los angeles new york real estate heir robert durst was sentenced thursday to life in prison without a chance of parole for the murder of his best friend more than two decades agodurst 78 was convicted in los angeles superior court last month of firstdegree murder for shooting susan berman pointblank in the back of the head at her home in december 2000the killing had been a mystery that haunted family and friends for 15 years before durst was arrested in 2015 following his unwise decision to participate in a documentary that unearthed new evidence and caught him in a stunning confessionbermans death left a permanent hole in the lives of family members who remembered her thursday for her adventurousness creativity and deep love and loyaltyit has been a daily soulconsuming and crushing experience said sareb kaufman who considered berman his mother after his father dated her ive lost everything many times over because of himdurst who has numerous medical issues and sat in a wheelchair wearing brown jail scrubs said nothing his eyes were wide open and he had a catatonic stare when he entered the courtroom and barely looked over at kaufman and three of bermans cousins when they spokedurst silenced berman to prevent her from incriminating him in the reopened investigation of his wifes 1982 disappearance in new york prosecutors saidberman provided a phony alibi for durst when kathie durst vanished prosecutors saiddurst testified he didnt kill either woman but he said on crossexamination that he would lie if he hadprosecutors also presented evidence that he intentionally killed a neighbor in galveston texas in 2001 though he had been acquitted of murder in that case after testifying that he shot the man in selfdefense and then panicked and chopped up the corpse and tossed it out to seadefense lawyer dick deguerin said durst will appeal and he refrained from making other remarksjudge mark windham denied a motion for a new trial rejecting arguments there was insufficient evidence or that he ruled incorrectly on 15 issuesyou said the court erred so many times it made me feel selfconscious windham jokedwindham there was overwhelming evidence and prosecutors proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at least five ways including devastating revelations during dursts crossexamination and an admission he made in the climax of the sixpart documentary the jinx the life and crimes of robert durstafter being caught in a lie about a note he penned directing police to bermans lifeless body durst went into a bathroom and muttered to himself on a live microphone youre caught he later said killed them all of coursefilmmakers confronted him with a note police received that had bermans address and only the word cadaver it was addressed in block letters and misspelled beverly hills as beverleydurst said only the killer could have written it and it wasnt him he was then shown a letter he once wrote berman in the same handwriting and beverly misspelled the same waydurst testified that he regretted participating in