Nearly four days of jury deliberation, 10 weeks of trial and two years of police investigation came to an end Tuesday morning when jurors announced that verdict in the murder trial of Robert Durst.
Durst, 60, is a member of a billionaire real-estate family in New York who said he had fled his home state three years ago, reacting to publicity involving a new police investigation into the disappearance of his first wife.
He ended up in Galveston, where he rented a $300-a-month Avenue K apartment, disguised as a mute woman.
He was on trial for murder in the death of isle neighbor Morris Black, 71, whose dismembered remains were found floating in Galveston Bay Sept. 30, 2001. On the stand, Durst admitted dismembering Black’s body, but said Black had taken a gun of his, which accidentally went off in an ensuing struggle. Durst’s first reaction to the verdict was to stand agape and look down, as if in shock. Seconds later, he was hugging his defense team.
Durst attorney Dick DeGuerin later said his client had spent much of his life operating under the influence of one drug or another.
“I can tell you, Bob was horrified at some of the things he did,” DeGuerin said.
County Criminal District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said he was “dismayed” at the verdict, but respected both the time the jurors put into their decision and the efforts of Galveston detectives Cody Cazalas and Gary Jones in investigating Black’s death.
Durst still faces charges of bond jumping, which carry a possible prison term of two to 10 years.
