Robert Durst Trial Among Those on Hold Due to Coronavirus
By Greg Cornfield March 16, 2020 5:30 pm
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Due to the coronavirus outbreak and increasing calls from officials for social distancing, the murder trial for real estate heir Robert Durst is among those that will be postponed.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark E. Windham on Sunday ordered that the trial be postponed until April 6, the Associated Press reported. The judge decided to delay the proceedings rather than continue with jurors sitting apart from each other.
Representatives with the District Attorney’s office told Commercial Observer that no new dates for the trial have been scheduled.
Durst’s trial started earlier this month and was expected to last for about five months. He is facing charges in the death of his friend Susan Berman, who was killed in her home in Benedict Canyon on L.A.’s Westside in December 2000.
The 76-year-old multimillionaire is the son of real estate mogul Seymour Durst, and the older brother of investor and developer Douglas Durst, who is chairman of Durst Organization and also set to testify later in the trial.
Additional measures will be announced Monday or Tuesday as operations are scaled-down at all 38 courthouses. The head judge in L.A. County recommended that all trials in the county be delayed for 30 days when possible, and ordered that no new jurors be summoned for the same period.
