Robert Durst admits to perjury in 'longest cross-examination ever'

What did you miss?

Robert Durst was seen admitting to perjury during cross-examination at his trial for the 2000 murder of Susan Berman. At the trial, which took place between 2020 and 2021, Durst chose to take the stand and the events of this was brought to light in The Jinx: Part Two.

The Sky documentary showed key moments during LA district attorney John Lewin's questioning of Durst, in which he was asked about Berman's death, the Cadaver note that was found during the making of The Jinx: Part One and implicated him in her killing, and his first wife Kathie's disappearance in 1982.

Lewin's questioning of Durst was described as the "longest cross-examination ever seen" by the judge presiding over the case, who ended up putting a time limit on the District Attorney.

What, how and why?

Durst was cross-examined over the course of nine days by Lewin, who was told he was being "almost gratuitous" with his extensive line of questioning by the judge presiding over the case.

Mark Windham, the judge presiding over the case, appeared in The Jinx: Part Two to share insight into the case, and he spoke of his reasoning for putting a time limit on Lewin after he'd spent more than a week questioning Durst. He said: "I did put a limit on him, I can, I did.

"I think I helped guided him to a slightly shorter cross-examination than we would otherwise have had. As it was it was nine days, that's the longest cross-examination I've ever seen or heard of."

During the course of the cross-examination, Durst admitted to committing perjury and said that he had lied about "important things" in court. He also tripped up on multiple occasions, referring to his wife Kathie as having been "buried" rather than missing and said that he would lie about Berman's murder.

Lewin spoke to Durst about the recording in The Jinx: Part One where Durst said he "killed them all, of course", with the lawyer saying: "Since you cannot explain what in essence can be argued as a confession, why don't you put the facade down... tell us right now, this is your shot, the world is watching."

To this, Durst said: "I never said I knew what happened to Susan, I never said I knew where Kathie was buried." Lewin noticed the mistake, responding: "Well wait a minute, why did you say you never knew where Kathie was buried? How do you know Kathie is buried at all?"

Durst argued that it was "a logical step", but his defence attorneys admitted on The Jinx: Part Two that they wanted to get him off the stand because he was "getting worse everyday".

Other examples of Durst tripping up during the cross-examination is his admission that he would lie to help his case after saying that he would be "completely honest". This was followed by him saying that he didn't kill Berman but adding: "I did not kill Susan Berman, but if I had I would lie about it."

After admitting to perjury, Durst was asked how many instances of perjury he had committed during the cross-examination and he responded that he'd done so five times.

When asked if lying would destroy his credibility, Durst added: "It would not destroy my credibility, because what I'm saying is mostly the truth. There's certain things I would lie about, certain important things, and I am not making it up as I go along. I lied to you, that doesn't count, I think it would be a very minor, minor perjury."

In the documentary, Lewin said: "Bob as usual is having to get around his lies by telling bigger and crazier lies, and the lies are like a snowball. As they roll down the hill the lies get bigger and crazier until they basically are a giant huge snowball out of a cartoon."

What else happened on The Jinx: Part Two?

When Durst took the stand at his trial he was first questioned by the defence, in which he discussed his mother's death when he was a young boy and the memories he had with her. This testimony was contested by Lewin during his cross-examination as being lies, namely because the Frisbee and Uno weren't invented at the time Durst claimed to have used them with his mother.

He also admitted to his defence team to writing the note that was sent to police about Berman's death —which he had previously denied— and that he chose to write it and lie about it because he came across Berman's body when visiting her home.

In the end, Durst's decision to testify at his own murder trial did not work in his favour as he was found guilty of Berman's death. He had previously been acquitted for the 2001 murder for Morris Black after taking the stand in court and claiming Black's killing was in self defence.

Durst was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in October 2021. He was set to face a wrongful death trial for his wife Kathie's disappearance, however he died before the case went to court.

The Jinx: Part Two airs on Mondays at 3am and 9pm on Sky Documentaries.

Read more:

• The Jinx Part Two shows Susan Berman was 'wilfully aware' of Robert Durst's crimes (Yahoo, 7-min read)

• The Jinx Part Two review: Robert Durst documentary makes a dramatic return (Yahoo, 4-min read)

• How to watch true crime series The Jinx Part Two in the UK (Yahoo, 3-min read)