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The multimillionaire was recently sentenced to life for the murder of his best friend after years of legal proceedings.
Robert died “of natural causes linked to the long list of medical problems,” one of his lawyers announced on Monday.
AFP
The rich and sulphurous American heir Robert Durst, recently sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his best friend after years of twists and turns, died on Monday in custody at the age of 78, announced one of the his lawyers.
The multi-millionaire died “of natural causes linked to the long list of medical problems that we have repeatedly raised in court over the past two years,” said lawyer Chip Lewis.
Robert Durst was convicted in September by a Los Angeles court of killing his friend Susan Berman with a bullet to the head at the latter’s home in 2000, in Beverly Hills.
The prosecution argued that he had thus sought to cover up his role in the murder of his wife Kathleen, killing Susan Berman to prevent him from responding to the New York police officers who were investigating his wife’s disappearance in 1982.
Robert Durst, who has always denied outright, was officially indicted in New York last October, shortly after his life sentence in California.
From a New York real estate dynasty
Black sheep of one of the biggest families of the New York real estate, Robert Durst was arrested in March 2015 on the eve of the broadcast of the last episode of a six-part biographical documentary from HBO, “The Jinx”. The series revisited another bloody episode in Robert Durst’s life: the murder of a neighbor, which he then dismembered and thrown into the sea.
He had been acquitted of this crime by an army of prestigious lawyers who had pleaded guilty to a mixture of self-defense, accidental shooting and acts of alcohol.
Televised false confession
In “The Jinx” Robert Durst seemed to make an involuntary confession, whispering to himself as he was in the bathroom and his wireless mic was not turned off, “What did I do?” ? I killed them all, of course. ”
During an interview with prosecutors after his arrest, Robert Durst defended himself by asserting that he was under the influence of drugs during the filming of the documentary and that these words therefore meant nothing in particular.
(AFP)