GUILTY CA - Susan Berman, 55, fatally shot, Los Angeles, 23 Dec 2000

i.b.nora

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And, speaking of the murder trial in California, this juicy new article:

The King of Cold Cases Is Taking on The Jinx’s Robert Durst
John Lewin has built a career on prosecuting cold cases. As well known for his offbeat style as for his winning record, he’s readying for his biggest trial yet

Los Angeles Magazine
By Louise Farr
September 21, 2015


“The day before Durst’s toilet soliloquy aired, FBI agents arrested him in New Orleans on a Los Angeles warrant that accused him of Berman’s murder. When he goes on trial here—after fighting gun charges in Louisiana stemming from the loaded .38 caliber revolver found in his hotel room—Durst will face lead prosecutor John Lewin.”

*

“The cases that rivet Lewin are based not on a witness who can motion to the accused and say, “I saw him do it,” or on blood at a crime scene that identifies a killer, but instead depend on pulling together circumstances surrounding the crime and weaving them into a coherent whole for a jury. “DNA and footprints are giant pieces,” he tells me. “I like small pieces. Cases where people make little mistakes. My cases tend to be ‘Of course he did it.’ Then, ‘How do you prove it?’ ””​

- See more at: http://www.lamag.com/longform/the-ice-man/#sthash.PTrCeoiM.dpuf
 
"48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty has been reporting on the bizarre case of Robert Durst for nearly 10 years. He's the New York multimillionaire suspected in a series of murders.

The story of Robert Durst includes allegations about his missing wife, then, the crime that really put him on the map: He was charged with shooting and chopping up a neighbor in Galveston, Texas in 2001.

Next week, Durst begins a legal journey that will soon land him in a Los Angeles courtroom and on trial for the 2000 murder of Susan Berman. In this report, "48 Hours" has exclusive video of Berman and an interview with the former prosecutor who has hunted Durst for years.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-robert-durst-the-next-chapter-murder-90210/
 
"48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty has been reporting on the bizarre case of Robert Durst for nearly 10 years. He's the New York multimillionaire suspected in a series of murders.

The story of Robert Durst includes allegations about his missing wife, then, the crime that really put him on the map: He was charged with shooting and chopping up a neighbor in Galveston, Texas in 2001.

Next week, Durst begins a legal journey that will soon land him in a Los Angeles courtroom and on trial for the 2000 murder of Susan Berman. In this report, "48 Hours" has exclusive video of Berman and an interview with the former prosecutor who has hunted Durst for years.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-robert-durst-the-next-chapter-murder-90210/

I watched this last night. I was waiting for EM to ask the jurors from Galveston what they thought of him at this point. She may have because I missed the very end, but what a travesty of justice. It just leaves me dumbstruck, every time. His defense team has GOT to be the best team in history!!! To get 12 people to render a "not guilty" verdict, when the VICTIM has been dismembered, and the obvious steps taken to hide the fact that he was even dead.... because the prosecutor didn't convince them that it wasn't an accident????? What the....?? How is it an accident when RD had a gun in his hand and they were fighting?? WHY did he have a gun in his hand in the first place? It makes my head want to implode. All logic and rational thought just went out the window. Greatest defense lawyers, ever. JMO How do they sleep at night, and still defend him? They must have been paid a fortune to defend him for the rest of their lives!

ALL JMO
 
I watched it last night but unfortunately fell asleep at some point so I will need to watch it again. Three bits of information that I found interesting while I was awake were 1) that Susan Berman owned a big house in San Francisco for a period of time (and I want to find out where it was) and, more important 2) that Durst had a penchant for green ink. That he often, or always wrote using green ink. And, 3) The "Beverley Hills Cadaver" envelope was written in green ink!!!
 
The Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-robert-durst-murder-trial-20161104-story.html

““We have been ready for some time. I’m glad we’re going to start proceedings,” Durst’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, told The Times on Friday. “He’s going to get his day in court.”


DeGuerin said he expected a preliminary hearing in the case to take place in the spring and for the trial later in 2017.

Durst has insisted he had nothing to do with Berman's fatal shooting.”
 
Robert Durst pleads not guilty in 16-year-old L.A. murder case
Los Angeles Times
Monday November 7, 2016
By James Queally / Reporter


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-robert-durst-arraignment-20161107-story.html

“Robert Durst, the eccentric New York real estate scion whose brushes with the law have made him repeated tabloid fodder, made his first court appearance in Los Angeles on Monday and pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in the execution-style slaying of his friend, writer Susan Berman.

Durst, 73, entered the courtroom in a wheelchair, sporting a neck brace and wearing a blue-and-white-striped shirt and khaki pants.

“I do want to say here and now though I am not guilty,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I did not kill Susan Berman.”

Durst is accused of carrying out the December 2000 shooting of Berman, a confidante who had befriended him while they attended classes at UCLA, because she was a witness to a crime.”

*

“After the hearing, he will be transferred to the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and be held in either the downtown Men’s Central Jail or the Twin Towers facility, depending on the outcome of a medical screening, according to Capt. Jeff Scroggin, an agency spokesman.

Speaking to reporters before he entered the packed courtroom, Durst’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said his client has been dealing with several medical issues and is recovering from a spinal fusion surgery he underwent in Louisiana earlier this year. Durst is also a cancer survivor and has struggled with hydropencephalitis, a condition that involves brain swelling.

DeGuerin said he has been relishing the chance to plead Durst’s case in court.

“We’re happy to be here,” he said outside the airport courthouse. “We’ve wanted to be here since March” 2015.

The millionaire was arrested in connection with Berman’s death last year when FBI agents found him at a New Orleans hotel. When he was caught, agents discovered he had a firearm and marijuana.

Durst was sentenced to seven years and one month in prison on weapons charges in New Orleans. As part of the deal, he was allowed to be transferred to Los Angeles to face the murder charge. He was flown from Louisiana on Friday.

A murder trial, likely to be one of the most anticipated in recent Los Angeles history, will probably begin a year from now, DeGuerin said.

Last year’s arrest marked the bizarre collision of a true-crime documentary and a years-long investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department into Berman’s killing. Durst, who had faded from the spotlight after he was acquitted of murder in Texas in 2003, was launched back into the national consciousness when he became the subject of a six-part HBO documentary, “The Jinx.””​

More...
 
Berman, who had served as an unofficial spokeswoman for Durst, was killed weeks later in her Los Angeles home before she was supposed to speak with police about that investigation.
Lewin said that with Durst’s estimated $100 million fortune, he poses a serious threat to witnesses.
“The idea that he does not have the wherewithal to intimidate, buy off or attempt to have witnesses killed who possess inculpatory evidence because he is ‘old,’ ‘frail,’ or in custody, is ludicrous,” Lewin said.
Judge Mark Windham tentatively set a Feb. 14 hearing for two witnesses to be questioned if he OKs the prosecutor’s request.[end quote]

http://time.com/4625555/robert-durs...-prosecutors-say/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter
 
Durst, the 73-year-old New York real-estate heir, is charged with
killing a friend, Susan Berman, in 2000 because she knew too much about the disappearance of Durst’s first wife 18 years earlier. Though the trial hasn’t been scheduled yet, prosecutors and defense lawyers have started preliminary skirmishes. First up: a hearing Friday over protecting witnesses, with fights still to come over whether the district attorney has enough evidence to put the itinerant, pot-smoking, gun-toting and at times cross-dressing Durst on trial. Here’s a look at some of the key evidence and points of contention:[end quote]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-and-durst-s-feared-wrath-quicktake-scorecard
 
Just now watched a new 48 hours in Durst and the Susan Berman case. I wonder if that trial will be televised?
 
I have an idea who it is, but don't want to say since allowing the witness to remain anonymous is for his/her protection.

Although we want to know, you are very wise to with hold the information. I am glad the witness is coming forward.
 
"I had to," Durst said, according to Chavin. "It was her or me, I had no choice."

The brief remark on a New York City sidewalk after the two had dinner in 2014 put to rest years of doubts Chavin harbored about the culpability of the best friend who stood up for him at his wedding and had given him a big boost in his advertising career.

Chavin, who became emotional during the testimony and reached for a tissue to blow his nose, said he still has warm feelings for Durst.

"It sounds ridiculous," Chavin said. "This was a best friend who admitted to killing my other best friend."


http://www.walb.com/story/34517994/witness-it-was-her-or-me-durst-said-about-slain-friend
 
[video=youtube;edwsVS6W11I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edwsVS6W11I[/video]
 
How strange that Chavin never went to police after finding out what he did in 2014. I would have expected him to say it was because he feared for his own safety, not that it was through "deep bond and loyalty" to RD.
 
7/24 /2017

URL]http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/robert-durst-to-hear-a-longtime-friend-testify-against-him-in-his-murder-case/ar-AAoKvFY?ocid=sf[/URL]
 

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