Defense says dismemberment is evidence of Durst's innocence

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By BRIAN MELLEY

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The savage and sloppy manner in which Robert Durst dismembered a man he accidentally killed in Texas helps prove the New York real estate heir didn’t murder his best friend or kill his wife, his lawyer said.

Durst’s amateurish efforts to dispose of the body of Morris Black after fatally shooting him in Galveston in 2001 left a trail of evidence — unlike the clinical crime scene where Susan Berman’s body was found or the absence of clues when his wife vanished, attorney Dick DeGuerin said Wednesday.

A garbage bag floating in Galveston Bay with one of Black’s body parts contained a receipt with Durst’s name on it, blood from the drifter was discovered in his car, and DNA of the man was found at the crime scene in the multimillionaire’s $300-a-month apartment.

“There was clues everywhere. Hundreds of clues,” DeGuerin told jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Court. “Significantly different from whoever killed Susan Berman. Significantly different from the disappearance without a trace of Kathie Durst.”



Robert Durst holds a device to read the real time spoken script as he appears in the courtroom of Judge Mark E. Windham as attorney's begin opening statements in the trial of the real estate scion charged with murder of longtime friend Susan Berman, at Los Angeles County Superior Court, Tuesday, May 18, 2021, in Inglewood, Calif. Durst's murder trial was delayed more than a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/shootings-ef0801a85a92738eaedc0fd3dee536d5

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Yeah ... good luck with that argument ... pffft (nt)

[marble falls]

2. Just like empty money sacks prove you didn't rob the bank, or an empty clip proves you shot no-one.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Oh, O.K. 👀

[Historic NY]

4. Is he trying to run out the clock.....

[malthaussen]

5. When do they introduce Twinkies as evidence? n/t

[AZLD4Candidate]

7. Affluenza

[ripcord]

6. I wonder if any of Berman's father's associates still have any influence?

If so just find him guilty and let him go.

[bahboo]

8. lawyer be lawyering....

[csziggy]

9. Don't some serial killers decompensate as they go along?

Look at Ted Bundy - his earlier crimes were not connected to him until much later, but as he continued killing, his methods became increasingly sloppy.

There are some who believe that Durst is a serial killer and connect other killings to him besides his wife, Berman, and Black. This could be one of the indicators that he really is a serial killer.

[howardmappel]

10. Absence of evidence

So the fact that there is not tangible evidence is evidence that he didn't do it. Yeaahhh. And if I am the prosecutor, I argue that what this shows is that Durst learned from the prior death to be more careful and to do a better job of cleaning up.