Robert Durst, who is accused of murdering his friend and long-time confidante, Susan Berman, testified in his own defense and denied being involved in the crime in a Los Angeles court, according to US media reports.
Durst was represented by attorney Dick DeGuerin in the courtroom, where the accused was asked in a straightforward manner if he had killed Berman, to which, Durst replied with a simple “no”, according to reports from Reuters.
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“Do you know who did?”, his lawyer DeGuerin asked and got another straight response. Durst said, “No, I do not”.
Durst, who is now 78 years old, sat in the courtroom in a wheelchair wearing a prisoner’s uniform. The accused in the murder of Susan Berman had recently undergone surgery in order to treat his oesophagal cancer.
Berman was shot in the back of the head and killed in 2000 in her Los Angeles home. She had been Durst’s best friend for decades and acted as his de facto spokesman after the disappearance of his wife, Kathie, who was later declared dead, though no dead body was found, according to reports from Associated Press.
A day before the last episode of ‘The Jinx’, a documentary series about Durst and Berman, was released in 2015, Durst was arrested by law enforcement authorities in New Orleans on a warrant for allegedly killing Berman.
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Prosecuting attorneys have been granted permission by the judicial authorities to bring forward evidence about Durst allegedly killing his wife. However, no formal charges have been put on the 78-year-old so far as he denies having any involvement in it.
According to reports from the news agency Associated Press, spent much of Monday’s testimony describing the happy early years of their marriage after meeting her when she was working at a dentist’s office just out of high school.
He said, “Kathie was ecstatic. I was ecstatic. We were both very much in love.”
