Durst faces day of reckoning in murder of best friend

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The sentencing of New York real estate heir Robert Durst will be comparatively brief compared with his murder trial that stretched over the better part of two years. The New York real estate heir faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole Thursday (Oct. 14, 2021) for the first-degree murder of his best friend, Susan Berman. Durst, 78, was convicted last month in Los Angeles Superior Court of shooting Berman point-blank in her Los Angeles home just before Christmas 2000. The defense is seeking a new trial in part because the judge postponed the case 14 months during the pandemic.