‘WILLFULLY ABSENT’

Robert Durst Is AWOL as Murder Trial Resumes

His lawyer says he is too sick to attend and asked for a delay. The judge said no dice.

Robert Durst, the real-estate heir whose crimes were chronicled in the HBO series The Jinx, was a no-show as his murder trial resumed this week after a 14-month delay because of the pandemic. A Los Angeles judge declared Durst “willfully absent” on Monday, while his defense attorney argued that he was simply too sick with cancer and other ailments to attend. “He spends more than 90 percent of his time on a bed, a hospital-type bed,” lawyer Dick DeGuerin argued, unsuccessfully pleading for a postponement, the New York Daily News reported. It’s not clear if Durst plans to be in the courtroom for opening arguments Tuesday. He is charged with killing his longtime confidante, allegedly because she knew too much about the disappearance of his first wife.