The pandemic has again postponed the Los Angeles murder trial of Robert Durst, this time, until April 2021.
L.A. County Superior Court Judge Mark Windham extended the trial adjournment of the Durst Organization heir at the request of the prosecution and defense, according to Bloomberg.
The trial was suspended in March, less than two weeks after it started, and as the coronavirus began intensifying. It had been set to resume this month.
The 77-year-old scion is charged with murdering his college friend, Susan Berman, at her Beverly Hills home 20 years ago.
In June, Durst’s defense team requested the judge declare a mistrial, but Windham declined, saying that it would take months to select a new jury amid the pandemic. But the two sides have apparently agreed that resuming the trial now, while Covid-19 cases are surging in the L.A. area, would have been too difficult.
Durst’s brother, Douglas, who is chairman of Durst Organization, is expected to testify.
Berman’s death was chronicled in the 2015 documentary, “The Jinx,” along with the deaths of Durst’s wife Kathie McCormack Durst and his Texas neighbor, Morris Black. L.A. prosecutors reopened the Berman murder case following the release of the documentary.
Durst claims that he walked into her house, found her dead, then panicked and sent a note to Beverly Hills police that there was a dead body at the house. He claims he fled because he worried he would be seen as a suspect. [Bloomberg] — Dennis Lynch