Accused killer Robert Durst takes the stand in his own defense

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Robert Durst took the witness stand today to defend himself against allegations that he murdered his friend Susan Berman in 2000 in her Benedict Canyon home. Durst will return to court Wednesday morning to resume testifying.

Durst was previously charged two decades ago with the murder of his neighbor Morris Black, who Durst shot in Texas in 2001 before dismembering Black’s corpse and dumping it into Galveston Bay. In that case Durst was acquitted on self-defense grounds after struggling with Black for a pistol.

Another suspicious point in the real estate heir’s checkered past: his first wife Kathleen disappeared in 1982. That’s where Susan Berman comes in — Durst, Kathleen and Berman were all close friends.

According to the prosecution, led by Los Angeles County deputy district attorney John Lewin, Durst confided in Berman that he had killed Kathleen nearly two decades prior, but later regretted that decision and became afraid Berman would turn on him. Durst didn’t like the idea of blackmail hanging over his head, and so he killed Berman, or so claims Lewin.

The man who took the stand today appeared frail and unwell, seated in a wheelchair and hooked to a catheter bag, though with a tack-sharp memory. Durst’s voice was wisp-like, weakened by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, esophageal surgery and his ongoing struggle with bladder cancer, and he struggled to hear — he mostly read his lawyers’ questions off the transcript next to him. That said, Durst was able to recall dates and minute details from events that occurred 50 years ago and seemed perfectly competent to speak on his own behalf today.

Durst adamantly denies that he killed his friend, and claims he does not know who did. His legal team, led by Dick DeGuerin, seemed to be trying to paint a picture of a psychologically troubled “rich kid,” as he has called himself, growing up in New York. Early on in their questioning, lawyers for the defendant asked about his childhood, particularly focusing on the death of Durst’s mother, who fell off the roof of the family home, which he claims to have witnessed.

“I saw my mother laying on the cobblestone in her nightgown,” said Durst.

Attorneys asked Durst if he blamed his father.

“Yes. Seven-year-old Bobby Durst knew it was his father’s fault,” Durst replied. “Bobby Durst knew that his father had killed his mother. After that, I started running away every couple of weeks.”

Lewin repeatedly objected when DeGuerin asked about the psychiatrists Durst saw following the tragedy, but that didn’t stop Durst’s attorneys from trying to work that particular detail into the jurors’ minds. Durst said his grandfather had taken him to the window shortly before his mother’s death and very calmly explained that she was on the roof, then shortly after walking away Durst heard his dad yell, “Call the fire department!”

Durst’s brother Douglas disputed those claims in an interview, saying Robert could not have seen their mother on the roof from the window that he claimed to be peering through, but Robert claims he has since been back to the home and verified that it was in fact possible, and plainly called Douglas a liar.

Durst went on to answer DeGuerin’s questions about how he first met Berman during his college days after being introduced by a mutual friend. The two quickly hit it off and became “best friends,” he said. According to Durst, the pair kept in touch while Berman was working as a journalist and Durst was trying to get his health food store off the ground in Vermont. Berman even moved into a spare room in Durst’s New York apartment for a brief time after he returned to help out at the family business, before getting her own place six months later.

Durst will return to the witness stand Wednesday morning to continue his testimony.

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