'It was her or me': Close friend testifies Robert Durst admitted to murder

A friend of real estate scion Robert Durst testified in a Los Angeles courtroom that Durst admitted killing a close friend in her home, according to The New York Times. Durst, a member of the real estate family that owns billions of dollars...

'It was her or me': Close friend testifies Robert Durst admitted to murder

A friend of real estate scion Robert Durst testified in a Los Angeles courtroom that Durst admitted killing a close friend in her home, according to The New York Times.

Durst, a member of the real estate family that owns billions of dollars of property in the city, has implicated himself in the murder of Susan Berman before. In the 2015 HBO series The Jinx, Durst is caught lying when retelling the circumstances leading up to his first wife, Kathleen’s, 1982 disappearance and then, in the series’s climax, seemingly admits to murdering both her and Berman.

Nick Chavin, a friend of Durst’s, gave testimony this week during a conditional examination in Los Angeles Superior Court. Durst’s trial is not scheduled to begin for another year, the Times stated, noting that prosecutors wanted to hear Chavin’s testimony in advance because Durst “kills witnesses,” the Times reported Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told the judge.

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“When pushed into a corner,” Lewin said, “he murders people.” 

Chavin said Durst told him that he “had to” kill Berman during a dinner the two had in Harlem in 2014. Durst said it was because she knew he had killed Kathleen and she could serve as a witness to prosecutors who began reexamining his wife’s disappearance in the early 2000s.

“It was her or me,” Chavin said Durst told him on a street outside the restaurant where they had dined. “I had no choice.”

Chavin also revealed that Berman told him Durst had killed Kathleen, but he said he initially didn’t believe Berman because she “was sensationalistic about everything.”

More real estate news

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Here’s where millennials are moving with roommates (DNAinfo.com)

Spotify signs big lease at 4 World Trade Center (The Wall Street Journal)

Queens tenants fight plan to turn their building in a homeless shelter (The Daily News)

A friend of real estate scion Robert Durst testified in a Los Angeles courtroom that Durst admitted killing a close friend in her home, according to The New York Times.

Durst, a member of the real estate family that owns billions of dollars of property in the city, has implicated himself in the murder of Susan Berman before. In the 2015 HBO series The Jinx, Durst is caught lying when retelling the circumstances leading up to his first wife, Kathleen’s, 1982 disappearance and then, in the series’s climax, seemingly admits to murdering both her and Berman.

Nick Chavin, a friend of Durst’s, gave testimony this week during a conditional examination in Los Angeles Superior Court. Durst’s trial is not scheduled to begin for another year, the Times stated, noting that prosecutors wanted to hear Chavin’s testimony in advance because Durst “kills witnesses,” the Times reported Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told the judge.

“When pushed into a corner,” Lewin said, “he murders people.” 

Chavin said Durst told him that he “had to” kill Berman during a dinner the two had in Harlem in 2014. Durst said it was because she knew he had killed Kathleen and she could serve as a witness to prosecutors who began reexamining his wife’s disappearance in the early 2000s.

“It was her or me,” Chavin said Durst told him on a street outside the restaurant where they had dined. “I had no choice.”

Chavin also revealed that Berman told him Durst had killed Kathleen, but he said he initially didn’t believe Berman because she “was sensationalistic about everything.”

Port Authority passes $32 billion capital plan (The Wall Street Journal)

Here’s where millennials are moving with roommates (DNAinfo.com)

Spotify signs big lease at 4 World Trade Center (The Wall Street Journal)

Queens tenants fight plan to turn their building in a homeless shelter (The Daily News)

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