Tycoon denies murder
LOS ANGELES: Grisly autopsy photos flashed on the screen in the Los Angeles courtroom. One focused on the spot where a bullet tore through the back of Susan Berman’s scalp, another showed red splotches on her back — places where blood settled after she was shot inside her Los Angeles home in 2000.
At the defence table, Robert Durst, who is accused of killing his close friend, stared at the photographs without expression.
The New York real estate tycoon appeared in court yesterday for a preliminary hearing — a crucial step in the murder case prosecutors have built against him. At the end of the hearing, a judge will decide if there is enough evidence for the eccentric multimillionaire to stand trial in the slaying of Berman, a crime writer who was the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster.
Prosecutors argue that Durst (75), who has pleaded not guilty, killed to cover his tracks — he was afraid Berman would tell investigators what she knew about the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s wife, Kathleen, whose body has never been found.
Los Angeles prosecutors and Kathleen’s family believe Durst killed his wife but managed to evade justice. Durst’s defence team says New York police conducted a thorough missing person investigation years ago.
Key elements of the prosecution’s case had already emerged during pretrial hearings. A bombshell came last year when Durst’s longtime friend Nick Chavin testified that Durst had once confessed to killing Berman, their mutual friend.
‘‘I had to. It was her or me,’’ Durst said, according to Chavin’s testimony. ‘‘I had no choice.’’
The multimillionaire was arrested at a New Orleans hotel in connection with Berman’s slaying on March 15, 2015 — a day before the finale of The Jinx, a sixpart HBO documentary about Durst.
In the final episode, Durst is captured on a hot microphone muttering, ‘‘What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.’’ Some have interpreted the mumbled comment to be a confession to three killings — those of Berman and his wife, as well as the fatal shooting of Morris Black, a neighbour in Texas.
Durst was charged in the Texas case, but was acquitted in 2003. — TCA—