Killer millionaire Robert Durst on ventilator with Covid days after being sentenced to life
Multimillionaire real estate heir killer Robert Durst has been hospitalised with Covid-19 just days after he was sentenced to life behind bars for the murder of his best friend.
Durst, 78, was admitted and put on a ventilator after testing positive for the virus, said his lawyer Dick DeGuerin. He said he had no other details about his condition.
He was on Thursday sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for shooting dead his best friend Susan Berman more than two decades ago.
The Los Angeles Superior Court said in a statement that it had been told someone present for the sentencing hearing on Thursday had tested positive for Covid.
“As a result, the court will follow health guidelines for assessing close contacts of the infected individual,” the statement read.
No additional Covid cases have been reported.
Durst, who has numerous medical issues, sat in a wheelchair with a catatonic stare during much of his sentencing hearing.
He had been convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court last month of first-degree murder for shooting Ms Berman point-blank in the back of the head at her home in December 2000, as she prepared to tell police how she helped cover up Durst’s wife’s killing.
Ms Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Durst’s long-time confidante who told friends she provided a false alibi for him after his wife vanished.
Her murder had been a mystery that haunted family and friends for 15 years before the New York real estate heir was arrested in 2015.
His arrest came after he decided to take part in a HBO documentary that unearthed new incriminating evidence and caught him in what prosecutors said was a stunning confession.
Durst was arrested while hiding out in a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the airing of the final episode of “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst”.
He could be heard muttering to himself on a live microphone in a bathroom: “There it is. You’re caught.”
During the trial, prosecutors painted a portrait of a rich "narcissistic psychopath" who did not think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way.
His defence lawyer David Chesnoff said that Durst will appeal the ruling.