INGLEWOOD, Calif.: A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst Friday of murdering his best friend 20 years ago in a case that took on new life after the New York real estate heir participated in a documentary that connected him to the slaying linked to his wifes 1982 disappearance.
Durst, 78, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Susan Berman, who was shot at point-blank range in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in December 2000 as she was prepared to tell police how she helped cover up his wifes killing.
Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Dursts longtime confidante who told friends she provided a phony alibi for him after his wife vanished.
Prosecutors painted a portrait of a rich narcissist who didnt think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way. They interlaced evidence of Bermans killing with Kathie Dursts suspected death and the 2001 killing of a tenant in a Texas flophouse where Robert Durst holed up while on the run from New York authorities.
Durst was arrested in 2015 while hiding out in a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the airing of the final episode of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, in which he was confronted with incriminating evidence and made what prosecutors said was a confession.
Durst could be heard muttering to himself on a live microphone in a bathroom: There it is. Youre caught.
Dursts decision to testify in his own defense hoping for a repeat of his acquittal in the Texas killing backfired as he was forced to admit lying under oath, made damning admissions and had his credibility destroyed when questioned by the prosecutor.
The conviction marks a victory for authorities who have sought to put Durst behind bars for murder in three states. Durst was never charged in the disappearance of his wife, who has never been found, and was acquitted of murder in Galveston, Texas, where he admitted dismembering the victims body and tossing it out to sea.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.: A Los Angeles jury reached a verdict Friday in the lengthy murder trial of New York real estate heir Robert Durst.
Jurors deliberated about 7 hours over three days before announcing they had reached a decision in the slaying of his best friend.
Durst, 78, faces life in prison if convicted of murder in the shooting death of his friend, Susan Berman, in her Los Angeles home in December 2000.
Prosecutors said Durst silenced Berman to prevent her from telling police what she knew about the disappearance and suspected killing of his wife in New York in 1982.
Durst testified he didnt kill his wife or Berman, though he said hed lie if he had done so.
Durst faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
He was acquitted of murder in the 2001 killing of a neighbor in Texas.
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