A witness in Robert Durst’s murder case testified Thursday that Susan Berman, who Durst is accused of killing in 2000, confessed to the murder of his wife Kathleen, who disappeared in 1982.
During a hearing on the case in Los Angeles, Nathan “Nick” Chavin, a longtime friend of Durst and Berman, told the court, “Susan said to me, ‘Bob killed Kathie,” and that Berman told him that Durst had admitted to the crime, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Durst, the subject of the HBO miniseries “The Jinx,” is accused of killing Berman at her Benedict Canyon, Calif., home in 2000. Prosecutors contend that Durst murdered her because she planned to discuss the 1982 disappearance of Kathleen Durst with authorities.
Chavin was brought into the hearing, which began Tuesday, as a “secret witness.” While Durst’s trial isn’t expected to begin until at least next year, prosecutors sought to get Chavin’s testimony on record for fear, according to the Los Angeles Times, that he might be killed before the trial begins.
Chavin told the court that Berman insisted that the two of them protect Durst, when asked why he hadn’t come forward with his claim earlier.
“Kathie’s dead, we can’t do anything about it,” Chavin quoted Berman as saying while testifying. “We have to protect Bob.”
Chavin said that he first came to police with Berman’s account of Durst’s supposed conession in 2001, during an interview with a New York State police investigator. At that point, Chavin said, he didn’t believe that Durst was involved in the deaths of his wife and Berman, and felt that Kathleen Durst had been slain by a drug dealer.
Earlier in the week, Chavin testified that Kathleen Durst feared that her husband might hurt her, but never indicated that he had actually been violent toward her.
Chavin, 72, also denied that he thought that Durst had anything to do with Kathleen’s disappearance when she disappeared in 1982.