Las Vegas Review-Journal

■ A jury convicted Robert Durst of murdering his best friend two decades ago.

- By Brian Melley

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst on Friday of murdering his best friend 20 years ago, a case that took on new life after the New York real estate heir participat­ed in a documentar­y that connected him to the slaying that was linked to his wife’s 1982 disappeara­nce.

Durst, 78, was not in court for the verdict from the jury that deliberate­d about seven hours over three days. He was in isolation at a jail because he was exposed to someone with coronaviru­s.

Durst, who faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole when sentenced Oct. 18, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Susan Berman. She was shot at point-blank range in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in December 2000.

Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Durst’s 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 didn’t think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way.

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