Robert Durst Found Guilt Of First-Degree Murder Of Susan Berman

Robert Durst has been convicted of first-degree murder.

The 78-year old was found guilty of killing his friend journalist Susan Berman in 2000. Berman was shot execution-style after she was going to confess to police she aided in covering up the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s wife, Kathie McCormack Durst. The pair were married for almost 10 years before she suspiciously disappeared. In 2017 Manhattan court declared Kathie Durst dead, but her husband was one of the main suspects in her case.

Durst denied involvement with wife’s disappearance and another case regarding the murder of drifter Morris Black in 2003. Durst was acquitted in that trial.

Durst was arrested in New Orleans in 2015 on a warrant for Berman’s murder. The Manhattan real-estate heir’s trial started in March 2020 but was paused for 14 months due to the pandemic. Durst wasn’t able to be present for the verdict because he was in isolation after being exposed to someone who tested positive for coronavirus.

Previously in 2015, Durst was interviewed for the HBO series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, where he seemed to reveal some incriminating evidence without realizing it.

After Durst was reviewing the evidence and being questioned on his thoughts of the murder/disappearance cases. On a live mic Durst said, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, that’s what I did.”

Durst’s attorneys claimed the quote was taken out of context, and Durst also denied his statement. However, Durst had admitted to someone else, friend Nick Chavin, that he knew more about his wife’s disappearance than he had revealed. This evidence was used to build his conviction.

Jinx director Andrew Jarecki told Good Morning America; “ Bob [Durst] admits in trial that he lied five times and perjured himself in this trial. You can’t be amazed by it, but at the same time it’s very gratifying because you also know this is a man who’s evaded justice for so long that all you can do is hope for the families of the victims that there are not going to be surprises.”

McCormack’s family is still looking for closure for the disappearance of Kathie and want prosecutors to reopen the disappearance case.

“Although Durst has now been rightly convicted of killing Susan Berman, who helped him conceal the truth about Kathie’s death, the McCormack family is still waiting for justice,” the family’s statement said.

Durst is set to be sentenced on October 18.