LOS ANGELES • A California jury has found multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst guilty of murdering his best friend Susan Berman in 2000, the first homicide conviction for a man suspected of killing three people in three states over the past 39 years.

Durst, 78, will likely die in prison as the jury also found him guilty of the special circumstances of lying in wait and killing a witness, which carry a mandatory life sentence.

Superior Court Judge Mark Windham, who oversaw the trial, set a sentencing hearing for Oct 18.

The trial came six years after Durst's apparent confession was aired in HBO documentary series The Jinx, in which he was caught on a hot microphone in the bathroom saying to himself, "What the hell did I do? ... Killed them all, of course."

The jury deliberated for 71/2 hours over three days. Durst, in jail for the duration of the trial, was not present for the reading of the verdict as he was in isolation after exposure to somebody with Covid-19.

Juctice Windham called the case "the most extraordinary trial that I've ever seen or even heard about".

Los Angeles County prosecutors called Durst a "narcissistic psychopath" who killed Ms Berman in a bid to cover up the disappearance of his wife Kathleen McCormack Durst in New York in 1982.

Durst was on trial only for killing Ms Berman in California, but prosecutors argued he also murdered his wife and a neighbour in Texas who discovered his identity when Durst was hiding from the law.

REUTERS