Former SNL Cast Member Testifies in Robert Durst Murder Trial

LOS ANGELES (CN) --- It could have been a bit of gossip, but original "Saturday Night Live" cast member Laraine Newman remembers her friend Susan Berman bringing up a favor she did for someone in New York back in the 1980s: Berman told Newman she made a phone call for her friend Robert Durst that provided him an alibi around the time his wife disappeared.

When Newman pressed Berman if she did something wrong, Berman tried to change the subject. The conversation stands out now to Newman because Durst is on trial in the murder of Berman.

“I was ashamed that as I’ve said before I didn’t appreciate the gravity of what she was saying to me and that I blithely accepted her backtracking and rescinding,” Newman testified Thursday during Durst's murder trial in a Los Angeles County Superior courtroom.

Durst, 78, listened as Newman described her conversation with Berman, which took place more than 20 years ago. Prosecutors say Berman acted as Durst’s spokesperson after his wife, Kathie, disappeared in 1982 and was never seen again. They also say Berman posed as Kathie in a phone call to her medical school to say she was not feeling well and would not be able to make her medical rounds.

Newman testified that looking back she feels she was “feckless about the whole subject” surrounding Berman’s admission. Multiple witnesses have testified in the murder trial that Berman admitted to helping Durst with a phone call and acting as his alibi. Durst and Berman remained friends for years, and he even gave her $50,000 when she fell on hard financial times.

But in December 2000, someone entered Berman’s home in Benedict Canyon in LA County and shot her in the back of the head at close range. There was no sign of forced entry.

Durst previously denied going to Berman’s home, but later admitted he found her body, panicked and ran. Before fleeing to Galveston, Texas, Durst sent an anonymous note to the Beverly Hills Police Department with the word “cadaver” scrawled in his handwriting. Only later did he admit he wrote the note.

While Durst is not on trial in Kathie’s disappearance, prosecutors continue to drive home that he would have been motivated to kill Berman because she knew too much. Prosecutors argue she might have known more about Kathie’s disappearance, and the prospect of that case being reopened spooked Durst into murdering his longtime friend.

Newman testified she is 100% positive that Berman told her about the phone call.

Defense attorney David Chesnoff asked Newman how she was so positive if in previous interviews with police she admitted to having a poor memory and took hallucinogenic drugs as a teenager in the 1960s.

Newman did not remember telling police that she “had a successful drug career,” Chesnoff said, but she testified she likely was being facetious when she made the comment. Still, Chesnoff asked how reliable her memory could be if she smoked marijuana from the age of 13 to 19.

“High for most of high school, right?” Chesnoff asked Newman.

Later, Chesnoff bluntly asked, “How do you know you don’t have false memories if they’re false?” Newman replied, "Good point."

Chesnoff said that Berman, a professional author, tended to exaggerate her stories and was prone to hyperbole based on other witnesses in the trial. He also suggested a fictional movie loosely based on Durst's life and a documentary could have clouded Newman's memory. She denied watching the documentary and said she wasn't clear when she saw the movie, but it could have been before she initially spoke to police.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked Newman if her drug use caused her to make up memories.

“Are you aware of ever having an acid trip where you imagined or saw Susan Berman relating to you this tale of what happened?” Lewin asked about the alibi conversation.

Newman laughed and said no.

“Did you ever go on an acid trip with the following people?” Lewin asked, naming several other witnesses who testified that Berman told them she made phone call as an alibi for a friend in New York in the 1980s. Newman said no and later clarified she did not know those people.

The trial is set to resume on Monday. Prosecutors expect to finish calling all their witnesses sometime in July and the jury could get the case by August. Defense attorneys say they want Durst to testify , but it’s unclear when that will happen.

Follow Nathan Solis on Twitter

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit