78-year-old American millionaire Robert Durst has been sentenced in California to life imprisonment, with no chance of parole. Last month he was found guilty by a jury of the murder of a close friend of his in 2000.
The girlfriend, Susan Berman, was shot dead by Durst because she wanted to tell the police that she helped cover up the murder of Durst’s wife in 1982. After Kathleen Durst’s disappearance, she is said to have provided him with an alibi.
Microphone on
Durst, a scion of a wealthy American real estate family, was arrested in a New Orleans hotel in 2015, following the HBO documentary The Jinx, the Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
During an interview for the series, Durst had gone to the bathroom without realizing that his pinned microphone was still on. In front of the mirror he muttered to himself, “What the hell have I done? Killed them all, of course.”
According to the prosecutors, that amounted to a confession. A 1999 letter from Durst to his girlfriend Berman also provided evidence.
ruthless
The prosecutors portrayed Durst during the trial as a wealthy narcissist who feels the law doesn’t apply to him and who ruthlessly removes those who stand in his way.
The prosecutors previously underlined the importance of the HBO documentary for the prosecution of Durst. “If they hadn’t conducted those interviews, we wouldn’t be where we are,” Chief Prosecutor John Lewin said.
The documentary shows the seven-year investigation of three unsolved murders and was made with the full cooperation of Durst. Also the movie All Good Things is about the eccentric life of the millionaire.
Durst’s lawyers will appeal against the imposed life sentence.
–
