HBO series helped lead to Durst murder conviction

Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki was in the middle of an interview Friday when he got a text message years in the making: A verdict was coming in the murder trial of Robert Durst, the New York real estate heir he’d captured confessing in the HBO documentary series “The Jinx.”

He immediately stopped what he was doing, went next door and turned on a TV.

For 16 years, Jarecki has immersed himself in the world of the eccentric millionaire, first directing a 2010 film starring Ryan Gosling as Durst, and later digging into the three slayings Durst was long suspected of in “The Jinx.”

Material from roughly 24 hours worth of interviews with Durst was handed over to authorities. John Lewin, the Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, used the tycoon’s own words from “The Jinx” in his opening statements of the murder trial: “Killed them all, of course.” He was also recorded muttering in a bathroom, “There it is. You’re caught.”

As the courtroom flickered onto Jarecki’s TV screen Friday, it happened: Durst was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2000 death of Susan Berman, 55, a close confidante shot in the back of the head while preparing to tell police how she helped cover up Durst’s wife Kathie’s death.

Jarecki said he immediately thought of the families devastated by the man he got to know as “Bob.”

“My reaction to the verdict was to be extremely relieved,” he said. “I was obviously very gratified because this has been an incredibly long process.”

Durst, 78, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 18 and faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole. He was not in court Friday for the verdict because he was recently exposed to someone with the coronavirus. The verdict comes after multiple attempts to prosecute him for crimes spanning nearly four decades. He was acquitted of murder in the 2001 killing of Morris Black, a 71-year-old neighbor in Texas.

The news overwhelmed Jarecki, who added: “Bob is dangerous and had been wandering around for a very long time without ever being held accountable.”

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys acknowledge the film was key in the conviction, even if they disagree on whether it had an undue influence. Jason Blum, executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning series, said Jarecki’s work reignited interest in a case. Dick DeGuerin, one of Durst’s attorneys, said in an email that the documentary series “was instrumental in the prosecution in California, providing a blueprint to the prosecutors.”

“He did a great job working with law enforcement, which got attention back on the case,” Blum said of Jarecki. “It’s very hard — I wouldn’t say it’s impossible — but it’s very hard to get rich and powerful people to pay for their crimes. And it happened.”

DeGuerin had a different take: “It was cleverly and heavily edited to paint Bob Durst in the worst possible light,” he said. “That said, I’m proud of the long hard fight we fought.”

The defense team has indicated they planned to appeal the conviction.

The guilty verdict caps a long journey for authorities who sought to prosecute Durst for murders in three states without success. He was never charged in the case of his wife, Kathie McCormack, who was 29 when she disappeared in 1982. She was never found.