Scared to death
Witnesses fear Durst
LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors on Wednesday said witnesses are terrified of Robert Durst and frightened they might disappear before testifying against the eccentric killer real-estate scion.
In a hearing to sort out evidence that can be used against Durst — charged with the 2000 murder of pal Susan Berman out of fear she suspected he murdered his wife, Kathie — LA County Deputy DA John Lewin asked Judge Mark Windham if prosecutors could get testimony and cross-examination of “several” witnesses before the trial even begins.
“Mr. Durst is accused of the murder of one witness, he has admitted to causing the death of a second individual who we believe was killed because he was a witness as well. And the special circumstance of this case is that he murdered his wife,” Lewin said.
“Two of those three individuals, the people are alleging, were murdered because they were witnesses.”
Lewin added: “Mr. Durst has something in the order of $100 million. The witnesses in this case realistically, understandably are concerned about their safety.”
Durst has admitted killing neighbor Morris Black in Texas in 2001 and claimed self-defense — which worked, as jurors acquitted him of murder, but convicted him of illegally disposing of Black’s dismembered body.
Wife Kathie Durst vanished without a trace in 1982, although her husband has never been charged.
Lewin on Wednesday only named one of the witnesses he wanted on the record ASAP — and that was Dr. Albert Kuperman, 85.
Durst defense lawyer David Chesnoff scoffed at accusations that the frail 73year-old Durst, who was in a wheelchair in LA court on Wednesday, could harm anyone in his current state.
“Suggesting somehow that a man in a wheelchair is somehow a threat to an 85-year old man in New York . . . is just hyperbole,” Chesnoff said.