Judge Mark Windham said he was removing the juror after she violated a court order not to read about the case during the lengthy break. Windham said the juror “took umbrage” that defense attorneys sought a mistrial because they felt the jurors wouldn’t be able to remember what they had heard over six days before the case was halted in March 2020.
Durst, 78, an heir to a New York commercial real estate empire, is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of his best friend, Susan Berman. She was shot in the back of the head at her Los Angeles home in December 2000.Durst has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer said Durst didn’t kill her and doesn’t know who did, though he conceded last year that Durst found her body, putting him at the crime scene for the first time.
Durst, who is frail and sickly, returned to court Tuesday after being absent a day earlier. Dressed in a blue jacket, white shirt and tan pants, he was slumped in a wheelchair with a white mask and his gray hair disheveled. Durst, who has hearing aids, was following along with a tablet computer and real-time transcript as the judge reinstructed the jury.
Deputy District Attorney John Lewin scoffed at claims Durst needed to be released to a hospital for treatment, saying he was getting high-quality care in jail. Durst’s lawyers have repeatedly sought a mistrial without success. They said the unprecedented delay would harm Durst’s ability to get a fair trial because jurors preoccupied with their own health and safety wouldn’t be able to pick up where they left off.Windham denied each of those motions, saying he would bring the jury back to court when it was safe to do so.
Berman served as Durst’s spokeswoman when his wife, Kathie, vanished in New York in 1982 and she helped him cover his tracks, prosecutors said.
Another juror was dismissed for looking at Durst and saying, 'That dude looks guilty AF!' So now the judge has ordered that the jurors not look in the defendant's direction.
This mf gonna die before he ever gets tried.
There’s always one dummy..