Dursts’ neighbor testifies about sheltering wife

A Manhattan neighbor of Robert and Kathie Durst from four decades ago testified about providing shelter to the New York real estate heir’s first wife when she complained of emotional abuse and violence.

Anne Doyle and her husband lived in an Upper West Side penthouse apartment with a terrace adjoining that of the Dursts. Kathie Durst came across the terrace on numerous times to get away from her husband, Doyle told jurors in a Los Angeles courtroom where Durst is on trial for the 2000 murder of his longtime friend Susan Berman.

“She was escaping from a very emotionally abusive relationship,” Doyle said. “I think he would beat her up.”

Doyle recalled once when Kathie came across the terrace after having a “massive fight” because Robert Durst wanted her to sign a paper that she wouldn’t be entitled to any money or property from him.

Witness testimony began Wednesday in the trial, which may take as long as five months. Durst is accused of murdering Berman because he was afraid she would tell police about his role in Kathie Durst’s unresolved disappearance in 1982. Prosecutors allege that Durst killed his first wife and that Berman, believing it had been an accident, helped him cover up his crime.

Other witnesses called by the prosecution on Wednesday were former neighbors of Berman. They told the jurors how on Dec. 23, 2000, they saw Berman’s dogs running around loose outside.

This was very unusual because Berman doted on her dogs and she lived on a busy residential street with heavy traffic. The following day, one of the neighbors called police. They found Berman’s body on the floor of her home with a single gunshot wound to the back of her head.

Durst’s attorneys said in their opening statement Tuesday that he found Berman’s corpse the morning of Dec. 23 and doesn’t know who killed her. Durst panicked, sent a note to Beverly Hills police that there was a “cadaver” at Berman’s address and ran because he feared he would be considered a suspect, Dick DeGuerin told jurors.

David Chesnoff, another of Durst’s lawyers, told the jury Tuesday that Durst and Berman had planned to spend the holidays together and that he was picking her up to go for breakfast at the Rose Cafe in Venice after he had driven down from Northern California.

Durst used the key he had to get into her home and walked in on her body, the lawyer said. There’s no forensic evidence tying Durst to the murder, Chesnoff said.