A California jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial of multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst, and the decision will be announced soon in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the court said in a statement on Friday.
Los Angeles County prosecutors have called Durst, 78, a "narcissistic psychopath" who killed his best friend Susan Berman in 2000 in an attempt to cover up the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, in New York in 1982.
Defense lawyers in turn portrayed Durst, a frail cancer survivor who uses a wheelchair, as a "sick old man," referencing Durst's claim he is on the autism spectrum. They noted prosecutors, who questioned him for nine days of cross examination, were unable to produce forensic evidence linking Durst to the murder of Berman, 55, who was shot in the back of her head inside her Beverly Hills home.
The prosecution also delved into the 2001 death and dismemberment of Morris Black, who was Durst's neighbor in Galveston, Texas. A Galveston jury acquitted Durst of murder, even though Durst admitted he chopped up Black's body and dumped it in Galveston Bay. Black's death marked the second time Durst had a dead body at his feet, according to his own testimony.
Besides "The Jinx" audio, two other pieces of evidence appeared to damage Durst's defense. One was the recorded 2017 testimony of Nick Chavin, a mutual friend who said Durst admitted to him in 2014 that he had killed Berman.
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