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Robert Durst Found Guilty Of First Degree Murder, Bringing Saga Close To An End
Robert Durst faces the jurors before opening statements in his murder trial at Inglewood Courthouse on May 18, 2021.
(
Al Seib
/
Getty Images North America
)
"We the jury in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Robert Durst, guilty of the crime of first degree murder, of Susan Berman."
Those words were read by a Los Angeles jury Friday afternoon, ending decades of suspicion about Durst's involvement in the shooting death of one of his closest friends.
It took jurors nearly eight hours to reach the verdict, following a trial that lasted five months — with Durst spending more than two weeks on the stand.
Durst wasn’t in the courtroom to hear the verdict because he was exposed to COVID-19 while in prison and was put into isolation as a precaution. It's not clear if he tested positive for the virus.
But the judge presiding over the case moved forward to read the verdict right away, despite objections from Durst's defense lawyers.
The jury also found him guilty on a weapons charge and an additional special enhancement that would make him eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors charged him with killing Berman back in 2000 at her home in Benedict Canyon, to stop her from talking to investigators about the disappearance of his wife in 1982.
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He was never charged with any criminal act in connection with her disappearance, though he was acquitted in 2003 of killing a man he had befriended while evading authorities.
Durst, who is 78, is expected to be sentenced at a later date.
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