Robert Durst testifies in his murder trial

By Veronica Rocha and Melissa Mahtani, CNN

Updated 4:43 AM ET, Tue August 10, 2021
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8:01 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Durst's testimony will resume Wednesday

(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/AP)
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/AP)

Robert Durst, who's on trial for the 2000 murder of his close friend Susan Berman, concluded his first day of testimony Monday in a Los Angeles courtroom.

Durst will resume his testimony at noon Wednesday, a Los Angeles County judge said.

He is accused of shooting Berman to allegedly stop her from incriminating him in the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst.

He has remained adamant that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance and pled not guilty to the first-degree murder charge for Berman's case.

In court on Monday, when asked by the defense if he killed Berman, Durst said "no."

7:29 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Everything we know about the disappearance of Durst's wife in 1982

From CNN's Alyssa Kraus, Ray Sanchez and Paul Vercammen

A spread in the New York Daily News from November 2000 details the disappearance of Kathleen Durst in 1982.
A spread in the New York Daily News from November 2000 details the disappearance of Kathleen Durst in 1982. NY Daily News/Getty Images

Robert Durst was just shown a photograph of his wedding day with his wife Kathleen McCormack who mysteriously disappeared in 1982.

He testified Monday that they got married in 1973 on his birthday, April 12.

Durst is on trial for the first-degree murder of Susan Berman in her Beverly Hills home in 2000. Berman had helped handle Durst's public relations after his wife’s disappearance in 1982, something which prosecutors believe led to Berman's murder.

So, what happened to McCormack in 1982?

McCormack, Durst's first wife, was on her way to Albert Einstein Medical School in New York when she mysteriously vanished. Durst testified years later that he put her on a train to head into the city that evening. "That was the last time I ever saw her,” he said.

However, McCormack had told her close relatives and friends that her husband had begun to abuse her physically during their marriage.

Despite a cloud of suspicion over the years, Durst had never been arrested in the disappearance.

Recently, more evidence has surfaced in the case, though. In a 2017 pretrial hearing for Berman's case, Nathan "Nick" Chavin told the court that Berman told him Durst killed McCormack.

He also testified of marital problems festering until McCormack "said she was afraid" of Durst.

"On one occasion, she cried," Chavin said. "She was appealing to me as Bob's friend to understand she was having a terrible time with her marriage."

Moreover, one of Berman's friends, Hollywood producer Lynda Obst, said Berman told her that she had played a role in covering up Durst's wife's disappearance, according to cold-case specialist John Lewin.

In 1982, when McCormack was supposed to arrive at Albert Einstein Medical School, a school official received a call from a woman saying she was McCormack. The woman said she was sick and wouldn't make it in.

"Susan Berman disclosed she made the call," Lewin said.

6:49 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Durst describes how he first met Susan Berman

Millionaire Robert Durst speaks while taking the stand on August 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court in Inglewood, California.
Millionaire Robert Durst speaks while taking the stand on August 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court in Inglewood, California. (Pool)

Millionaire Robert Durst told a Los Angeles courtroom how he first met his close friend Susan Berman.

He is accused of shooting Berman to allegedly stop her from incriminating him in the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst.

Durst said he met Berman at the University of California, Los Angeles, while he was studying there and found they had a lot in common. They were both rich and had difficult childhoods, Durst said. Berman's parents were dead, as was Durst's mother – who died when he was seven.

Despite their close relationship, Durst said they were never lovers.

He has remained adamant that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance and pled not guilty to the first-degree murder charge for Berman's case.

5:38 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Durst says he didn't kill Susan Berman

From CNN’s Cheri Mossburg

Millionaire Robert Durst, subject of the HBO series “The Jinx,” testified Monday that he did not kill his best friend Susan Berman.

Durst is accused of killing Berman more than 20 years ago. Asked by the defense if he killed Berman, Durst said "no."

He then went on to confirm that he would like to testify in his own defense.

Los Angeles County prosecutors say the real estate heir killed Berman allegedly because he feared she might implicate him in the disappearance of his first wife Kathleen, who was last seen in 1982. The prosecution rested their case against Durst last week after several weeks of testimony.

Durst, 78, who is suffering from bladder cancer and other physical ailments, has been wheelchair-bound for the entire 11-week trial. Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin said his client is unable to change from his prison-issued clothing into a suit because he is outfitted with a catheter and urostomy bag.

Durst is currently listing all the ailments he suffers from.

His testimony is ongoing.

6:44 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

NOW: Robert Durst is testifying in his own defense

Millionaire Robert Durst answers questions while taking the stand during his murder trial on August 9 in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Inglewood, California.
Millionaire Robert Durst answers questions while taking the stand during his murder trial on August 9 in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Inglewood, California. (Law & Crime Network/Pool/AP)

Millionaire Robert Durst has taken the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom to testify in his defense.

He's on trial for the 2000 murder of his close friend Susan Berman.

Durst is accused of shooting Berman to allegedly stop her from incriminating him in the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst.

He has remained adamant that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance and pled not guilty to the first-degree murder charge for Berman's case.

Read more about his case here.

5:32 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Here's why this HBO documentary series is a big part of Durst's case

From CNN's Alyssa Kraus, Holly Yan and Catherine E. Shoichet

A TV still frame of Robert Durst appears on a screen as Deputy District Attorney John Lewin begins opening statements during court proceedings in his murder trial at Inglewood Courthouse on May 18, in California.
A TV still frame of Robert Durst appears on a screen as Deputy District Attorney John Lewin begins opening statements during court proceedings in his murder trial at Inglewood Courthouse on May 18, in California. Al Seib/Pool/Getty Images

Real estate tycoon Robert Durst is taking the stand today after being accused of murdering longtime friend Susan Berman.

It is believed Durst killed Berman in an attempt to silence her over the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack, in 1982. However, Durst's defense attorneys maintain his innocence in both Berman and McCormack's cases. Previously, Durst was acquitted in 2003 for murdering and dismembering his neighbor, Morris Black, due to self-defense.

Durst was arrested for Berman's murder shortly after the release of a six-part HBO documentary series called "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" in 2015.

From Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling, the series examines the disappearance of Durst's wife, the murder of his friend and the dismembering of his neighbor. Durst willingly contributed to the documentary series and took part in interviews.

Dick DeGuerin, Durst's attorney, told The Los Angeles Times he believed the arrest was deliberately timed to the HBO documentary’s finale.

“Do I think this is a coincidence? Hell, no,” he said. “There has been rumor, innuendo and speculation for a number of years, and now we’re going to get our day in court on this.”

According to Susan Criss, a former Texas District Court judge who presided over the 2003 trial for the murder of Durst's neighbor, the producers of the series provided all of the evidence they collected to police. Criss said it is likely that Durst's statements on the show are part of the new case against him.

“That case has been several years in the making,” she said. “The investigation has been going on. The making of the cases has been going on. And I think these are pieces of evidence that are going to be used, and they’re going to be very powerful pieces of evidence.”

However, the evidence isn't entirely new. Investigators have had much of the information before the show aired, Criss said.

“They turned over the handwriting sample a couple years ago, at least two or three years ago,” she told CNN. “They told me when they did it. The police had it. The police didn’t just learn this when they watched television. They’ve had that.”

However, what the documentary does bring to the table is incriminating information straight from Durst himself.

During the finale's last shot, Durst went into the bathroom, unaware that his microphone was still on.

“There it is. You’re caught,” he said. He then rambled a series of seemingly unrelated sentences before saying, “He was right. I was wrong." Then, Durst added: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

While it is unclear what these words mean or how they can be used against him, Criss told CNN that it wasn’t the first time Durst made statements that seemed to incriminate himself while being recorded.

“In our trial, he had been recorded on the phone talking to his wife and friends, making a lot of admissions, and the state never used that,” she said. “But he was aware that he had been recorded, saying things that could implicate him in the murder we were trying. Earlier in those interviews, in a previous interview for that very program ('The Jinx’), there was a break where he was caught practicing his testimony. And so he realized, he knew he had a mic on. This is the third time he’s made that mistake.”

5:15 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Here's what we know about Susan Berman's death and the mysterious murder letter to police

From CNN's Alyssa Kraus

Susan Berman and Robert Durst in mid to late 1990s.
Susan Berman and Robert Durst in mid to late 1990s. Sareb Kaufman/Courtesy of HBO

Robert Durst will testify today after being accused of killing his longtime friend and crime writer Susan Berman.

Here's what you need to know about the case:

The murder:

  • In December 2000, police found Berman dead in the living room of her Beverly Hills home. Berman had been shot in the head "execution-style," CNN’s Jean Casarez reported.
  • Berman's murder came just days before prosecutors had planned to meet with her about the 1982 disappearance of Robert Durst's wife, Kathleen McCormack. Berman was a longtime friend of Durst and helped him handle his public relations after his wife’s disappearance.
  • Berman had family mafia ties and wrote about them in her books. She was also struggling financially. Although Durst was known for being cheap, prosecutors said he gave Berman large amounts of money in exchange for covering up the disappearance of his wife. They also claimed Durst shot Berman in hopes of silencing her in regard to his wife's case.
  • However, Durst has remained adamant that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance and pled not guilty to the first-degree murder charge for Berman's case.

The letter:

  • Partly due to HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," Durst was arrested in 2015 after new evidence surfaced in Berman's case.
  • Police did not find Berman's body on their own in 2000. Instead, they received an anonymous letter on Christmas Eve, one day after Berman's murder, with an address and the word "cadaver" written in capital letters. In the 2015 documentary, Durst said the letter could only have been sent by Berman's killer.
  • Although defense lawyers have previously denied Durst wrote the note and tried to exclude from trial handwriting evidence about it, police handwriting analysis said the writing on that card looked like Durst’s. “You look at the letter, and the handwriting is astonishingly similar,” said Michael Daly, a special correspondent for The Daily Beast.
  • In the documentary, filmmakers confronted Durst with another letter he once mailed Berman, with nearly identical handwriting to the "cadaver" note. In both, Beverly Hills was misspelled as "BEVERLEY." Therefore, in a court filing in late 2019, lawyers for the real estate mogul reversed course and acknowledged that Durst penned the anonymous note. "This does not change the fact that Bob Durst did not kill Susan Berman," attorney Dick DeGuerin said.

Confessions:

  • In a 2017 pretrial hearing, Nathan "Nick" Chavin told the court that Berman told him Durst killed his wife. He also told the court that Durst confessed to him in 2014 that he killed Berman to keep her quiet. "I had to. It was her or me," Durst said, according to Chavin, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. "I had no choice."
  • One of Berman's friends, Hollywood producer Lynda Obst, said Berman told her that she had played a role in covering up Durst's wife's disappearance, according to cold-case specialist John Lewin. In 1982, when his wife was supposed to arrive at Albert Einstein Medical School, a school official received a call from a woman saying she was McCormack and that she was sick. "Susan Berman disclosed she made the call," Lewin said.
5:06 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

Everything you need to know about Robert Durst's case

From CNN's Alyssa Kraus

Robert Durst is transported from Orleans Parish Criminal District Court to the Orleans Parish Prison after his arraignment in New Orleans in March 2015.
Robert Durst is transported from Orleans Parish Criminal District Court to the Orleans Parish Prison after his arraignment in New Orleans in March 2015. Gerald Herbert/AP

Millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst is on trial for allegedly killing his best friend to stop her from incriminating him in the disappearance of his wife. Durst, the subject of the HBO crime documentary "The Jinx," will take the stand today.

Here's everything you need to know about his case:

  • His wife's disappearance: Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack, was on her way to medical school in New York when she vanished in 1982. Before her disappearance, McCormack had told her close relatives and friends that her husband had abused her physically during their marriage. However, in a case over a decade later, Durst testified that he "put her on the train in Westchester to go into the city that evening" and never saw her again. Despite a cloud of suspicion over the years, Durst has never been arrested for her disappearance.
  • His friend's death: Susan Berman, a crime writer, was a longtime friend of Durst. Berman, who had helped handle Durst's public relations after his wife's disappearance, had written books about her family's mafia ties and had faced financial troubles. Prosecutors say Durst gave Berman money for covering his wife's disappearance. In 2000, investigators reopened the 1982 disappearance case of Durst's wife and wanted to speak with Berman about it in Los Angeles. Days before the meeting, Berman was found dead in her living room. However, police did not find Berman on their own. An anonymous letter was sent to police with Berman's address and the word "cadaver." A police handwriting analysis said the writing on that card looked like Durst’s, but police didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him at the time. However, in 2015, Durst was eventually accused of killing Berman and was arrested due to evidence from an HBO documentary series. In 2019, Durst's attorneys confirmed he is indeed the author of the anonymous note but still maintained his innocence.
  • His neighbor's murder: In 2001, after the deaths of McCormack and Berman, Durst said he was facing scrutiny. Thus, the millionaire moved to the coastal Texas city of Galveston. There, Durst had gotten into a scuffle with his neighbor, Morris Black, and admitted to shooting and killing him in 2003. While prosecutors said Durst planned Black’s killing to steal his identity, defense attorneys said Black snuck into Durst’s apartment. According to the attorneys, Durst accidentally shot him as both men struggled for a gun. Then, Durst testified that he panicked and decided to cut up Black’s body and throw away the pieces. Though acquitted of murder for self-defense, Durst later served nine months in prison on felony weapons charges stemming from the Texas case.
  • The documentary's impact: Following the last shot for the finale of the HBO documentary series “The Jinx," Durst went into the bathroom, apparently not realizing his microphone was still on. “There it is. You’re caught,” he said. He then rambled a series of seemingly unrelated sentences before saying, “He was right. I was wrong.” Then, he added: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” According to Susan Criss, a former Texas District Court judge, this was the third time Durst had accidentally revealed incriminating information while wearing a microphone. Moreover, Durst's attorney said he believed his client's arrest was deliberately timed to the HBO documentary's finale. Cold-case specialist John Lewin asked Durst why he hadn't fled before the documentary aired, especially after filmmakers confronted him with incriminating evidence. "I guess inertia," Durst replied. "l just didn't really, really, really think that (I) was gonna end up arrested."
  • Recent evidence: Nathan "Nick" Chavin told the court at the 2017 pretrial hearing for Berman's case that Durst was the best man at his wedding. Chavin said Berman admitted to him that Durst killed his wife. He also told the court that Durst confessed to him in 2014 that he killed Berman to keep her quiet. Furthermore, one of Berman's friends, Hollywood producer Lynda Obst, said that Berman told her that she had played a role in covering up Durst's wife's disappearance. In 1982, when Durst's wife went missing, a school official received a call from a woman saying she was McCormack, according to Lewin. The caller said she was sick and wouldn't make it that day. "Susan Berman disclosed she made the call," Lewin said.
5:01 p.m. ET, August 9, 2021

What to expect from Durst's testimony today

From CNN's Alyssa Kraus and Paul Vercammen

Millionaire real estate tycoon Robert Durst is expected to take the witness stand in his defense today, his legal team told CNN. Durst is charged with the first-degree murder of his close friend and confidante, Susan Berman, in 2000.

Here's what you can expect from Durst's testimony:

  1. It will last several days. The testimony is expected to stretch across several days, although legal analysts caution Durst needs to be careful about what he says. According to CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson, Durst's testimony could "open the door to all types of prior bad conduct that he could be questioned about." Jackson added, "If the jury thinks he's lying, being evasive or if he's unsympathetic, a conviction is assured."
  2. He could evoke sympathy. Durst, 78, has bladder cancer and has undergone multiple surgeries, including the insertion of a shunt in his head to relieve pressure on his brain. Testifying in a wheel chair, Durst is thin and frail and speaks with a whispery voice. Thus, there's a chance his condition could evoke sympathy from the jury. However, Jackson believes Durst needs to be careful about how jurors perceive his medical issues. "If he testifies and feigns sickness or incapacity, the jury will see right through it," he said.
  3. It could be delayed. According to Loyola Law School Professor Stan Goldman, the judge could still delay the trial due to Durst's poor health. "That's if the judge changes his mind and determines Durst's condition makes him unfit to testify at this time or in the foreseeable future," Goldman said.