LOS ANGELES (CN) --- Several days after being hospitalized Robert Durst, the millionaire New York real estate heir charged with the murder of his longtime friend, returned to a Los Angeles County Superior courtroom where his trial resumed.
Jurors will decide whether Durst killed friend Susan Berman, who was found shot in the back of the head in her LA County home in December 2000. Prosecutors say Berman gave Durst an alibi in 1982, when Durst's wife Kathie disappeared. Authorities never charged Durst in Kathie’s murder, but LA County prosecutors say Berman knew too much about Kathie’s disappearance and even phoned Kathie's medical school pretending to be her the day after she disappeared.
The possibility of Kathie’s disappearance being reopened spooked Durst, prosecutors say, and he killed Berman to tie up any loose ends. The HBO documentary "The Jinx" recounted Durst's life story and his possible connection to three murders, which his defense team argues is pure fabrication.
On Monday, Berman’s childhood friend Susie Harmon testified that shortly after Kathie Durst disappeared, she had an intense phone conversation with Berman.
“She said her friend Bobby had a fight with his wife,” said Harmon. “She told me there was an accident on the stairs. She had to do something.”
Defense attorney David Chesnoff asked why Harmon never mentioned that conversation to police and just now revealed it on the witness stand. Harmon said she recalled talking about that conversation with other people. Chesnoff read back her statement to police in 2000, in which she said she would need to be hypnotized to better remember the details about her friendship with Berman and conversations they had about Durst.
Chesnoff asked if she couldn’t remember other facts, how could she rely on her memory on the phone call about the staircase accident.
“It stands out in my mind. And Susan was upset,” Harmon replied.
Chesnoff noted the conversation would have been important to police after Berman’s body was found.
“You never told that to the police after Susan was murdered, did you?” he asked.
“The two things had nothing to do with each other,” Harmon answered, later adding: "I wasn’t even sure if it was her. I had to go to the mortuary. I didn’t even know…it wasn’t related to anything. They say your friend’s dead. You can’t find her. You don’t know where she is. I wasn’t even concerned about what happened years ago.”
Just before her murder, Durst gave Berman $50,000. Prosecutors call it a payout for her silence in the alibi that was provided in 1982, while Durst’s defense attorneys say it was a loan to a friend who had fallen on hard financial times.
Harmon testified she loaned Berman $500 a month and took her grocery shopping just before her death. She also said even though Durst and Berman were the best of friends, she didn't think much of it when Durst didn't come to Berman's memorial service.
“No one would have wanted this to happen and to such good friends, to come to such a terrible end,” she said.
Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian asked Harmon whether she wanted someone to be wrongly convicted.
“Of course not, but it’s not as if…it’s a terrible thing,” Harmon answered, her voice breaking.
Monday's proceedings marked the first for Durst, 78, since he was found by jail officials out of his wheelchair and lying on the floor this past Thursday. His defense attorneys said Durst was diagnosed with sepsis and a urinary tract infection due to bladder cancer and moved to delay the trial.
Durst sat in a wheelchair wearing a brown jail jumpsuit in court Monday, and his defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told the court Durst's poor health and inability to stand prohibit him from being able to change clothes. While his attorneys argued to delay the trial, Durst held a catheter bag up for the court to see.
Durst’s attorneys said the jury should not see their client in a jail garb, so LA County Superior Court Judge Mark Windham allowed Durst to wear a blanket for the day’s testimony. Windham noted a doctor cleared Durst to appear in court and moved ahead with the day’s testimony.
Before the jury was let into the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said there wasn’t much the court could do about Durst’s appearance.
“The prejudice would be on the people’s side because Mr. Durst looks like a very sympathetic character right now,” said Lewin. “He’s sitting in a wheelchair right now. He looks very old and feeble. This doesn’t look like somebody who has murdered three people.”
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