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American Morning

Durst Murder Trial

Aired October 28, 2003 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Gail DeLaughter is a reporter for KTRH Radio. She's been watching this trial very closely for us.
Gail, good to have you back.

GAIL DELAUGHTER, KTRH RADIO REPORTER: Hi. Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, that's an interesting response. Were you drunk when you dismembered the body? I hope so.

DELAUGHTER: That was kind after little light moment in the courtroom. But we were all waiting to hear about this. This is the centerpiece of the trial, dismembering the body and disposing of the body parts. And he consistently said I don't remember. Did you do this, did you do that? I don't remember, I can't recall, I don't know. He said he drank that bottle of Jack Daniels beforehand. He also said that he used some tools found in the victim's apartment, Morris Black's apartment, an ax and a couple of saws to dismember the body. But that's about all he would say about it.

O'BRIEN: The dismembering and disposal of the body took place over several days, correct?

DELAUGHTER: It was about a day. He took about a day to do it after Morris Black was killed. Then he took the body parts to Galveston Bay, a waterfront area, a fishing area, just a few blocks away, dumped the plastic bags with the body parts in the water, and then went back later to see if they'd sunk. He thought they would sink to the bottom, and then he goes back and he finds them coming to the surface. He finds cops there. And at that point, he knew he was in trouble, and he knew he probably would get arrested.

O'BRIEN: He was sober enough to know he was in trouble at that point.

DELAUGHTER: By that point, yes.

O'BRIEN: Was that something the prosecution brought out? It looks like the actions of somebody who knows what they're doing.

DELAUGHTER: Well, that's what they brought up during the prosecution's phase of the trial. They had an expert on who said it appeared that he had done something like this before. They talked about how a saw was used to saw apart the bones and a smaller knife was used to actually cut up the body. And according to the state's expert, it looked like he'd done something like this before.

O'BRIEN: Oh, geez.

Now before they got into this, they spent little bit of time basically impugning his testimony completely, saying he had a history of lying. Tell us a little bit about that.

DELAUGHTER: They went through a long list of things. He studied at Lehigh University. And earlier in the trial, he said that he was not very much of a student in high school, wasn't really active in clubs or anything like that. Then they presented his application to the university where he said he was a member of the soccer team, the aviation club, different clubs. And he had said earlier about his own administration, he really wasn't much of a student in high school, and apparently put all this information on his college application.

At one point, he apparently applied for an American Express Card in the name of an old high school classmate. Another time he filed an application to rent a condominium, used some fake information there, that he had a Phd that he never had. He was a graduate student at one time, but never earned a Phd, and so they went through long list of things, just trying to put in the jury's mind this man is not a truth teller, that he's told lies in the past.

O'BRIEN: And as he was on the stand, talking about such graphic things or not remembering such graphic things, what was his demeanor like?

DELAUGHTER: Very, very calm. Obviously this man has been coached very well. He has some very, very good attorneys. But there were some little flashes of irritation here and there.

One thing he really, really got irritated about, they'd say, "when you killed Morris Black," and he would say, and he would say, "I did not kill Morris Black, it was an accident." He would say that over and over again. And then it came to one point where they asked him, what word do you prefer? He said I prefer the word "died." So there was never -- he always talks about the accident, but he won't come out and say, "I killed Morris Black."

O'BRIEN: All right. More of the prosecution cross examination today, correct?

DELAUGHTER: Right, they'll go back and forth. They'll do some redirect, no doubt. The defense will want the prosecution to have the last word, so they're going to do some back and forth before they finally wrap up with him.

O'BRIEN: Gail DeLaughter, with KTRH Radio, watching that trial for us. Thanks very much.

DELAUGHTER: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 28, 2003 - 09:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Gail DeLaughter is a reporter for KTRH Radio. She's been watching this trial very closely for us.
Gail, good to have you back.

GAIL DELAUGHTER, KTRH RADIO REPORTER: Hi. Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, that's an interesting response. Were you drunk when you dismembered the body? I hope so.

DELAUGHTER: That was kind after little light moment in the courtroom. But we were all waiting to hear about this. This is the centerpiece of the trial, dismembering the body and disposing of the body parts. And he consistently said I don't remember. Did you do this, did you do that? I don't remember, I can't recall, I don't know. He said he drank that bottle of Jack Daniels beforehand. He also said that he used some tools found in the victim's apartment, Morris Black's apartment, an ax and a couple of saws to dismember the body. But that's about all he would say about it.

O'BRIEN: The dismembering and disposal of the body took place over several days, correct?

DELAUGHTER: It was about a day. He took about a day to do it after Morris Black was killed. Then he took the body parts to Galveston Bay, a waterfront area, a fishing area, just a few blocks away, dumped the plastic bags with the body parts in the water, and then went back later to see if they'd sunk. He thought they would sink to the bottom, and then he goes back and he finds them coming to the surface. He finds cops there. And at that point, he knew he was in trouble, and he knew he probably would get arrested.

O'BRIEN: He was sober enough to know he was in trouble at that point.

DELAUGHTER: By that point, yes.

O'BRIEN: Was that something the prosecution brought out? It looks like the actions of somebody who knows what they're doing.

DELAUGHTER: Well, that's what they brought up during the prosecution's phase of the trial. They had an expert on who said it appeared that he had done something like this before. They talked about how a saw was used to saw apart the bones and a smaller knife was used to actually cut up the body. And according to the state's expert, it looked like he'd done something like this before.

O'BRIEN: Oh, geez.

Now before they got into this, they spent little bit of time basically impugning his testimony completely, saying he had a history of lying. Tell us a little bit about that.

DELAUGHTER: They went through a long list of things. He studied at Lehigh University. And earlier in the trial, he said that he was not very much of a student in high school, wasn't really active in clubs or anything like that. Then they presented his application to the university where he said he was a member of the soccer team, the aviation club, different clubs. And he had said earlier about his own administration, he really wasn't much of a student in high school, and apparently put all this information on his college application.

At one point, he apparently applied for an American Express Card in the name of an old high school classmate. Another time he filed an application to rent a condominium, used some fake information there, that he had a Phd that he never had. He was a graduate student at one time, but never earned a Phd, and so they went through long list of things, just trying to put in the jury's mind this man is not a truth teller, that he's told lies in the past.

O'BRIEN: And as he was on the stand, talking about such graphic things or not remembering such graphic things, what was his demeanor like?

DELAUGHTER: Very, very calm. Obviously this man has been coached very well. He has some very, very good attorneys. But there were some little flashes of irritation here and there.

One thing he really, really got irritated about, they'd say, "when you killed Morris Black," and he would say, and he would say, "I did not kill Morris Black, it was an accident." He would say that over and over again. And then it came to one point where they asked him, what word do you prefer? He said I prefer the word "died." So there was never -- he always talks about the accident, but he won't come out and say, "I killed Morris Black."

O'BRIEN: All right. More of the prosecution cross examination today, correct?

DELAUGHTER: Right, they'll go back and forth. They'll do some redirect, no doubt. The defense will want the prosecution to have the last word, so they're going to do some back and forth before they finally wrap up with him.

O'BRIEN: Gail DeLaughter, with KTRH Radio, watching that trial for us. Thanks very much.

DELAUGHTER: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com