Durst trial to resume after long delay; will jury be ready?

FILE – In this March 10, 2020, file photo, real estate heir Robert Durst looks over during his murder trial in Los Angeles. Fourteen months after the murder trial of New York real estate heir Durst was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, jurors are returning to court to see if they can finish the assignment they were given. A Los Angeles judge will question jurors Monday, May 17, 2021, to find out if they can continue to serve in the case that is expected to last four to five months. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, Pool, File)

by: Associated Press

Posted: May 16, 2021 / 02:30 PM AST

Updated: May 16, 2021 / 01:38 PM AST

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors are returning to court 14 months after the murder trial of New York real estate heir Robert Durst was put on hold because of the coronavirus.

A Los Angeles judge will question jurors Monday to find out if they can continue to serve in the case that is expected to last four to five months.

Jurors had only heard two days of testimony before the trial was halted in March 2020. Durst has pleaded not guilty in the shooting death of his best friend in 2000.

Durst’s lawyers say the length of the stoppage is unprecedented and have repeatedly — and unsuccessfully — sought a mistrial because they say the delay harmed his chance of a fair trial.

Durst was arrested in New Orleans in 2015 on the eve of the final episode of “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” an HBO documentary in which he was confronted with the cadaver note and a letter he once sent Berman with similar block print handwriting and the city of Beverly Hills misspelled “Beverley.”