The final scene of “The Jinx: Part Two” docuseries finale, which aired on Sunday, shows stunning views of a lavish beachfront mansion, meant to represent the Hamptons home of killer Robert Durst‘s widow, Debrah Lee Charatan.
The series, which chronicles the California murder prosecution of New York real estate scion Durst, uses Charatan’s Bridgehampton mansion, valued at $15 million on Realtor.com®, as a symbol of the corrupt influence Durst’s fortune had on those close to him.
But what is not revealed in the docuseries by filmmaker Andrew Jarecki is that the star Los Angeles prosecutor who won a murder conviction against Durst once vacationed in the mansion overnight as Charatan’s invited guest, just months after Durst died behind bars.
The stunning revelation is the latest twist in the Durst saga. Heir to a commercial real estate empire, Durst was suspected in the 1982 disappearance of his wife Kathleen McCormack Durst in New York, acquitted of murdering his neighbor Robert Morris in Texas after admitting to dismembering the man’s body, and convicted of the 2000 murder of his close friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles.
Soon after he secured that murder conviction in late 2021, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Lewin and his daughter visited Charatan in her beachfront mansion and stayed there overnight, News 12 Bronx first reported on Tuesday.
The report cited taped depositions from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Durst’s wife Kathleen, in which Charatan and Lewin both confirm his sleepover visit.
Charatan, in a deposition dated last October, is seen curtly confirming that Lewin visited her Bridgehampton home, slept over, and that she was present in the home at the time.
Lewin, in his own deposition dated March 1, appears startled when asked about the vacation.
“Did I spend the night? So, my daughter and I, on a vacation to New York City, made arrangements. … The trial was long over, Bob Durst was long dead, and we made the arrangement,” he said in the clip of the deposition published by News 12.
The visit came just months after Durst died behind bars in January 2022, according to the outlet. The killer’s death at age 78 followed his October 2021 sentencing to life in prison for murdering Berman. Prosecutors said Durst shot Berman execution-style in her Benedict Canyon home in 2000 to prevent her from revealing what she knew about Kathleen’s disappearance decades earlier.
“And my daughter and I had a lovely… I think we spent not one night if I recall. … I think it was two nights there,” said Lewin in the taped deposition. “I can’t remember, but it’s nothing that is in any way unethical, illegal, or improper.”
However, legal experts expressed skepticism, saying that the sleepover visit could raise ethical questions for Lewin.
“This does not pass the smell test,” Pace Law School professor Bennett Gershman told News 12. “I just don’t get it. It just strikes me as so foolish and terrible judgment.”
Charatan, Lewin, and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Realtor.com on Wednesday. The DA’s office told News 12 that it was “aware of the allegation” but could not comment further on personnel matters.
According to “The Jinx,” Durst helped Charatan purchase the Bridgehampton mansion after their hasty marriage ceremony in December 2000. The day after the wedding, conducted in a Manhattan office with no guests or reception, Durst flew to California to murder Berman, the docuseries reveals.
Public records show that Charatan purchased the Bridgehampton home in November 2006 for $11 million. She is listed as the sole owner of the six-bedroom, 4,899-square-foot home with prime beach frontage.
