Cross-dressing millionaire cleared of man’s murder

ECCENTRIC New York millionaire Robert Durst, who said he accidentally killed a hot-tempered neighbour in self-defence and then dismembered the body in a panic, was found innocent yesterday of murder.

Jurors deliberated over five days, following nearly six weeks of testimony, before deciding that the real estate heir did not murder 71-year-old Morris Black, who lived across from him in an apartment building.

Durst, 60, who is under suspicion in two other killings and who posed for a time as a mute woman, testified in his own defence. He insisted Mr Black was shot accidentally during a struggle over a gun, and said he used two saws and an axe to cut up the body. The victim’s head has never been found.

Durst appeared stunned when he heard the verdict from state District Judge Susan Criss, standing with his mouth slightly open and his eyes filling with tears.

After the killing in late September 2001, Durst was a fugitive for six weeks until he was caught in Pennsylvania when he tried to shoplift a $5 sandwich even though he had $500 in his pocket.

At the request of the defence, jurors considered a murder charge only. They could have asked that jurors consider a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, in addition to murder, but opted for an all-or-nothing strategy. If he had been convicted, Durst could have been sentenced to five to 99 years in prison.

Durst moved to Galveston in November 2000 disguised as a woman to escape scrutiny in New York after an investigation was reopened into the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen.

After he jumped bail in Mr Black’s killing, Galveston authorities learned he was also wanted in the Christmas Eve 2000 shooting death in Los Angeles of a friend, writer Susan Berman, who was set to be questioned about his missing wife.