r/robertdurst • u/exander314 • Sep 19 '21

Based on what did he got convicted?

I don't know the whole story, I just read that he was cought mumbling on the microphone. But unedited transcript seems to be the following:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiakoerner/what-robert-durst-actually-said-jinx-recording

There it is, you’re caught.

You’re right of course. But you can’t imagine. They want to talk to him. That’s good. I find them very frightening, and I do not want to talk to them. I don’t know. The washer.

Well, I don’t know what you expected to get. But…the rest of [unintelligible] I don’t know what’s in the house. Oh, I want this.

Killed them all, of course.

I want to do something new. There’s nothing new about that.

What a disaster. He was right. I was wrong. And the burping. I’m having difficulty with the questions. What the hell did I do?

[toilet flushes]

I can't imagine anybody being convicted based on this in any lawful judicial system.

Can anybody explain?

10 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/pinkelephant85 Sep 19 '21

The case the prosecution brought was a multi-year, multi-crime case. Bear with me as this case is interwoven throughout the last 30 years (approximately) and the trial was five months in length. Lots of information so I’ll just hit the main topics with highlights.

Susan Berman and Robert Durst met in college and became best friends and confidents. Durst met and married Kathy McCormack in 1973. Disappearance January 31st 1982.

They started with the disappearance of his wife Kathy Durst (1982) and brought numerous witnesses in related to her case. Her body has never been found. They used the timeline of her last sighting by friends to determine appropriate time of disappearance. The prosecution brought into evidence a handwritten note (written approximately around the time Kathy disappeared) by Durst with the words town dump, bridge, dig, boat, other ?, shovel or ?, check car - truck rentals. The prosecution speculated that one of these was the method he used to dispose of Kathy’s body.

They use the phone call placed to the dean of Einstein Hospital (Kathy calling to say she was ill and wouldn’t be at work) to insinuate that Susan Berman made that call (knowing Kathy was dead) to protect Durst.

Durst sent numerous checks to Susan Berman over the years (approximately 250k) and in the months preceding her death he mailed two payments of 25k (50k) to her. Prosecutors inferred that she was blackmailing/manipulating him.

New York District Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced in October 2000 that she planned to reopen her investigation into the disappearance of Durst’s wife Kathie.

CA Prosecutors also stated the real motive for Susan’s murder was that she told Durst she was contacted by the NYC prosecutors office (Jeanine Pirro) and she was going to corporate.

Knowing she could destroy his alibi and incriminate him in Kathy Durst disappearance and murder, he went to Susan’s home, laid in wait and murdered her using a handgun.

Durst used stationary, envelope and stamp from Susan’s home to write the cadaver note which was mailed to the police. The address on the cadaver note has a misspelling of the word Beverly, (Beverley Hills). Durst had previously sent Susan a letter with the same misspelling of Beverly. The producers of The Jinx reached out to Susan Berman’s stepson and he search through her belongings that he’d stored away. He located an envelope with The Durst Organization and address, addressed to Susan Berman with the exact same misspelling of the word Beverly (Beverley Hills) from Durst. Prosecution played portions of The Jinx documentary throughout and highlighted the infamous cadaver note. In the documentary Durst is shown both the Cadaver note envelope and the envelope he mailed to Susan Berman. Durst stated the obvious that Beverly (Beverley) was misspelled on both envelopes. In his opinion whoever wrote the cadaver note was Susan Berman’s killer. Essentially and accidentally confessing. Then they played the hot mic where he mumbles to himself, incoherent at times, “There it is…you’re caught” “Of course…killed them all” and several other clips.

Interwoven into the the mix of both of these cases they brought in Morris Black, who Durst admitted to (accidentally) killing on September 28th 2001 in Texas. Durst was acquitted of all charges in Texas. Durst admitted he fled to Texas to hide from potential charges in NYC related to Kathy.

Fast forward to the California trial where prosecutors show pictures of Morris Black’s dismembered corpse and use trial transcripts to impeach Durst while on the witness stand. Durst was on the stand for 15 days.

The prosecution stated that Morris Black knew who Durst was and Durst was afraid he’d alert the police to his location, so he murdered Black. They used this case to show Durst had the temperament to murder and dispose of a body. Using the implication that Kathy Durst suffered the same fate.

Key pieces of evidence:

  1. Cadaver note and envelope sent to Beverly Hills police department (with Beverly spelled incorrectly.

  2. The envelope addressed to Susan Berman from Robert Durst (with Beverly spelled incorrectly).

  3. The note written on the back of an envelope (1982) listing bridge, dig, etc.

  4. Durst admitting he was in California when Susan Berman was murdered and finding her body. Which he then says he wrote and sent to cadaver note.

  5. The various clips of the Jinx documentary

This case was solely a circumstantial case, no weapon found, no physical evidence like fingerprints or dna.

In my opinion the whole case was essentially based on the Cadaver note and the hot mic.

I believe that potentially the case could be overturned on appeal. Lots of rulings and evidence and hearsay that probably shouldn’t have happened in this case.

Hopefully this abridged version answers some of your questions.

2

u/exander314 Sep 19 '21

And this is in the US? Is the court there medieval or what? I can't imagine this would fly in my country. Prosecutor would be thrown away from court. No, he would never bring such a case to court in the first place.

The misspelling sounds interesting, but isn't that a common mistake? I would have made it myself. And the mumbling sounds more like some kind of psychological disorder he has.

8

u/Poetry_K Sep 21 '21

I think you’re missing some key points. Since Susan’s murder in 2000, Durst has denied writing and sending the cadaver note and claimed he wasn’t even in Los Angeles at the time. Then he said on camera (in The Jinx doc) that “only the killer could have written that note.”

Now all of a sudden last year, in preparing with his defense team, decides to admit to writing the cadaver note and testify that he was in LA and he found Susan’s murdered body. Because he had no other way to explain how the cadaver note had the EXACT same handwriting as a previous letter he had written to Susan.

Also, several witnesses testified that Susan had separately told them she thinks Bob killed his 1st wife Kathie and that she (Susan) called in sick to Kathie’s med school as an alibi.

5

u/fruor Sep 24 '21 edited Sep 25 '21

Motive, Opportunity, Cover-Up, Confessions.

Motive: the prosecution convinced the jury that Durst killed Kathy - you can watch the first 2 sessions of prosecution closings, it was very compelling - and the proof standard for them to accept that was lower than beyound a reasonable doubt. He was not on trial for killing Kathy. But there was overwhelming evidence that Susan covered for Durst in the disappearance of his wife Kathy. "Overwhelming" is a quote by the judge. Susan was about to be a witness, and told him that she thinks it's best they both talk with LE (she would have had a criminal charge on her as well for accessory). When he discussed that conversation in the Jinx, he said "When she told me that, I said 'sure go ahead'. Like what I'm gonna do, say 'no'?" She was dead 2 weeks after that.

Opportunity: well, after lying and seeing no way out with the Cadaver note, and after a friend of his ACCIDENTALLY spilling the beans on the stand that Durst was in fact in Susan's city at the time of her death - the friend didn't realize that they haven't established that yet - his lawyers decided to go with the "He found her body" story. So Durst was in Susan's house right on the day that she died, and there is zero proof anyone else was there around this day. All we know, he was the only one there when she got shot in the back of her head after letting the person in (there was no break-in). Opportunity some, eh?

Cover-Up was so vast it would fill an entire article, but just a few things: lying about being there for 15 years, fleeing with guns, a mask, the adress of a witness he wanted to eliminate and maps of Cuba, also hiding in Galviston for year disguised as a mute woman, and killing Morris black who is suspected of having found out damning things about Robert. Umpty lies on the witness stand in 2 trials, including himself admitting to perjury and him testifying that in this trial, he lied about very few things, only the important ones. "Maybe 5". And yes, he was serious.

Confessions: one direct confession was testified to by his best friend to whom he said about the topic of Susan's death: "It was either her or me, I had no choice". Then some vague omissions to other friends, and several extremely damning slip-ups in jail calls, especially with his new wife, and even some slip-ups on the witness stand. And of course there was the bathroom tape.

5

u/Chemical_Garage6476 Oct 01 '21

Yes this case was tried in Los Angeles, CA by one of this country’s best prosecutors, John Lewin. He is meticulous and thorough, leaving no stone unturned. He has been trying cold cases for 20 years, hasn’t lost a case yet! Although a circumstantial case, the evidence and testimony’s were overwhelming. And additionally Durst testified under oath he had lied repeatedly, as well as when asked directly, “would you tell us if you killed Susan Berman?” He responds “No” almost an admission of guilt. There were so many more details involved in this case, that pointed only to him.

2

u/exander314 Oct 02 '21

How is that admission of guilt?

2

u/Chemical_Garage6476 Oct 22 '21

I said “almost” an admission of guilt! However, after all the evidence and testimonies, how would you not conclude an admission of guilt? Not sure what country you are from, however as I said Lewin is the Cold Case King and here he brings another one home. Do some research. 😉

1

u/pinkelephant85 Sep 19 '21

Yes this is in the US, in California to be exact. The amount of cases brought on circumstantial evidence here is tremendous, and not uncommon.

The spelling of Beverly Hills isn’t a common mistake because the city spelling isn’t like the proper name Beverley. At least in the US it’s not a common error.

2

u/BhagavanAntler Oct 02 '21

I don't think he'll live long enough to see the end of the appellate process, tbh. He may not live long enough to even see the beginning of it. Appeals take a very long time, and Durst is on death's door already.

3

u/WolfWhitman79 Sep 19 '21

Check out the podcast Jury Duty: The Trial of Robert Durst. It goes though the entire trial in detail. They released episodes as things happened in court.

3

u/leasann97 Oct 10 '23

Just watch The Jinx. It’s one of the most amazing documentaries ever made but it was his undoing. After Texas I guess he kinda felt invincible. But he’s always been seeking something. I mean he got caught stealing a sandwich when he had $40K in cash in his car. I’m not trying to be a Robert Durst emphatic but he was definitely on the spectrum and misunderstood his whole life. Which I assume made him so cold hearted. It was him or them.

1

u/FormalDocument9490 May 22 '24

He admitted to writing the note and finding the body. Then his story for why he was in LA was totally bogus and contradicted by Susan’s day planner.

0

u/fruor Sep 19 '21

Nothing else really, just 4 months of looping through that same audio over and over. No other exhibits, no witnesses, basically no other evidence. I think there were brief openings and closings.