Robert Durst takes the stand and testifies in his murder trial answering questions at the Inglewood Courthouse in California. Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Moments/Pool through REUTERS
Aug 17 (Reuters) – Real estate heir Robert Durst said in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday that he would lie under oath relatively than confess killing someone, but that he had not lied all through 5 days of testimony even though on trial for the murder of his good friend Susan Berman.
“‘Did you kill Susan Berman?’ is strictly a hypothetical,” Durst, 78, testified from a wheelchair, donning a county jail uniform. “I did not destroy Susan Berman. But if I experienced, I would lie about it.”
Durst, portion of a distinguished New York serious estate loved ones, is formally charged in Los Angeles County Top-quality Court docket with killing Berman, his long-time confidante, in 2000 in her Beverly Hills property.
Los Angeles prosecutors are also arguing Durst killed Berman to assist protect up the murder of his spouse, Kathleen McCormack Durst, who went lacking with no a trace practically 40 several years back in New York. Durst has under no circumstances been formally charged in relation to his wife’s disappearance.
The Durst story gained fame soon after he was caught on a incredibly hot microphone seemingly admitting that he “killed them all, of class” during the capturing of the 2015 HBO documentary series “The Jinx.”
Prosecutors also contend Durst in 2001 murdered Morris Black, a neighbor for the duration of a period of time of residence in Galveston, for the reason that Black had discovered Durst was hiding out there following New York authorities had reopened the probe into his wife’s disappearance. A Texas jury acquitted Durst of murder following Durst testified he killed the gentleman in self-defense.
On Tuesday Durst came underneath cross-evaluation from prosecutors for the very first time just after his defense team had taken the uncommon stage of acquiring him testify in his own defense.
Protection attorneys on Monday led Durst by testimony in which he admitted chopping up Black’s entire body and to abandoning Berman’s human body immediately after discovering her dead in her house.
Durst claimed he had still left both criminal offense scenes, every time building an initial attempt to get in touch with the 911 crisis selection before determining against it.
Deputy District Lawyer John Lewin opened his cross-examination in a neutral tone, inquiring Durst how he wished to be resolved. Durst replied, “How about ‘sir’?”
But then Lewin homed in on Durst’s remark under questioning from his own protection lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, that he had lied or improved his story many instances all through investigations of the circumstances involving Berman, Black and his lacking wife.
Lewin requested Durst if he would lie less than oath to support his personal case.
“Of course,” Durst stated.
The prosecutor then asked Durst regardless of whether he would admit it if he experienced killed Berman.
“No,” Durst stated.
The cross-assessment of Durst carries on on Wednesday.
Reporting by Daniel Trotta Modifying by Kenneth Maxwell
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