Durst, 78, was sentenced Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killing of Susan Berman, his close confidant. The wheelchair-bound Durst appeared in the courtroom for his sentencing, looking frail and wearing a face mask. During his testimony in August, Durst detailed a litany of health ailments, including esophageal and bladder cancers, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
He spoke with a raspy, weak voice, impacted by surgery for his esophageal cancer and COPD. The high-profile trial has been plagued by a series of delays due to the pandemic. After two days of testimony, the trial was delayed for 14 months after the coronavirus shuttered courts, with testimony resuming in May. And Chavin, who has admitted lying to investigators for seven months before deciding to turn on his friend, is not a reliable witness.
She was not declared officially dead until In short order, he arranged a perfunctory wedding with his girlfriend at the time, Debrah Lee Charatan, and rented out a room in Galveston, Texas. I was setting myself up to be a fugitive. Before heading to Texas, he flew to California and, as he has now admitted, went several hundred miles out of his way to visit Berman in Los Angeles before driving back up north to the San Francisco airport.
I had no choice. Once in Texas, Durst passed himself off as a mute woman, calling himself Dorothy Ciner. According to prosecutors, his roommate, Morris Black, saw through the disguise and asked so many questions he ended up shot and dismembered. According to Durst and his legal team, Black and Durst had fought over a gun and Durst killed Black in self-defense. Sort by Latest Oldest Dropdown arrow. Robert Durst attends his sentencing on Thursday. Durst, the subject of the HBO crime documentary " The Jinx ," was found guilty last month of killing his best friend more than 20 years ago A Los Angeles jury agreed the crime met "special circumstances" in California law, which would allow Durst to be sentenced to life without parole, for the murder of a witness to a crime, lying in wait and using a firearm in the murder.
Robert Durst appears in court for his sentencing on Thursday, October Here's everything you need to know about his case: His wife's disappearance: Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack, was on her way to medical school in New York when she vanished in Before her disappearance, McCormack had told her close relatives and friends that her husband had abused her physically during their marriage.
However, in a case over a decade later, Durst testified that he "put her on the train in Westchester to go into the city that evening" and never saw her again. Despite a cloud of suspicion over the years, Durst has never been arrested for her disappearance. His friend's death: Susan Berman, a crime writer, was a longtime friend of Durst.
Berman, who had helped handle Durst's public relations after his wife's disappearance, had written books about her family's mafia ties and had faced financial troubles. Prosecutors say Durst gave Berman money for covering his wife's disappearance. In , investigators reopened the disappearance case of Durst's wife and wanted to speak with Berman about it in Los Angeles.
Days before the meeting, Berman was found dead in her living room. However, police did not find Berman on their own. An anonymous letter was sent to police with Berman's address and the word "cadaver.
However, in , Durst was eventually accused of killing Berman and was arrested due to evidence from an HBO documentary series. In , Durst's attorneys confirmed he is indeed the author of the anonymous note but still maintained his innocence. That alone, he said, is evidence enough. County D. He was convicted of first-degree murder on Sept. The jury also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and murder of a witness.
It likewise found true allegations that Durst personally used and discharged a firearm during the commission of the crime. Durst has never come clean about whether he murdered his wife Kathie McCormack Durst in the early s, which was the subject of the film All Good Things , starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst.
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