New York real estate heir and suspected serial killer Robert Durst took the stand on Monday in a murder trial pending before Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Durst, 78, was initially scheduled to testify on Aug. 6, but Superior Court Judge Mark E. Windham sent the trial to recess early on Friday after learning that an individual present in the courtroom had been experiencing COVID-19 symptoms for several days. That person was not a member of either trial team, the court told City News Service.
Durst is accused of fatally shooting a friend, Susan Berman, in her Benedict Canyon home on Christmas Eve in 2000. Berman reportedly died shortly before she was to be interviewed by investigators about the mysterious disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, in 1982.
Durst has pleaded not guilty to Berman’s murder, and insists he had no involvement in his first wife’s disappearance.
Painting a picture of his relationship with the victim, Durst testified to his defense attorney that he met Berman when the two were students at UCLA. They had a lot in common, he added, having both had privileged yet difficult upbringings. Both lost parents during childhood.
Despite the closeness of their relationship, Durst said he and Berman were never romantically involved.
When asked point-blank whether he shot and killed his friend, Durst replied with an unequivocal “no.”
Durst rose to infamy by way of his participation in a 2015 HBO docuseries, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” In the finale, Durst entered a bathroom, and apparently not realizing his microphone was still on, seemed to confess to multiple murders.
“There it is, you’re caught,” he said. “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
Audiences were stunned by the confession; though The New York Times has since reported that some of the most damning quotes may have been spliced by the series’ editors, thereby manipulating context.
Durst was arrested in New Orleans in 2015, the night before the show’s finale aired.
His health has deteriorated in the years since. He appeared frail in court on Monday, seated in a wheelchair and struggling to speak at full volume. Durst reportedly has badder cancer and has undergone several surgical procedures, including the insertion of a device in his skull to relieve pressure on the brain.
Though defense attorneys rarely advise murder defendants to testify at their own trials, it’s a strategem that has worked for Durst in the past. In Texas in 2003, Durst was tried for the fatal shooting of a neighbor, Morris Black, which he claimed was in self defense.
Durst admitted to cutting up Black’s body after shooting him and dumping it in the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed he did so due to panic; though prosecutors alleged Durst intended to steal Black’s identity so as to escape scrutiny over the disappearance of his wife.
Assuming false identities would not be alien territory for Durst. He reportedly relocated to Texas from New York in 2001 to avoid publicity around his missing wife. He was found living in a $300-a-month boarding house in disguise as a mute woman.
The Texas jury bought Durst’s story of self defense, and acquitted him of murder. He remained at large until his 2015 arrest in Louisiana.
Durst’s testimony in the Berman case is ongoing. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.