|
GALVESTON COUNTY DAILY NEWS
Texas' Oldest Newspaper
http://www.galvnews.com
Copyright © 2002 Galveston County Daily News
Durst murder trial set for May 12 By Scott E. Williams
The Daily News Published December 23, 2002GALVESTON — State District Court Judge Susan Criss says the trial of cross-dressing millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst has moved for the last time.
The trial of the New York real-estate heir, originally set for June 2002, is now scheduled to being for May 12.
“You can always have emergencies, such as a death in the family that no one can foresee, but I intend for that to be a firm trial setting,” Criss said.
Durst faces a murder charge in the September 2001 death and dismemberment of Morris Black, 71. The two men had lived across the hall from each other, in an Avenue K apartment house where Durst had lived posing as a mute woman named Dorothy Ciner.
Black’s torso and severed limbs were found nearly a year ago, in separate garbage bags in the waters near 81st Street and Channelview Drive, also in Galveston.
Durst’s attorneys have said he would plead self-defense.
The murder charge carries a possible prison term of five to 99 years, as well as a fine of up to $10,000.
Police arrested Durst, 59, on Oct. 9, 2001, but he left jail that night after posting $300,000 bond.
He became a fugitive when he failed to appear at a court hearing in his case a week later. On Nov. 30, 2001, six weeks after he did not appear in court, police in Pennsylvania arrested Durst and charged him with the shoplifting theft of a small bandage, a sandwich and a newspaper. They later dropped the charges and returned him to Galveston County.
Galveston County officials are not the only ones interested in Durst. New York state police want to talk to him about the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen.
Los Angeles police have requested and received a handwriting sample from Durst as they investigate the Christmas Eve 1999 murder of Susan Berman.
Berman, a crime author described by acquaintances as a close friend of Durst’s, was found dead in her home. She had been shot once in the head. Durst has not been charged in either his wife’s disappearance or Berman’s death.
|