged for her demise. During cross-examination, prosecutors pushed Durst to admit he would perjure himself if he had killed them.
Durst has been sick in recent times, having bladder most cancers and present process a number of surgical procedures. He had a shunt inserted into his head to assist with stress on his mind. Durst was additionally in quarantine in jail as a consequence of COVID measures throughout this time.
Jurors agreed this crime met “special circumstances” below California legislation, which permits for a sentence to life with out parole for the homicide of a witness to against the law. There is a moratorium on the demise penalty within the state.
In 2003, Durst confessed to police that he killed his neighbor Morris Black again in Galveston, Texas, two years prior. He stated he shot the person and dismembered him in an try to steal his identification and escape inquiries into his spouse’s homicide, in keeping with prosecutors. During the testimony, nevertheless, Durst known as it self-defense. He was finally acquitted.