Prosecutor says ‘cadaver’ note proves Durst killed friend

LOS ANGELES – Robert Durst is a unwell, old, defenseless guy beaten up and demonized by prosecutors to include up a absence of evidence against him, his law firm reported Thursday in closing arguments at the New York genuine estate heir’s murder demo.

Legal professional Dick DeGuerin explained to jurors not to be swayed by ghastly visuals of the entire body Durst dismembered in Texas and tossed out to sea, expressing it was only intended to make them dislike him.

DeGuerin conceded his customer did look “really bad” following virtually a few weeks of testimony, which include nine days of punishing cross-examination that uncovered a number of lies. He accused the prosecutor of “beating up on a unwell, previous man who just can’t protect himself.”

“I wouldn’t blame you immediately after hearing what you have heard if you dislike Bob Durst and think he’s a liar,” DeGuerin stated in Los Angeles Outstanding Courtroom. “Making Bob Durst a liar does not make him a killer.”

Durst, 78, who sat hunched in a wheelchair as his lawyer spoke, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank taking pictures of Susan Berman in December 2000 at her Los Angeles property.

Advert

Prosecutors said Durst killed her as she prepared to talk to authorities about how she delivered a phony alibi for him when his spouse went lacking in New York in 1982.

DeGuerin said prosecutors unsuccessful to demonstrate how, when and the place Kathie Durst was killed, while he stated circumstantial evidence suggests she is in all probability lifeless. Her human body has never been uncovered, and no one has been billed with a criminal offense in relationship with her disappearance.

Robert Durst said he put his spouse on a teach sure for New York City immediately after a weekend at their lakeside household in Westchester County and by no means saw or read from her all over again. He has admitted lying about possessing cocktails with neighbors that night and speaking with his wife by phone after she attained their Manhattan penthouse.

DeGuerin stated there is no credible proof to assist the prosecution principle that Berman experienced impersonated Kathie Durst the up coming working day to cell phone in unwell at the clinical college she attended. Prosecutors claimed the connect with made it show up Kathie Durst was alive right after she was past viewed by her husband.

Advertisement

“If you clear away the thoughts that the prosecution has played upon that Bob Durst is a bad guy and Bob Durst lies and that Bob Durst will lie about something and glimpse at what the evidence or deficiency of proof is, then you see there’s no proof,” DeGuerin mentioned.

All through his a lot of times on the stand, Durst said he experienced lied underneath oath and would lie to get out of trouble. He stated he experienced not killed Berman or his spouse, but claimed he would lie if he had accomplished so.

DeGuerin mentioned it was like the trick concern: “Have you stop beating your wife?”

“What’s a great remedy to that?” DeGuerin mentioned. “The problem is the fake premise: beating your wife. ‘If you experienced killed Susan, would you explain to us?’ It’s a bogus premise.”

Even though Durst is only on demo in Berman’s killing, prosecutors introduced evidence he killed his spouse to provide the motive for killing Berman — a critical witness. Quite a few of Berman’s mates testified she either advised them Durst admitted killing his spouse or she assisted include his tracks.

Ad

Prosecutors have also introduced proof from a Galveston, Texas, trial in which Durst was acquitted of murder.

DeGuerin efficiently defended Durst in the 2001 killing of Morris Black. Durst testified that Black pulled a gun on him and was shot during a wrestle for the weapon. He was convicted of disposing of proof for chopping up Black’s physique and dumping it in Galveston Bay.

DeGuerin accused prosecutors of trying to inflame the jury by dredging up the Texas circumstance, particularly exhibiting grotesque visuals of physique elements that washed ashore.

“The prosecution is striving to get a do-more than of that trial,” DeGuerin stated.

Prosecutors claimed Black was killed since he found out Durst’s id while he hid out disguised as a mute girl because he feared he was going to be billed with killing his wife in New York.

DeGuerin claimed that manufactured no feeling under the prosecution’s theory. Berman was the witness who could link him to Kathie Durst’s dying, and she was killed nine months before.

Advertisement

“The principle of the prosecution is that Morris Black identified out that Bob Durst was Bob Durst,” DeGeurin reported. “But Bob Durst did not have anything at all to fear about anymore if you settle for the prosecution theory that Bob Durst’s motive for killing Susan Berman was to shut her up.”

DeGuerin did little to decrease or explain what a prosecutor claimed was the most damning piece of evidence from Durst — the so-called cadaver notice directing police to Berman’s lifeless body.

In interviews for a documentary film, Durst denied producing the take note that he reported “only the killer could have composed.” But he was caught in the lie when the makers of “The Jinx: The Everyday living and Deaths of Robert Durst” confronted him with an envelope he despatched Berman a 12 months before with identical handwriting and Beverly Hills misspelled as “Beverley” on both of those.

“You can ignore all the things else in this case,” Balian said. “The defendant has stipulated, ‘I wrote the cadaver observe and envelope that only the killer could have written.’ ”

Advert

Durst testified that after identifying Berman’s physique, he needed law enforcement to come across her but didn’t want any person to know he had been in her household simply because he feared he would be suspected of killing her.

He acknowledged that even he had problem imagining he
could have penned the be aware devoid of killing Berman.

“It’s quite complicated to think, to acknowledge, that I wrote the letter and did not kill Susan Berman,” Durst testified.

Balian stated it was 1 of the truest matters Durst said amid a ton of lies.