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By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH | City News Service
INGLEWOOD — Jurors were handed the execution lawsuit Tuesday against New York existent property scion Robert Durst, who is charged with the execution-style sidesplitting of a longtime person successful her location successful the Benedict Canyon country of Los Angeles astir 21 years ago.
Superior Court Judge Mark Windham turned the lawsuit implicit to the assemblage soon aft noon pursuing 3 1/2 days of closing arguments by attorneys from some sides.
The sheet heard past from Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who told the assemblage that determination was a “mountain of evidence” and that it is clip for Durst to beryllium “held accountable.”
Durst, 78, is charged with execution for Susan Berman’s execution-style December 2000 slaying.
The execution complaint includes the peculiar condition allegations of execution portion lying successful hold and execution of a witness.
Robert Durst looks astatine jurors walking into the courtroom arsenic helium appears successful a courtroom successful Inglewood, Calif. connected Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. Robert Durst is simply a champion astatine moving from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies truthful galore helium couldn’t support them each straight, a authoritative said Wednesday during closing arguments successful the New York existent property heir’s execution trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Deputy District Attorney Habib A. Balian holds a rubber latex mask, worn by Robert Durst erstwhile constabulary arrested him, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 successful Inglewood, Calif. Robert Durst is simply a champion astatine moving from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies truthful galore helium couldn’t support them each straight, a authoritative said Wednesday during closing arguments successful the New York existent property heir’s execution trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Superior Court Judge Mark Windham listens arsenic Deputy District Attorney Habib A. Balian begins the archetypal closing arguments earlier the assemblage successful the Robert Durst proceedings for execution astatine the Inglewood Courthouse connected Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 successful Inglewood, Calif. Robert Durst is simply a champion astatine moving from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies truthful galore helium couldn’t support them each straight, a authoritative said Wednesday during closing arguments successful the New York existent property heir’s execution trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Robert Durst listens successful his wheelchair arsenic his co-defense lawyer David Chesnoff argues a constituent earlier closing arguments astatine the Inglewood Courthouse successful Inglewood, Calif. connected Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, Robert Durst is simply a champion astatine moving from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies truthful galore helium couldn’t support them each straight, a authoritative said Wednesday during closing arguments successful the New York existent property heir’s execution trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Deputy District Attorney Habib A. Balian, begins closing arguments astatine the Inglewood Courthouse connected Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 successful Inglewood, Calif. Robert Durst is simply a champion astatine moving from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies truthful galore helium couldn’t support them each straight, a authoritative said Wednesday during closing arguments successful the New York existent property heir’s execution trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Robert Durst appears successful a courtroom with his attorneys for closing arguments Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 successful Inglewood, Calif. Robert Durst is simply a champion astatine moving from responsibility, covering his tracks with lies truthful galore helium couldn’t support them each straight, a authoritative said Wednesday during closing arguments successful the New York existent property heir’s execution trial. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Robert Durst spins his wheelchair s successful spot arsenic helium looks astatine radical successful the courtroom successful Inglewood, Calif. connected Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, with his attorneys for closing arguments presented by the prosecution successful the execution proceedings of the New York existent property scion who is charged with the longtime person Susan Berman’s sidesplitting successful Benedict Canyon conscionable earlier Christmas Eve 2000. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Robert Durst successful his wheelchair spins successful spot arsenic helium looks astatine radical successful the courtroom arsenic helium appears successful a courtroom successful Inglewood, Calif. connected Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, with his attorneys for closing arguments presented by the prosecution successful the execution proceedings of the New York existent property scion who is charged with the longtime person Susan Berman’s sidesplitting successful Benedict Canyon conscionable earlier Christmas Eve 2000. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
In this inactive representation taken from the Law & Crime Network tribunal video, existent property heir Robert Durst answers questions portion taking the basal during his execution proceedings connected Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, successful Los Angeles County Superior Court successful Inglewood, Calif. (Law & Crime Network via AP, Pool)
New York existent property scion Robert Durst, 78, answers questions from defence lawyer Dick DeGuerin, left, portion testifying successful his execution proceedings astatine the Inglewood Courthouse connected Monday, Aug. 9, 2021, successful Inglewood, Calif. Durst is charged with the 2000 execution of Susan Berman wrong her Benedict Canyon home. He testified Monday that helium did not termination his champion person Berman. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
In this inactive representation taken from the Law & Crime Network tribunal video, existent property heir Robert Durst asks if helium tin region his look disguise during his execution proceedings connected Monday, Aug. 9, 2021, successful Los Angeles County Superior Court successful Inglewood, Calif. (Law & Crime Network via AP, Pool)
Robert Durst, 78, New York existent property scion, speechmaking questions from a tablet, takes the basal and testifies successful his execution proceedings answering questions from defence lawyer Dick DeGuerin, left, astatine the Inglewood Courthouse connected August 9, 2021 successful Inglewood, California. Durst is charged with the 2000 execution of Susan Berman wrong her Benedict Canyon home. He testified Monday that helium did not termination his champion person Berman. (Photo by Gary Coronado-Pool/Getty Images)
In this inactive representation taken from the Law&Crime Network tribunal video, existent property heir Robert Durst watches arsenic Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, presents a caller circular of opening statements successful the execution lawsuit against Durst aft a 14-month recess owed to the coronavirus pandemic successful Los Angeles County Superior Court successful Inglewood, Calif., connected Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Durst, 78, an heir to a New York commercialized existent property empire, is charged with first-degree execution successful the slaying of his champion friend, Susan Berman. (Law&Crime Network via AP, Pool)
FILE – In this March 5, 2020, record photograph existent property heir Robert Durst, middle, sits with his defence attorneys, David Chesnoff, left, and Dick DeGuerin during his execution proceedings astatine the Airport Branch Courthouse successful Los Angeles. Fourteen months aft the execution proceedings of New York existent property heir Durst was enactment connected clasp due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic, jurors are returning to tribunal to spot if they tin decorativeness the duty they were given. A Los Angeles justice volition question jurors Monday, May 17, 2021, to find retired if they tin proceed to service successful the lawsuit that is expected to past 4 to 5 months. (Robyn Beck/Pool Photo via AP, File)
In this March 10, 2020, record photo, existent property heir Robert Durst looks implicit during his execution proceedings successful Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, Pool, File)
Robert Durst is seen successful a photograph with Susan Berman. Durst is connected proceedings for Berman’s 2000 murder.
In this Dec. 21, 2016 record photo, Robert Durst sits successful a courtroom successful Los Angeles. Durst faces proceedings successful the sidesplitting of Susan Berman, his longtime friend, who was changeable to decease astatine her Benedict Canyon location conscionable earlier Christmas Eve 2000. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool, File)
FILE – In this Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, record photo, existent property heir Robert Durst appears successful a Los Angeles Superior Court Airport Branch for a pre-trial motions proceeding successful Los Angeles. (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool, File)
Durst — who spent 14 days connected the basal — repeatedly denied being progressive successful Berman’s killing, and testified that helium wrote a alleged “cadaver” missive to constabulary aft uncovering Berman’s assemblage portion utilizing a cardinal she had sent him to participate her house.
“Justice matters. Consequences matter. Do not fto this narcissistic psychopath get distant with what helium has done, what helium did to Susan Berman,” the authoritative said arsenic helium neared the extremity of his rebuttal argument.
“That antheral killed 3 people, 3 people,” Lewin said.
The prosecution contends that Durst changeable Berman and past his neighbor, Morris Black, successful Galveston, Texas, 9 months aboriginal — successful the caput due to the fact that each of them had damaging accusation against him and feared they would talk to authorities aft a re-investigation was launched into the 1982 disappearance of his archetypal wife, Kathleen “Kathie” Durst, whose assemblage has ne'er been found.
He was acquitted successful Texas of Black’s execution aft testifying that the weapon went disconnected during a conflict implicit the weapon.
Durst has been down bars since March 14, 2015, erstwhile helium was taken into custody successful a New Orleans edifice country hours earlier the airing of the last occurrence of the six-part HBO documentary bid “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” which examined the disappearance of Kathie Durst and the shooting deaths of Berman and Black.
Durst has denied immoderate engagement successful his archetypal wife’s disappearance.
The authoritative noted that Durst’s woman had mysteriously disappeared ne'er to beryllium seen again, that Berman was killed aft telling Durst she was going to speech to constabulary looking into Kathie Durst’s disappearance, that Black was killed and dismembered and that a communal person of Durst and Berman testified that Durst had told him astir Berman, “It was her oregon me. I had nary choice.”
“That’s a batch of atrocious luck, but you cognize what you tin truly inquire alternatively is it 40 years of undeserved bully luck?” Lewin told jurors. “He has ne'er been held accountable for his home maltreatment of Kathie. He was ne'er held accountable for her death. The past 20 years he’s gotten distant with murdering Susan. For the past 20 years, he’s avoided work for Morris Black. Durst is not jinxed. He’s a three-time slayer who has managed to flight accountability until this precise moment…”
In his closing statement Monday, 1 of Durst’s attorneys, David Chesnoff, urged jurors to acquit the defendant.
“… They person not proven that Bob Durst killed Susan Berman beyond a tenable doubt,” the defence lawyer said. “Bob did not termination Kathie Durst, truthful determination was nary large concealed … No grounds is grounds that they haven’t proven their lawsuit beyond a tenable doubt.”
Chesnoff told jurors Berman did not marque a telephone telephone posing arsenic Kathie Durst to the aesculapian schoolhouse wherever the missing pistillate was a pupil — arsenic the prosecution contends — and that she “wasn’t a witnesser to anything.”
He told the sheet that Durst sent wealth to Berman “not from immoderate threats but affection,” and contended that Berman’s relationship to friends that she had made the telephone telephone shouldn’t beryllium trusted due to the fact that the 55-year-old pistillate was a “writer” and “attention seeker” who “liked to beryllium dramatic” and “loved to archer stories.”
The defence lawyer contended that the archetypal probe by Los Angeles constabulary into Berman’s sidesplitting was “shoddy and incomplete,” and that constabulary didn’t adjacent find a fingerprint from Durst adjacent though helium acknowledged being adjacent the assemblage of the pistillate helium had met astatine UCLA years before.
“Who other did they miss?” Durst’s lawyer asked. “They missed the existent slayer … This was a botched investigation. Now let’s blasted it each connected Bob. That’s what we ever bash and radical wonderment wherefore Bob Durst was moving —because it ne'er stops. You volition enactment a halt to it.”
Chesnoff said the deficiency of grounds linking Durst to the disappearance of his archetypal woman oregon Berman’s sidesplitting is “consistent with Bob being guiltless due to the fact that helium didn’t person thing to bash with sidesplitting the 2 women,” portion telling jurors that grounds involving Black’s sidesplitting successful Galveston was “everywhere” due to the fact that that antheral was killed accidentally during a conflict with Durst.
Wrapping up his argument, the defence lawyer said helium hoped that the assemblage would fto Durst — whom helium had described earlier arsenic “sick and elderly” — beryllium “in a infirmary of his choosing to unrecorded retired immoderate clip helium has left.”
During his clip connected the stand, Durst told jurors that a bath signaling of him shown successful the bid successful which helium said, “There it is, you’re caught,” referred to the cadaver enactment helium yet admitted writing.
Durst had been confronted by Andrew Jarecki — manager and co-producer of “The Jinx” — astir the cadaver enactment and 2 envelopes addressed to Berman and acknowledged that it was beauteous evident that the handwriting was the same, adjacent though helium had denied for years that helium had written the enactment to constabulary astir Berman’s body.
Durst has subsequently admitted that helium wrote the letter.
When asked what helium meant by his recorded remark “killed them all, of course” that was shown during the series, Durst said, “What I did not accidental retired large oregon possibly I said precise softly, ‘They’ll each deliberation I killed them all, of course.’”
Durst has been agelong estranged from his existent estate-rich family, which is known for ownership of a bid of New York City skyscrapers — including an concern successful the World Trade Center.
Durst divided with the household erstwhile his younger member was placed successful complaint of the household business, starring to a drawn-out ineligible battle, and yet reached a colony nether which the household reportedly paid him $60 cardinal to $65 million.
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