LOS ANGELES (AP) — The estranged brother of Robert Durst, the true property inheritor on trial in his greatest buddy’s slaying, reluctantly testified Monday that the 2 by no means acquired alongside and he feared his oldest sibling would kill him.
“He’d prefer to homicide me,” Douglas Durst bluntly informed jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom.
Douglas Durst, head of one in all New York’s largest industrial actual property companies, mentioned his brother was offended and bitter over an acrimonious inheritance settlement for tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}. He had not seen his brother in 20 years however worries due to threats he has made.
The chairman of the Durst Group, which owns a few of Manhattan’s premier skyscrapers and a couple of,500 flats, mentioned he and his brother have fought since childhood.
“He handled me miserably,” Douglas Durst mentioned. “He would battle with me at each likelihood. He would embarrass me.”
Regardless of the dangerous blood, Douglas Durst mentioned he didn’t wish to testify towards his brother, who’s on trial on prices of fatally taking pictures Susan Berman in 2000 at her Los Angeles residence. He mentioned he cooperated with prosecutors beneath risk of subpoena.
“There are different locations I’d a lot moderately be,” he mentioned.
Prosecutors say Berman offered an alibi for Robert Durst after he killed his first spouse, Kathie, in 1982 and that he silenced his buddy after she determined to inform police what she knew in regards to the disappearance. Robert Durst has pleaded not responsible to homicide.
Kathie Durst had informed Douglas Durst she deliberate to hunt a divorce from his brother, he testified.
Douglas Durst mentioned his brother informed him Kathie Durst vanished three days after he put her on a prepare to New York Metropolis from their lakeside home in Westchester County. Robert Durst mentioned that was the final time he noticed his spouse.
“His tone was very impartial,” Douglas Durst mentioned. “There was no nice nervousness in his tone. It appeared a bit unusual.”
On cross-examination, he mentioned his brother appeared distraught however added he would have been extra upset if his spouse was lacking.
“There may be virtually no emotion that Bob reveals that’s real,” he mentioned.
He mentioned his brother informed him the disappearance is likely to be associated to a drug supplier who had come by the couple’s house. The protection has recommended Kathie Durst, who was getting ready to graduating from medical faculty, had a cocaine drawback.
Kathie Durst has by no means been discovered however wasalso declared useless. Robert Durst has lengthy been thought of a suspect in her loss of life however has denied any involvement and has by no means been charged with against the law associated to her disappearance.
Douglas Durst, tan and sporting a crisp white shirt with French cuffs and a grey masks to adjust to COVID-19 courtroom guidelines, minimize a a lot completely different determine than his ailing brother.
A pale, skinny Robert Durst, 78, with a shaved head that exposed an enormous scar the place fluid was drained from his cranium, was seated in a wheelchair and wearing dishevelled brown jail scrubs.
Durst, who has bladder most cancers and a number of other different maladies, stood and addressed the decide to counter a suggestion by Deputy District Lawyer John Lewin that he was looking for sympathy by displaying his urine bag and shaving his head.
Durst mentioned it was the one haircut he might get in jail. He mentioned he needs a health care provider to take away his catheter.
“I’m not looking for sympathy from the jury,” Durst mentioned in a throaty voice.
Douglas Durst confirmed no emotion whereas testifying. He recounted how their mom’s loss of life in a fall from the roof of their property when he was 5 had been traumatic for the entire household, not only for Robert, who was 7 on the time.
He additionally disputed that $50,000 in checks that Robert Durst gave to Berman had been out of generosity, saying his brother was stingy and all the things had an ulterior motive.
His brother’s trials have tarnished the status of his household, he mentioned.
“It’s probably the most embarrassing factor that I’ve ever encountered,” he mentioned. “It’s very painful to have our names related to these incidents.”
Durst mentioned the final time he spoke together with his brother was in 1999 and he had final seen him in Texas at a nephew’s marriage ceremony in 2001.
About two weeks after the marriage, Robert Durst fatally shot neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, the place he had gone to cover out from New York authorities after they reopened the investigation into Kathie Durst’s disappearance.
Robert Durst was acquitted of homicide after testifying that he killed Black in self-defense. He served jail time for chopping up Black’s physique and tossing it out to sea and for leaping bail.
Whereas he was on the lam in that case, he confirmed up outdoors his brother’s Westchester residence, Douglas Durst mentioned he realized.
Robert Durst was later recorded in a jail cellphone name “in essence plotting to kill his brother, Douglas,” Lewin mentioned in arguing that jurors ought to hear about him exhibiting up at his brother’s residence.
“He has in contrast the way in which he feels about Douglas to the way in which he felt about Kathie,” Lewin mentioned. “Our argument and place is that’s what he did, he killed her.”
Robert Durst twice confirmed up outdoors his brother’s home in 2008, together with as soon as when he was sporting a ski masks and fled after a safety guard drew his weapon, Lewin mentioned.
Douglas Durst mentioned that though his brother is jailed with out bail, he nonetheless is worried about his security and had flown to California with a safety element.
“I’ve a concern that my brother has threatened to kill me, and I concern that he could have the means to take action,” he mentioned.