Death and the millionaire drifter

Judge: Mr. Foreman, I understand you have a verdict? Will the defendant please rise?

Had Robert Durst, the Manhattan real estate heir, intentionally shot to death, then dismembered a fellow tenant in a $300-a-month Galveston, Texas apartment?

Judge: The verdict of the jury is such...

The moment of the verdict had arrived...

Judge: We the jury find the defendant Robert Durst: not guilty.                               

Writer Robert Draper said Durst seemed as floored as the rest of us to hear that verdict in a Texas courtroom.

Robert Draper: Robert Durst looked absolutely astonished. The wind seemed to be sucked right out of him.

What a long strange trip it had been.

The Galveston jury of eight women and four men unanimously found Robert Durst: Not Guilty.

And, it was a shock to Prosecutor Kurt Sistrunk.

Kurt Sistrunk: I think as soon as I heard the verdict, my thoughts were, "This is just unbelievable." It was a shock to me.  It truly was.

Robert Draper isn't all that surprised that Durst looked over the abyss and danced away.                                      

Robert Draper: If you're gonna try Robert Durst, you'd better bring your best stuff. Because this man is capable of hiring one hell of a defense team.

Critics looked at the firepower of his high-priced dream team defense lawyers and cynically explained the perplexing verdict as the best that money could buy.                                                            

Dick DeGuerin: We see that kind of criticism all the time. And the problem with saying you can buy justice in America is that there's a grain of truth in it. And that is, that you have to be financed well enough to prepare a case for presentation. But, the truth of it is that we have to deal with the facts that we have.

And if you're one of the many Americans asking the jury what they could possibly have been thinking, here are some of their responses:                                

Chris, juror: The burden of proof was on the prosecution. They had to prove it. And there was nothing there to prove that it was not self-defense. And, if Robert Durst is guilty of one thing, Robert Durst is guilty of bizarre behavior. But fortunately for Mr. Durst and a lot of people in this country, bizarre behavior is not a crime.

Joanne, juror: The prosecution had the burden-- burden to prove that the death of Morris Black was an intentional murder. And I didn't feel that that was proved to me.

In the end, Durst won the gamble--not on character, but on reasonable doubt.

Joanne: He was a loner. Didn't have a lot of friends. He's an admitted liar. His whole life practically -- revolved around-- you know-- smoking marijuana everyday. He drank a lot of-- Jack Daniels.

Chris: The truth of the matter is a lot of the decisions that we had to come to, you were gonna base it on speculation. Well, I cannot convict a man, even a guy like Robert Durst, I cannot convict that man and send him to prison for the rest of his life on speculation. I've got to have some proof that he committed this crime.

It seems the defense's portrayal of two whacky, sometime friends with a gun between them added-up to a no-fault killing. And no one seemed to be shedding tears for the man left lying dead.                                       

Chris: It's like his own attorney said. It doesn't take a Ph.D. to tell you that Bob Durst's compass doesn't point north. Which is true, you know? Because it takes a sick guy to cut somebody up. But I was not convinced he did not kill him in self-defense. I agree he covered something up, but I don't believe that Robert Durst covered up a murder. I believe Robert Durst covered up a suspicious death in his apartment.

Gilberte Najamy: This is the Bobby that Kathy was telling me about. He just gets away with things and it's echoing in my head. I could hear Kathy telling me, "He gets away with things, Gilberte, do you know what it's like being around a man who can always avoid consequences." I wasn't really surprised to hear the not guilty verdict. Could I believe it? No. But was I surprised? Not really. This is Bobby Durst. Expect the unexpected."

Robert Draper: This was, if not their last, most assuredly their best chance to put Robert Durst away for the crime of murder.

That may be, but Robert Durst's legal odyssey wasn't over.

The murder charge had been disposed of but he still had to face the consequences of jumping bond back when in the Morris Black case.

In the remaining lesser charges of the case, Durst was charged with jumping bond and tampering with a corpse.

He pleaded guilty to 3 counts and ended up serving an additional two-years in a Texas cell.

Then, just before his release, he had to face the music from the Feds who'd charged him with carrying a gun across state lines while a fugitive.

In 2004, he pleaded guilty to that and did another five-and-a-half months behind bars before being released on parole.

But he apparently couldn't get enough of Galveston.

Even though the terms of his parole banned him from setting foot there without permission, he did.

A former neighbor, who agreed to be interviewed anonymously, happened to spot Durst.

"Why is he there? What does he want? What is he doing. What is he looking for? I just want him to stay away from us."

Durst was thrown in detention for several weeks.

He'd filed a suit against his own family demanding his share of the skyscraper pie. In 2006, the black sheep of the Durst family was reportedly paid $65-million dollars in a settlement by the Durst organization to just go away and not be heard from again.

When Dateline tried to reach Robert Durst for an interview through his lawyer, he declined our request.

His attorney said he's living in quiet anonymity and hopes it stays that way.

Still, all his money won't shield him from the onetime friends and associates with their nagging questions about the missing, the murdered, the dismembered, questions likely to follow this puzzle of a man all his days.

Kathleen Durst's disappearance remains an open homicide investigation. The D.A. says there are no new leads. No new leads in the Susan Berman murder either.. and no suspects, though the LAPD calls Robert Durst a "person of interest."

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