Prosecutor: Robert Durst gold medalist in running from truth

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Durst is a champion at running from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies so numerous he couldn’t keep them all straight, a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in the New York real estate heir’s murder trial.

Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian told jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court that Durst had admitted lying on the witness stand during the trial, telling a “fantastical tale” to mislead or deflect from his guilt.

“This was an Olympic year,” Balian said. “If there was an event for running from the truth, he’d be on the top of the podium.”

Durst, 78, who is ailing and seated in a wheelchair, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank shooting of his best friend, Susan Berman, at her Los Angeles home in December 2000.

Prosecutors said Durst silenced her before she could speak to authorities about how she provided a phony alibi when his wife vanished in New York in 1982.

Durst’s lawyers are scheduled to present their closing argument Thursday. Defense attorney Chip Lewis said they plan to poke holes in the prosecution’s case and challenge what he said has played like bad film.

“They failed to deliver the required evidence to support their script/theory,” Lewis said. “We do not convict folks based on made-for-TV movies.”

Balian told jurors — who began their service 18 months ago before the Coronavirus pandemic delayed the case for more than a year — that after decades of investigations, news articles, a feature film and documentary, they had the best vantage point for determining what Durst had done.