Durst, who is 78 years old, plans to appeal his conviction, which carries a mandatory life term.

On Friday, a jury in Los Angeles found millionaire Robert Durst guilty of murdering his closest friend 20 years ago in a case that drew widespread attention and supplied years of fuel for New York newspapers.

The New York real estate heir, who will be sentenced on October 18, faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of Susan Berman.

She was murdered in the back of the head at point-blank range in her Los Angeles home in December 2000 as she prepared to tell authorities how she assisted in the cover-up of Durst's wife's murder.

Durst's long-time confidante, Ms. Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas gangster, told pals she offered a bogus alibi for him after his wife vanished.

Durst, 78, was not present for the jury's decision, which took three days and seven hours of deliberation. After being exposed to a person infected with the coronavirus, he was placed in solitary confinement in prison.

Prosecutors portrayed a wealthy narcissist who disregarded the law and brutally eliminated those who stood in his way.

They linked Ms. Berman's death to Kathie Durst's alleged death in 1982 and the 2001 murder of a tenant in a Texas flophouse where Robert Durst was holed up while fleeing New York authorities.

The story took on new life after the Fresh York real estate heir appeared in a documentary linking him to Ms. Berman's murder.

Durst was apprehended in 2015 while hiding out in a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the final episode of "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," He was confronted with incriminating evidence and allegedly confessed.

On a live microphone in a restroom, Durst could be heard murmuring to himself: “There it is. You have been apprehended.”

Durst's choice to testify in his defense, in the hopes of repeating his acquittal in the Texas murder case, backfired when he was forced to admit lying under oath, made incriminating admissions, and had his credibility shattered when questioned by the prosecutor.

David Chesnoff, a defense lawyer, said Friday that they believed there was "substantial reasonable doubt" and were upset by the judgment. Durst, he said, would pursue all possible routes of appeal.