Robert Durst took the stand at his murder trial Monday and denied any involvement in his friend Susan Berman’s 2000 killing.
Durst’s attorney Dick DeGuerin asked his client about Berman’s death at her Benedict Canyon home two decades ago, according to the Associated Press account of his testimony in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Bob, did you kill Susan Berman?” DeGuerin asked.
“No,” Durst said.
“Do you know who did?” DeGuerin asked.
“No, I do not,” Durst said.
Prosecutors allege that the real estate scion shot Berman in the head because he feared she would tell investigators about his involvement in his wife Kathleen McCormack’s 1982 disappearance. Durst also discussed the early years of his marriage to McCormack while on the stand. He is expected to continue testifying on Wednesday, according to the report.
Police arrested Durst in 2015 during the run of the HBO documentary “The Jinx,” which detailed Durst’s life, his wife Kathie’s disappearance, Berman’s death and the 2003 death of his neighbor Morris Black.
Durst is the grandson of Durst Organization founder Joseph Durst. His brother Douglas, who runs the company, testified at trial in June that he thought his brother would “like to murder me.”
The trial restarted in May after several delays. It was originally set to begin in 2017 but delayed after Hurricane Harvey flooded his defense attorney’s office in Houston.
It started finally in early 2020 and was put on hold in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Later that year, Superior Court Judge Mark Windham denied a request from the defense for a mistrial.
Windham denied another request from the defense for a mistrial after the trial restarted. DeGuerin claimed that Robert Durst, who has bladder cancer, is “too sick to make the decision whether to testify” and said it was “cruel and unusual” to put him through a trial.
[AP] — Dennis Lynch