Justice in America-Billionaire walks free after Chopping Up Body

[Khayr]

Millionaire who killed man innocent of murder

Admitted he chopped up body of neighbour

But claimed killing was in self-defence

 

 

JUAN A. LOZANO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

GALVESTON, TEXAS—New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who said he accidentally killed a hotheaded neighbour in self-defence and then chopped up the body because he feared no one would believe him, has been found innocent of murder.

 

The jury took five days to reach the verdict, bringing a startling end yesterday to a grisly case that began to unfold when trash bags containing pieces of 71-year-old Morris Black started washing up along Galveston Bay in 2001.

 

Durst appeared stunned when he heard the verdict, his eyes filling with tears.

 

The 60-year-old millionaire hugged his attorneys, saying: "Thank you so much."

 

Prosecutors called Durst a cold-blooded killer who shot Black to steal his identity, meticulously cleaning the crime scene, fleeing Galveston, then returning to retrieve the head because it could identify his victim.

 

The victim's head has never been found.

 

Durst told court he used two saws and an axe to cut up the body and threw the pieces into Galveston Bay.

 

Durst came under suspicion after a receipt with his name on it was found in the trash bags containing Black's remains.

 

He was arrested and posted $300,000 bond, but then fled.

 

It was when Durst made bail that authorities discovered he was a millionaire heir, the son of the late Seymour Durst, patriarch of the Durst Organization, a billion-dollar real estate company that owns several New York skyscrapers.

 

Durst, who has been estranged from his family since the early 1990s, remains under suspicion in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen, and the 2000 shooting death of her friend Susan Berman, a Los Angeles writer who was set to be questioned about the missing woman.

 

He has not been charged in either case.

 

Court heard Durst met Black after moving from New York to Galveston in November, 2000, where the millionaire initially posed as a mute woman, donning a wig and a dress, after a New York investigation was reopened into the disappearance of Kathleen.

 

He later dropped the masquerade and became friends with Black, who lived across the hall in a low-rent building.

 

Durst's attorneys said the friendship soured because of the elderly man's increasingly belligerent behaviour.

 

Durst and other witnesses said Black often flew into rages.

 

Durst testified that he found Black in his apartment on Sept. 28, 2001, and that Black had Durst's gun. During a struggle, the gun went off, hitting Black in the face, he said.

 

In a risky, all-or-nothing strategy by the defence, the jury was allowed to consider only murder, not lesser charges such as manslaughter.

 

Durst still faces a bail-jumping charge. While defence attorney Dick DeGuerin praised the jurors for "their ability to look at this case for what the charge was," prosecutor Kurt Sistrunk said he was dismayed and disappointed with the verdict.

 

Yesterday, James McCormack, the brother of Kathleen Durst, said that he was shocked by the verdict.

 

"How can 12 people who heard and saw the evidence agree that he was not guilty?" he said.

 

With files from The New York Times

[Haaruun]

$$$ talks in North America

[Thinkerman]

Thats just absurd.

[Xafsa]

lol.. stup!dity is contagious.

[SaMaaH]

Sad, a person is dead and he's walking around free

[SaMaaH]

Oops !