Real estate heir Robert Durst on trial for murder
Durst is accused of killing a friend 20 years ago and was recorded saying 'I killed them all, of course' in 2015 documentary. Jacqui Heinrich reports.
New York real-estate tycoon Robert Durst testified Wednesday at his Los Angeles murder trial that he used some cocaine, methamphetamine and "lots of marijuana" before his wife's 1982 disappearance.
Durst took the stand Wednesday at his own trial for the second time this week and described a happy relationship with both his wife, Kathleen "Kathie" Durst, and his best friend, Susan Berman, whom he is accused of killing, when the trio lived together in the 1970s.
"I tried it several times," Durst said when asked about his cocaine use in the '70s. "Fortunately, I cannot snort anything because I have bad hay fever. So whenever I would try cocaine, my nose would be clogged up for three or four days."
Durst, 78, is charged with killing Berman, who was shot in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in December 2000. He has pleaded not guilty to murder, though prosecutors allege that the millionaire attempted to silence Berman before she could give police any information regarding his alleged role in Kathie Durst's vanishing.
Prosecutors share photo of Robert Durst (left), Susan Berman (middle) and Kathie Durst (right) at Robert Durst's Aug. 11 murder trial. (Fox News)
Durst added that he did methamphetamine and "lots of marijuana" when asked if he did other drugs; he also claimed Kathie Durst was a heavy cocaine user.
"There was lots of drugs around," the defendant said of New York in the 1970s. " … Theoretically, cocaine and methamphetamine and marijuana were illegal, but the only people who seemed to get arrested were Black people in Harlem."
ROBERT DURST TESTIFIES IN LOS ANGELES MURDER TRIAL
Kathie Durst was 29 when she did not return home in 1982, and authorities eventually declared her dead in 2017.
Other than what Durst described to be an exciting lifestyle in 1970s Manhattan, he also testified that he had a happy marriage with his wife and friendship with Berman.
New York real estate scion Robert Durst, 78, answers questions from defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, left, while testifying in his murder trial at the Inglewood Courthouse on Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
The real estate heir said during the trial that he "never thought about divorce" and was "happy" with his marriage though he eventually discovered that Kathie Durst was secretively paying a matrimonial lawyer from their joint bank account. Durst apparently filed for divorce against Kathie in 1990, years after her disappearance, according to a 2001 New York Times report.
REAL ESTATE SCION ROBERT DURST EXPECTED TO TESTIFY IN OWN DEFENSE
Durst noted during his testimony that one point of contention in his marriage was Kathie's desire for children and his hope to remain childless after what he described as a disastrous childhood.
"I was very, very much against having children," he said. "I felt it was so much of a responsibility. I did not want to be a daddy. My childhood had been a disaster. I did not want the same thing to happen to my child."
The defendant was also charged with killing his Galveston, Texas, neighbor Morris Black while he was in hiding there after Berman's murder.
During his 2003 murder trial, he said Black was accidentally killed in a struggle after entering Durst's apartment with a gun. He admitted to dismembering and disposing of Black's body. The jury acquitted him of murder.
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It took nearly 15 years for police to arrest the New York real estate heir in Berman's killing and another five to bring him to trial, which was further delayed over the last year due to COVID-19.
The homicide trial involving Berman is ongoing in California, and New York recently reopened its investigation into Kathie Durst's disappearance.
Fox News' Laura Prabucki in Los Angeles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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