One of the takeaways from watching HBO’s The Jinx is that while money can’t protect you in the court of public opinion, it can hire a really good lawyer to protect you in actual court. And now that that documentary series’ subject, New York real-estate heir Robert Durst, is back in jail on charges of first-degree murder, that adage we just made up is proving itself true.
Dick DeGuerin, the Houston-based defense attorney who got Durst acquitted after he admitted to killing and then dismembering his neighbor Morris Black in 2000, went on Today this morning to talk about Durst’s newest round of homicide charges. In the interview, DeGuerin said that Durst was “tricked” into participating into the documentary, saying, “There’s no question. It’s all in the editing. The editing was designed for good television, but it wasn’t designed to get to the truth.” DeGuerin also said that Durst’s now-infamous “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course” quote from The Jinx was not a confession; it probably won’t hold up in court, anyway, because Durst could claim that he didn’t know or forgot he was being recorded when the statement was made.
Point is, whether his taxidermy-loving lawyers can get him acquitted again or not, Robert Durst is a very suspicious character, which is why stories like this are going around.