In 2000 Robert Durst is said to have killed his friend Susan Berman. The millionaire was arrested only in 2015, then the corona pandemic delayed the proceedings. Now Durst was testifying on his own behalf.
Los Angeles – In the murder trial of Robert Durst, the New York millionaire testified on Monday in court in Los Angeles on his own behalf. The 78-year-old was sitting in a wheelchair and looked frail, reported the Los Angeles Times.
Durst is accused of killing longtime friend Susan Berman in California in 2000. When asked by his defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, whether he killed Berman, Durst answered “no”. He did not know who did it, he said in the interview.
Durst gave lengthy answers to questions about his childhood and about his first meeting with Berman in the 1960s, reported the broadcaster CNN and other US media. The prosecutors have repeatedly objected to the extravagant representations.
Berman was found shot dead in her Los Angeles apartment in December 2000. She and Durst had known each other since college in the 1960s. The prosecution argues that the millionaire wanted to get her out of the way because Berman could have stood as a possible witness in the case of his missing wife.
The real estate heir has rejected the allegations several times, in November 2018 he pleaded “not guilty”. Durst was arrested in New Orleans in 2015 and extradited to California. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the process was interrupted in March last year and only started again three months ago. Durst’s defense lawyers had tried in vain to postpone the process for a long time or to stop it entirely, on the grounds that thirst was too weak because of cancer.
Thirst has been linked to three deaths: In early 1982, Durst’s wife Kathie disappeared without a trace, 18 years later Berman was shot, and in 2001 body parts of Durst’s neighbors in Texas were found. Durst went to court in the last case, but defended himself on the basis of self-defense and was acquitted of the murder charge. dpa
