US multimillionaire Robert Durst gets life sentence for murder
- The real estate heir spent much of the last four decades evading the law, until he was convicted last month of killing his best friend Susan Berman
- Durst, who is also accused of killing his wife and a neighbour, was put on trial after his apparent confession was aired in a HBO documentary series
A California judge on Thursday imposed a life prison sentence on multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst, who was convicted last month of murdering his best friend Susan Berman in 2000.
Durst, 78 and in poor health, had spent much of the past four decades evading the law, ever since his wife Kathleen McCormack went missing in New York in 1982.
Los Angeles County prosecutors alleged he killed Berman because she helped provide a false alibi for Durst in 1982 and he feared she would reveal that to authorities.
A Los Angeles County jury found him guilty of shooting Berman, 55, in the back of the head in her Beverly Hills home. The jury also found him guilty of the special circumstances of lying in wait and killing a witness, which carry a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Superior Court Judge Mark Windham, who presided over the trial, pronounced the sentence from the bench.