© (Myung J. Chun / los angeles times) Robert Durst, proven throughout his sentencing listening to ultimate week, is hospitalized and on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19, his lawyer pointed out. (Myung J. Chun / los angeles instances) Robert Durst has been placed on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19, his legal professional referred to Saturday.
Durst, seventy eight, become sentenced to life in prison devoid of parole Thursday for murdering his close buddy, Susan Berman, inside her Benedict Canyon home in 2000. The actual estate heir become in "very bad circumstance" all through the sentencing hearing, according to his lead protection legal professional, Dick DeGuerin.
"He turned into having problem respiration and he changed into having problem communicating," DeGuerin pointed out in an e-mail to The instances. "He seemed worse than I've ever viewed him and i became very involved about him."
DeGuerin tested that Durst had been hospitalized and placed on a ventilator. Durst has been held in a wing of USC medical middle beneath the watch of the la County Sheriff's branch throughout the trial, however it was no longer instantly clear if he became nevertheless in that facility or when or the place he became contaminated with the coronavirus.
Calls and emails to the Sheriff's branch, a court spokeswoman and the la County district attorney's workplace have been no longer automatically returned on Saturday. Dozens of individuals packed into an eighth-floor courtroom on the Airport Courthouse for Durst's sentencing past this week and it was not instantly clear if any individual else associated with the proceedings had shriveled the virus.
Durst's fitness become an issue all over the trial. He became now not in courtroom the day jurors convicted him of Berman's homicide last month because he had been uncovered to somebody who established wonderful for COVID-19. He became also in short hospitalized in June after struggling an undisclosed medical incident.
The 78-12 months-historical spent nearly all of the trial seated in a wheelchair. In court docket filings, Durst's attorneys time and again sought a mistrial, claiming Durst became too ailing to testify in his personal defense.
a health care provider at Cedars-Sinai scientific middle who examined Durst previously testified that he became "profoundly malnourished" and liable to "surprising demise" from increased tiers of potassium, and stated Durst had suffered a "mini stroke" throughout a 2019 court docket hearing.
los angeles advanced courtroom judge Mark Windham slapped down each and every action, brushing aside the doctor's testimony as "activism." Durst subsequently spent 15 days on the witness stand at trial, regularly engaging in stressful exchanges with Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin on pass-examination.
This story firstly seemed in la instances.
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