The topic of HBO's hit docuseries 'The Jinx' was convicted of killing his greatest buddy and sentenced to a life in jail.
Robert Durst, the rich New York actual property inheritor and failed fugitive dogged for many years with suspicion within the disappearance and deaths of these round him earlier than he was convicted final 12 months of killing his greatest buddy, has died. He was 78.
Durst died of pure causes Monday in a hospital outdoors the California jail the place he was serving a life sentence, in accordance with the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Durst had been held in a hospital lockup in Stockton as a consequence of a litany of illnesses.
Durst was convicted in September of taking pictures Susan Berman at point-blank vary at her Los Angeles house in 2000. He was sentenced Oct. 14 to life in jail with out parole.
Durst had lengthy been suspected of killing his spouse, Kathie, who went lacking in New York 1982 and was declared legally lifeless many years later.
However solely after Los Angeles prosecutors proved he silenced Berman earlier than she might inform police she helped him cowl up Kathie’s killing was Durst indicted by a New York grand jury in November for second-degree homicide in his spouse’s demise.
Westchester County prosecutors, who had been attempting to get Durst transferred there to face the cost, stated they deliberate to disclose new particulars in regards to the case in coming days.
“After 40 years spent looking for justice for her demise, I understand how upsetting this information have to be for Kathleen Durst’s household,” District Legal professional Miriam Rocah stated in a press release. “We had hoped to permit them the chance to see Mr. Durst lastly face expenses for Kathleen’s homicide as a result of we all know that each one households by no means cease wanting closure, justice and accountability.”
Los Angeles prosecutors additionally informed jurors Durst acquired away with homicide in Texas after taking pictures a person who found his identification when he was hiding out in Galveston after Berman’s killing. Durst was acquitted of homicide in that case in 2003, after testifying he shot the person as they struggled for a gun.
Los Angeles Deputy District Legal professional John Lewin stated jurors informed him after the decision that they believed Durst had killed his spouse and murdered Morris Black in Texas.
Durst mentioned the instances and made a number of damning statements together with a surprising confession throughout an unguarded second within the six-part HBO documentary collection The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
The present made his identify recognized to a brand new technology and introduced renewed scrutiny and suspicion from authorities.
The night time earlier than the ultimate episode aired, Durst was arrested in Berman’s killing whereas hiding out below an alias in a New Orleans resort, the place he was caught with a gun, greater than $40,000 money and a head-to-shoulders latex masks.
The finale’s climax got here with him mumbling to himself in a toilet whereas nonetheless carrying sizzling mic saying: “You’re caught! What the hell did I do? Killed all of them, after all.”
The quotes have been later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic impact however the manufacturing — accomplished with Durst’s cooperation towards the recommendation from his lawyer and pals — dredged up new proof together with an envelope that related Durst to the scene of Berman’s killing in addition to incriminating statements he made.
Police had obtained a notice directing them to Berman’s house with solely the phrase “CADAVER” written in block letters.
In interviews given between 2010 and 2015, Durst informed the makers of The Jinx that he didn’t write the notice, however whoever did had killed her.
“You’re writing a notice to the police that solely the killer might have written,” Durst stated.
His protection attorneys conceded within the run-up to trial that Durst had written the notice, and prosecutors stated it amounted to a confession.
Clips from The Jinx, and from the 2010 film All Good Issues wherein Ryan Gosling performed a fictionalized model of Durst, had starring roles at trial.
As did Durst himself. His attorneys once more took the danger of placing him on the stand for what turned out to be about three weeks of testimony. It didn’t work because it had in Texas.
Below devastating cross-examination by prosecutor Lewin, Durst admitted he lied below oath prior to now and would do it once more to get out of bother.
“‘Did you kill Susan Berman?’ is strictly a hypothetical,” Durst stated from the stand. “I didn't kill Susan Berman. But when I had, I'd lie about it.”
The jury promptly returned a responsible verdict.
It lengthy appeared he would keep away from any such convictions.
Durst went on the run in late 2000 after New York authorities reopened an investigation into his spouse’s disappearance, renting a modest house in Galveston and disguising himself as a mute lady.
In 2001, the physique elements of a neighbor, Black, started washing up in Galveston Bay.
Arrested within the killing, Durst jumped bail. He was arrested for shoplifting a sandwich six weeks later in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the place he had gone to varsity. Police discovered $37,000 money and two handguns in his automobile.
He would testify that Black had pulled a gun on him and died when the weapon went off throughout a wrestle. He informed jurors intimately how he purchased instruments and dismembered and disposed of Black’s physique. Whereas he was cleared of homicide, he pleaded responsible to violating his bail, and to proof tampering for the dismemberment. He served three years in jail.
Durst had bladder most cancers and his well being deteriorated through the Berman trial. He was escorted into courtroom in a wheelchair carrying jail apparel every day as a result of his attorneys stated he was unable to vary right into a go well with. However the choose declined additional delays after a 14-month pause through the coronavirus pandemic.
Legal professional Dick DeGuerin stated Durst was “very, very sick” at his sentencing listening to and it was the worst he regarded within the 20 years he spent representing him.
Durst entered the courtroom with wide-eyed vacant stare. Close to the top of the listening to after Berman’s family members informed the choose that her demise upended their lives, Durst coughed onerous and appeared to wrestle to breathe. His chest heaved and he pulled his masks down under his mouth and commenced to gulp for air.
He was hospitalized two days later with COVID-19 and DeGuerin stated he was on a ventilator. However Durst apparently recovered and was transferred to state jail the place mug photographs confirmed no signal of a ventilator.
The son of actual property magnate Seymour Durst, Robert Durst was born April 12, 1943, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He would later say that at age 7, he witnessed his mom’s demise in a fall from their house.
He graduated with an economics diploma in 1965 from Lehigh College, the place he performed lacrosse. He entered a doctoral program on the College of California, Los Angeles, the place he met Berman, however dropped out and returned to New York in 1969.
He grew to become a developer within the household enterprise, however his father handed him over to make his youthful brother, and rival, Douglas the pinnacle of the Durst Group in 1992.
Douglas Durst testified at trial that he feared his brother needed to kill him.
“Bob lived a tragic, painful and tragic life,” he stated in a press release Monday. “We hope his demise brings some closure to these he harm.”
In 1971, Robert Durst met Kathie McCormack, and the 2 married on his thirtieth birthday in 1973.
In January 1982, his spouse was a pupil in her ultimate 12 months at medical college when she disappeared. She had proven up unexpectedly at a buddy’s feast in Newtown, Connecticut, then left after a name from her husband to return to their house in South Salem, New York.
Robert Durst informed police he final noticed her when he put her on a practice to remain at their house in Manhattan as a result of she had lessons the following day.
Prosecutors stated Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, posed as Kathie Durst to name Albert Einstein School of Medication the following morning to say she was sick and wouldn’t be at her hospital rotation. The decision supplied an alibi for Robert Durst as a result of it made it seem his spouse made it safely to Manhattan after he noticed her.
He would divorce her eight years later, claiming spousal abandonment, and in 2017, at her household’s request, she was declared legally lifeless.
Kathie McCormack Durst’s household stated they plan to offer an replace on Jan. 31 — the fortieth anniversary of her disappearance — into an investigation of others who helped cowl up her killing, lawyer Robert Abrams stated.
Robert Durst is survived by his second spouse Debrah Charatan, whom he married in 2000. He had no kids.
Below California regulation, a conviction is vacated if a defendant dies whereas the case is below attraction, stated Laurie Levenson, a regulation professor at Loyola Legislation College.
Legal professional Chip Lewis stated Durst had appealed.