No Death Penalty for Robert Durst in Benedict Canyon Murder Case

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Proclaiming his innocence in court, New York real estate scion Robert Durst has pleaded Not guilty to a murder charge stemming from the death of a friend in Benedict Canyon just before Christmas Eve 2000.

"I did not kill Susan Berman," Durst told the courtroom.

Prosecutors say they will not be seeking the death penalty for Durst.

Durst -- who was profiled in the HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" -- was defiant in court, proclaiming to the judge, "I do want to say here and now, though, I am not guilty. I did not kill Susan Berman."

He was wheeled into court in a wheelchair and was sporting a neck brace, with an attorney saying he had undergone a spinal procedure. He is due back at the Airport Branch Courthouse on Feb. 15.

Durst was sentenced in April in Louisiana to seven years in federal prison on a weapons charge. In Los Angeles, he is charged with capital murder in the death of the 55-year-old Berman, who was killed on or about Dec. 23, 2000, in her Benedict Canyon home.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of murder of a witness and murder while lying in wait, along with gun use allegations. But a prosecutor said in court that the District Attorney's Office does not plan to seek the death penalty for Durst, 73.

Authorities suspect Durst killed Berman because prosecutors in New York's Westchester County were about to interview her about the 1982 disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathleen "Kathie" McCormack Durst, who was in the process of divorcing him.

According to court papers, Los Angeles police detectives claim two handwriting experts have linked Durst to an anonymous letter alerting authorities to a "cadaver" at Berman's home.

Durst was arrested March 14, 2015, in a New Orleans hotel room.

Durst has admitted to killing and dismembering Morris Black, a man who lived across from him in Galveston, Texas, where Durst fled while authorities were trying to make a case against him in the killings of Kathie Durst and Berman.

He went on trial for Black's death in 2003 -- after a nationwide manhunt located him in Pennsylvania -- but he was acquitted by a jury that deemed Black's killing was an act of self-defense.

Durst has been long estranged from his real-estate-rich family, known for ownership of a series of New York City skyscrapers -- including an investment in the World Trade Center. Durst split with the family when his younger brother was placed in charge of the family business, leading to a drawn- out legal battle.

According to various media reports, Durst ultimately reached a settlement under which the family paid him $60 million to $65 million.

Durst's 2015 arrest came hours before the airing of the final episode of "The Jinx," which examined the disappearance of his wife in 1982, Berman's execution-style killing and Black's death.

On the documentary series finale, which aired the day after his arrest, Durst was caught on microphone saying to himself, "Killed them all, of course."

He also was caught on microphone saying, "There it is, you're caught," and "What a disaster."

Three days after a judge signed an arrest warrant for Durst in the Los Angeles case, FBI agents located him in a New Orleans hotel room where he had checked in under the alias Everette Ward. Agents discovered a loaded Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver, a "realistic mask" and more than $40,000 in cash, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Durst was indicted in April 2015 in U.S. District Court in Louisiana on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and subsequently pleaded guilty to that charge

City News Service; Photo courtesy of HBO