Robert Durst. Photo by Courtesy of HBO
A deputy district attorney told a judge Wednesday in the Los Angeles murder case against New York real estate scion Robert Durst that prosecutors want to question two witnesses early to preserve their testimony, including one person whose name has not yet been disclosed to Durst’s lawyers.
Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark E. Windham that prosecutors want to call the two witnesses to testify at a Feb. 14 hearing, noting that the prosecution would supply the defense within two weeks of the hearing with the identity of one of the witnesses whom he said “has very important information.” The other witness is an octogenarian New York doctor.
“Witnesses in this case realistically, understandably, are concerned about their safety,” the prosecutor told the judge as Durst, who was brought into court in a wheelchair, sat quietly.
One of Durst’s attorneys, David Chesnoff, countered, “What Mr. Lewin is doing by trying to inflame the circumstances by suggesting that a man in a wheelchair is somehow a threat to an 85-year-old doctor living in New York, when none of the allegations in any of these cases suggest that anybody has ever been involved but Mr. Durst is just hyperbole.”
The judge scheduled a Jan. 6 hearing to determine whether the questioning — called a conditional examination — would go forward the following month. The judge noted that he had given the prosecution permission to delay turning over information to the defense about the “unnamed witness.”
Durst — who was profiled in the HBO documentary series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” — is charged with capital murder in the death of his friend, Susan Berman, who was found dead inside her Benedict Canyon home on Christmas Eve 2000. Prosecutors believe the 55-year-old woman was killed on or about Dec. 23, 2000.
The murder charge against the 73-year-old Durst includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness and murder while lying in wait, along with gun use allegations. But a prosecutor said in court that the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office does not plan to seek the death penalty against Durst.
Authorities suspect Durst killed Berman because prosecutors in New York’s Westchester County were about to interview her about the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen “Kathie” McCormack Durst, who was in the process of divorcing him.
One of the witnesses prosecutors want to question in February is an 86- year-old doctor who received a call from someone claiming to be Durst’s wife near the time of her disappearance, Lewin said.
The testimony — which would be taken before a hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to require Durst to stand trial — would be videotaped and only used in subsequent court sessions if a witness were to either die or disappear before a hearing in which they would otherwise be called to testify, according to the prosecutor.
Meanwhile, with defense attorneys questioning the propriety of materials collected by police and prosecutors, Windham agreed to appoint a “special master” to review evidence gathered during the investigation into Durst. The prosecution made the request so the special master could determine whether documents that were collected in upstate New York, Durst’s home in Houston and a New Orleans hotel room that have subsequently been set aside could contain material that would be subject to the attorney-client privilege.
Attorneys from both sides also tangled over the prosecution’s decision to release the transcript of Durst’s jailhouse interview with Lewin, with the defense contending it may impact the jury selection process and that the prosecutor should not have talked to Durst without one of his attorneys being present.
Lewin maintained the transcript was part of a “publicly filed” document.
Outside court, Durst’s lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, told reporters the case is “one step closer to trial.”
“I will say Bob Durst didn’t kill Susan Berman and didn’t know who did,” he said.
According to court papers, Los Angeles police detectives claim two handwriting experts have linked Durst to an anonymous letter alerting authorities to a “cadaver” at Berman’s home.
During his first court appearance in Los Angeles Nov. 7, Durst pleaded not guilty.
“I do want to say here and now, though, I am not guilty. I did not kill Susan Berman,” he said.
Durst was arrested March 14, 2015, in a New Orleans hotel room, hours before the airing of the final episode of “The Jinx,” which examined the disappearance of his wife in 1982, Berman’s execution-style killing and the killing and dismemberment of Morris Black in Texas. Durst was tried for the murder of Black, his one-time neighbor, but was acquitted.
On the documentary series finale, which aired the day after his arrest, Durst was caught on microphone saying to himself, “Killed them all, of course.” He also was caught on microphone saying, “There it is, you’re caught,” and “What a disaster.”
During his jailhouse interview with Lewin, Durst said he was “on meth” while the documentary was being filmed and that he didn’t heed his attorneys’ advice not to be interviewed for the documentary.
When asked by the prosecutor whether he would tell him if he had killed his wife or Berman, Durst responded, “No.”
Three days after a judge signed an arrest warrant for Durst in the Los Angeles case, FBI agents located him in a New Orleans hotel room where he had checked in under the alias Everette Ward. Agents discovered a loaded Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver, a “realistic mask” and more than $40,000 in cash, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Durst was indicted in April 2015 in U.S. District Court in Louisiana on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He subsequently pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison before being brought to Los Angeles in connection with the murder case.
He has been long estranged from his real-estate-rich family, known for ownership of a series of New York City skyscrapers — including an investment in the World Trade Center. Durst split with the family when his younger brother was placed in charge of the family business, leading to a drawn-out legal battle.
According to various media reports, Durst ultimately reached a settlement under which the family paid him $60 million to $65 million.
—City News Service
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