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The Latest: Friend says victim foretold of harm from Durst

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2016, file photo, real estate heir Robert Durst sits in a courtroom during a hearing in Los Angeles. A retired New York police detective says the missing wife of New York real estate heir Robert Durst once went to her neighbor's in pajamas and said her husband beat her and she feared he would kill her. James Varian testified Tuesday, April 25, 2017, that a neighbor reported Kathleen Durst had knocked on her Manhattan penthouse bedroom window for help. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)

LOS ANGELES – The Latest on pretrial testimony in the Robert Durst murder case (all times local):

5:05 p.m.

A friend says years before Susan Berman was killed, she had implicated real estate heir Robert Durst as her future assailant.

Miriam Barnes said Tuesday that Berman once told her she had done something for Durst around the time his wife disappeared, but she didn't elaborate.

Barnes says Berman said: "If anything ever happens to me, Bobby did it."

She forgot the statement until Berman's funeral in 2000.

Barnes says she never went to police because she feared Durst.

Barnes says she eventually told the account to the New York Times because she didn't think Durst would live to see his day in court.

Barnes nervously eyed the frail multimillionaire several times in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Durst has pleaded not guilty to murder in the shooting of Berman.

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12:17 p.m.

A retired New York police detective says the missing wife of New York real estate heir Robert Durst once went to her neighbor's penthouse in pajamas and said her husband beat her and she feared he would kill her.

James Varian testified Tuesday that a neighbor reported Kathleen Durst had knocked on her Manhattan bedroom window for help.

Varian, 77, briefly investigated Kathleen Durst's disappearance in 1982.

Prosecutors are presenting testimony from elderly witnesses who may not be able to testify at Durst's murder trial.

Durst, 74, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of his close friend, Susan Berman, in Los Angeles in 2000.

Prosecutors allege that Durst killed Berman to prevent her from talking to police about Kathleen Durst's disappearance.