LOS ANGELES — The estranged younger brother of real-estate scion Robert Durst told Los Angeles jurors Wednesday that his sibling was cruel and that he was scared of him.
“I’m humiliated to be here,” said Thomas Durst, 70, who had to be subpoenaed to take the stand at his sibling’s murder trial.
“This is a horrible experience and I’m fearful of my brother.”
Thomas briefly glanced at Durst as he entered Los Angeles County Superior Court. Durst, 76, who is the eldest of four siblings, scribbled notes and didn’t look up until his brother’s testimony began.
Prosecutors called Thomas to describe Kathie and Durst’s volatile relationship, which was headed for divorce before she mysteriously vanished in 1982.
“How do you feel about being here?” Deputy DA John Lewin asked Thomas.
“I hate it,” he said.
Lewin has argued that Durst killed his first wife then shot his best friend, Susan Berman, in 2000 and his neighbor Morris Black in 2001 to cover up the initial slaying. He’s only charged with Berman’s death.
Lewin asked Thomas how he’d describe his brother’s generosity on a scale of zero to 100.
“I believe about minus 50 if the scale goes that low,” he said. Durst had forced Kathie to use food stamps, Thomas recalled, even though he had a sizable trust fund and came from one of the wealthiest families in New York.
In December of 1981, Kathie asked Thomas to come to the couple’s Upper East Side apartment — but Durst was not there. “Kathie was extremely upset and was talking in a very high-pitched voice,” he said. She told him they were getting divorced and claimed he’d committed financial improprieties at the Durst Organization.
She said she was destitute and needed cash. Thomas gave her what he had in his wallet but wouldn’t write her a check. “I was afraid that if Bob Durst found a check with my name on it written to Kathie, he would be violent toward me,” he told jurors.
Durst did find out and confronted Thomas a few months after Kathie vanished. “He said, ‘I know she asked you for money!’” recalled Thomas as he bellowed and scowled to imitate his brother’s demeanor. “I felt like I was about to die.”