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 Robert Durst, whose ties to three mysterious deaths were
explored in HBO's series "The Jinx," has pleaded not guilty to
the first-degree murder of his friend Berman in Los Angeles in
2000. Prosecutors allege Durst killed Berman because of what she
knew about his wife's 1982 disappearance.
The judge has allowed some witnesses to take the stand early in
the case, with their testimony preserved in the event they die
before Durst's trial, which is not expected to begin before next
year.
Berman's friend Miriam Barnes, 66, testified on Tuesday that
about the time Kathleen Durst disappeared, Berman called her
over to her New York apartment to tell her something urgent
about Durst, whom Berman called Bobby.
"She said, 'I did something today for Bobby and if anything ever
happens to me, Bobby did it,'" Barnes testified in Los Angeles
Superior Court.
Barnes said Berman, the daughter of an organized crime figure,
did not elaborate. Barnes said she did not think seriously about
the conversation until after Berman was slain.
Police found Berman, 55, shot to death in her Los Angeles home
in December 2000, shortly after it was revealed police in New
York had reopened an investigation into the disappearance and
presumed slaying of Kathleen Durst.
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Also on Tuesday, former New York police detective James Varian, 77,
testified that days after Kathleen Durst went missing, a Manhattan
neighbor of the Dursts described an incident in late 1981 when
Kathleen Durst frantically climbed out of a window in her home,
crossing a terrace to enter the neighbor's apartment, Varian
testified.
Kathleen Durst told the neighbor, Anne Doyle, in that incident that
Robert Durst "beat her and wanted to kill her," Varian said.
Durst, 74, has denied having anything to do with the disappearance
of his wife, whose body was never found. He has not been charged in
her death.
"The Jinx" in 2015 chronicled Durst's ties to his wife's
disappearance, Berman's slaying and Durst's 2003 acquittal in the
killing and dismemberment of a Texas neighbor.
Prosecutors formally charged Durst with killing Berman a day after
HBO aired the final episode, in which Durst was recorded muttering
to himself off-camera, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of
course."
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Patrick Enright and Bill
Trott)
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