Crime Story Editor

This podcast is a recorded reading of a Crime Story article published last year during the pre-trial hearings in the California murder case of the People vs. Robert Durst. This is the fourth in a series of articles about the hearings before the murder trial of Robert Durst. You may click on the hyperlinked titles to read Two Hearings: Robert Durst and Armon Nelson, While Robert Durst Flips Through Photos and Robert Durst Fades Away. A video camera operator for Dan Abrams’ website, Law & Crime, is setting up in the Department 81 jury seating area, training his lens on the...

This podcast is a recorded reading of a Crime Story article published last year during the pre-trial hearings in the California murder case of the People vs. Robert Durst. This is the third in a series of articles about the hearings before the murder trial of Robert Durst. You may click on the hyperlinked titles to read Two Hearings: Robert Durst and Armon Nelson and While Robert Durst Flips Through Photos. Robert Durst seems to be fading away. In the first hearing in his trial for the murder of Susan Berman observed by our Crime Story reporters, Robert Durst yells about the...

This podcast is a recorded reading of a Crime Story article published last year during the pre-trial hearings in the California murder case of the People vs. Robert Durst. From the looks of it, Robert Durst’s legal team has expanded a bit since the first hearing that Crime Story reported on here. It’s 9:45 am, 15 minutes before the hearing is scheduled to begin, and the bloat on the defense’s side of the courtroom concerns Robin Armstrong, the clerk. With the calmness and firmness of a middle-school teacher, she requests that some attorneys sit in the gallery. They oblige, relegated...

This podcast is a recorded reading of a Crime Story article published last year during the pre-trial hearings in the California murder case of the People vs. Robert Durst. Even through the closed door of the witness interview room, the voices are loud, ratcheting up the tension in the courtroom. An unseen female insists: “I brought the white shirt… and the blue jacket!” The reply is lost as the court reporter raps on the door, leans in, and warns the people in the room that they can be heard. There’s a long beat, and then a middle-aged, blonde woman emerges...

Several Crime Story Reporters contributed to this story. It is 11:30 AM on the 27th of February. Twelve people rise together and, in unison, commit themselves for a five-month-long excursion. It will be no vacation. They are being taken away from their jobs, their families, and their lives to spend this spring and part of this summer inside the life and mind of Robert Durst. Together in Department 81 of the Airport Courthouse, they are sworn in by Judge Mark E. Windham. They have been chosen after a thorough voir dire to serve on the jury in the trial of Durst...

Editor’s note: Out of respect for the privacy of the individuals depicted in this story, we have changed those individuals' names. Reggie was going for breakfast at Denny’s with some of his buds. It was 10am on a Saturday but it wasn’t “brunch.” Reggie is adamant about that. It was just guys going to breakfast, ready to slam back stacks of pancakes and troughs of bacon. No frills. No bottomless mimosas. But the whole morning went to hell before it even began. Reggie was pulling into the Denny’s parking lot in his mom’s Honda Civic when he accidentally hit the backside...