A stunning acquittal in grisly case

GALVESTON, Texas - They never found the head.

The grisly case began two years ago when trash bags containing pieces of 71-year-old Morris Black started washing up along Galveston Bay.

On Tuesday a jury found New York real estate heir Robert Durst innocent of his murder.

Durst said he accidentally killed his hotheaded neighbor in self-defense and then chopped up the body using two saws and an ax because he feared no one would believe him. He appeared stunned when he heard the verdict, his mouth hanging slightly open and his eyes filling with tears. The 60-year-old millionaire hugged his attorneys, saying: "Thank you so much."

Durst, who has been estranged from his family since the early 1990s, remains under suspicion in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife and the 2000 shooting death of her friend Susan Berman, a Los Angeles writer who was set to be questioned about the missing woman. He has not been charged in either case.

The jury took five days to reach the verdict, and prosecutor Kurt Sistrunk said he was dismayed and disappointed with it.

Durst met Black after moving from New York to Galveston, where the millionaire initially posed as a mute woman to escape attention in the two other deaths. He later dropped the masquerade and became friends with Black, who lived across the hall from him in a low-rent apartment building.

Durst's attorneys said the friendship soured because of the elderly man's increasingly belligerent behavior. During the trial, the defense put a former social worker on the stand who testified that Black told her he had killed an American soldier in Japan because the soldier had killed Black's wife. There also was testimony that Black had been expelled from a Galveston public library because he was making threats and he had made threats against a utility worker.

During nearly four days on the stand, Durst testified he found Black in his apartment on Sept. 28, 2001, and Black had Durst's gun. During a struggle, the gun went off, hitting Black in the face, he said.

Durst testified he panicked and feared police would not believe his story, so he cut up the body and threw the pieces into Galveston Bay. He said he could not recall details about dismembering the body, but when pressed by a prosecutor, he said it was "a nightmare with blood everywhere."

Prosecutors called Durst a cold-blooded killer who shot Black to steal his identity. They said the proof was how he meticulously covered up the crime by cutting up the body, cleaning the crime scene, fleeing Galveston and then returning to retrieve the head.

"Is it well-planned and calculated? You bet it is," Sistrunk said.

In a risky, all-or-nothing strategy by the prosecution and the defense, the jury was allowed to consider only murder, not lesser charges such as manslaughter. Durst will remain in jail facing a bail-jumping count, which could bring up to 10 years in prison.

Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin praised the jurors for "their ability to look at this case for what the charge was."

Prosecutor Joel Bennett said many jurors told him after the verdict that one of the problems in the case was Black's head was never recovered. Prosecutors alleged Durst made sure the head was never found because it could have proved Black's death was intentional.

Juror Chris Lovell said he was influenced by a lack of consistency in the prosecution's case: "From the very beginning of this trial the defense told us a story and they stuck to their guns all the way through. I did not believe everything they said, but every time they told us a story they were consistent in what was said."

Juror Deborah Warren, said the panel made a great effort to figure out what happened. "There were people that cried, there were people that fussed and argued. ... My stomach is still knotted up," she said.

Durst came under suspicion after a receipt with his name on it was found in the trash bags containing Black's remains.

Durst was arrested and posted $300,000 bail, but fled. It was not until Durst made bail that authorities discovered he was a millionaire heir. He was a fugitive for six weeks before he was caught in Pennsylvania trying to shoplift a $5 sandwich even though he had $500 in his pocket.

Durst is the son of the late Seymour Durst, patriarch of the Durst Organization, a billion-dollar real estate company that owns several New York skyscrapers. The company declined to comment on the verdict.

Durst had moved to Galveston disguised as a woman after a New York investigation was reopened into the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen.

- Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

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