Lawyers: Robert Durst wrote incriminating note

LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for New York real estate heir Robert Durst acknowledge he penned a note tipping off police to the location of the body of a friend he’s accused of killing, according to court documents.

In a court filing last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, lawyers for Durst conceded he had written the note directing police to the home where his best friend, Susan Berman, was shot point-blank in the back of the head just before Christmas of 2000.

Durst, 76, pleaded not guilty to murder in Berman’s death but told a documentary film crew that the letter could only have been sent by the killer.

The revelation he sent the note was made in a joint filing by defense lawyers and prosecutors of stipulations they’ve agreed to before his trial scheduled for Feb. 10. Attorneys for Durst said they made the concession as a strategic decision after the judge agreed to admit the evidence based on analysis by handwriting experts.

The defense, which had long denied he wrote the note, said they still plan to challenge that ruling on appeal. Attorney Dick DeGuerin told The Associated Press that the defense won’t comment on the stipulation.

“This does not change the facts that Bob Durst didn’t kill Susan Berman and he doesn’t know who did,” DeGuerin said.

Durst killed Berman because he feared his friend and unofficial spokeswoman was going to tell police what she knew about the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Kathleen, in New York in 1982, prosecutors said.