Durst (o.g. who decapitated guy he shot) Case Reportedly Reopened By Feds

Robert Durst, who famously was acquitted of murder in Galveston in 2003, has reportedly had his case looked into by federal authorities for jury tampering. (full coverage; Houston Chronicle) They can’t retry him for the murder. There is no civil rights edge to the case.  Durst was the scion of a prominent and insanely wealthy rich New York family, who was accused of killing his wife, and was found years later in Galveston, Texas living as a woman, after he had shot his neighbor, chopped up his body and disposed of it in Galveston bay.  Two of the three bags (containing the torso and limbs, separately) washed ashore. The head never did.

Durst spent almost three years in jail awaiting and during trial and was eventually convicted of obstruction of justice for chopping up the neighbor’s body and dumping it in the bay.  He was, however, acquitted of murder with the assistance of Dick DeGuerin and Chip Lewis, two brilliant criminal lawyers.  They argued that without the head, there was nothing to challenge Durst’s story that the neighbor, who was known to be crazy, had started a fight and Durst had shot him in self-defense.  Without the head, there was no evidence of whether the neighbor was shot in the front of the head or back, close range or far.  In other words, there was no evidence.  DeGuerin and Lewis’ strategy was to find, and select jurors with the capacity and willingness to use abstract thought (by deselecting or striking those who didn’t during voir dire) and who could separate the accusations of murder from those of obstruction of justice; separating the question of murder vs. self-defense, from the disposal of the body. It worked.

Perhaps this case informed last week’s story out of Florida  of the guy who famously said “Things just got a little out of hand” after decapitating his roommate.  Perhaps the guy from Greenacres had heard about Durst, killed his roommate, then thought, if I can chop up the body and no one finds the important parts, I will have a better defense.  Scott Tobiassen got caught with all the body parts. Durst didn’t.

Now the feds are reportedly investigating jury tampering.  No other information has come out.  They can’t let this sleeping dog lie.  Durst’s verdict was too much of a lesson to criminals on how to build a defense.  High level prosecutors can’t let that dog lie.