GALVESTON, Texas — A 12-member jury was selected Wednesday to hear evidence against Robert Durst, the real estate heir whose bizarre secret life as a cross-dressing drifter came to an end when pieces of his neighbor were found in plastic bags floating in Galveston Bay.

Jurors, however, will have to wait until Monday before hearing opening statements. Prosecutors informed Judge Susan Criss Wednesday that neither the state nor the defense had yet to listen to 36 hours of recorded telephone conservations involving Durst while he was jailed in Pennsylvania.

Durst, 60, wound up in Pennsylvania after jumping bail in this Gulf Coast town two years ago. Durst's second wife posted his $300,000 bail and he skipped town before the police figured out that such an amount was well within Durst's means.

There's no doubt that Durst shot and killed Morris Black, 71, cut up the body and stuffed the remains in garbage bags that were dumped in the bay. What is in doubt as Durst's trial gets under way is whether prosecutors will be able to prove that Durst voluntarily and intentionally pulled the trigger.

Morris Black

Everything that happened later — the dismemberment of the body, the flight to avoid prosecution — is legally irrelevant to the question of whether Durst is guilty of murder, his lead lawyer told prospective jurors Wednesday.

Until the last-minute delay over the jail recordings surfaced Wednesday, opening statements had been scheduled to begin Thursday in a fifth floor courtroom that can accommodate a gallery of just 55 people. Fourteen seats of blue vinyl that don't swivel will be occupied by 12 jurors and two alternates chosen from 134 people questioned over three weeks. From the bench, Criss will preside over the most publicized trial of her career.

Defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin of Houston, who is leading a defense team being paid $1.2 million by Durst, agreed to drop a change of venue bid in exchange for having prospective jurors questioned individually. Because court documents associated with the case are thin on details, jury selection has provided the best insight yet into what the defense will argue.

DeGuerin, who remains under the strict gag order Criss imposed on everyone involved in the case, probed several prospective jurors Wednesday about their feelings about Robert Durst from reading about the case and seeing him in the courtroom.

"My first impression of him is that he is just a weak man," said one prospective juror, a warehouse worker.

The prospective juror explained later that he thought the diminutive Durst would not have won a fight with Black, who neighbors described as a difficult, confrontational type liked by few.

DeGuerin seemed pleased by the prospective juror's observation.

"Everyone has a right to self-defense. Do you agree?" DeGuerin.

"Yes, sir," the man replied.

DeGuerin pointed out several times that Durst isn't on trial for three activities prospective jurors read about him — cross-dressing, cutting up a dead body and bail-jumping. Durst is simply charged with murder, and the burden of proving him guilty of intentionally and voluntarily killing Morris Black rests with the prosecution, DeGuerin repeated numerous times.

Galveston District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk told jurors they can expect to see "gruesome" photos of the remains of Morris Black, which floated to the surface of Galveston Bay in the garbage bags Durst used to dispose of his neighbor. The defense claims that after Black died accidentally while Durst was defending himself, Durst went into a "disassociative state" and acted without realizing what he was doing.

The odds are strong that Durst will take the stand to give his version of what happened inside Black's apartment and his own in a shabby house on K Street, just a few blocks from the courthouse.

What kind of witness the defendant will make is not known because Durst has said nothing since news of his arrest broke in October 2001. The trial is attracting media attention from coast to coast because Durst comes from a prominent New York family and because of two other unsolved mysteries in his past.

In December 2000, Durst's best friend, author-journalist Susan Berman, was shot and killed execution-style in her Los Angeles home. Berman had acted as a sometimes spokesperson for Durst following the suspicious 1982 disappearance of his first wife, 29-year-old medical student Kathie Durst, in New York.

Durst, who typically wears to court a blue blazer and dress shirt without a tie, appeared Wednesday to be mumbling to himself, looking off into space and smiling for no apparent reason. His lawyer asked one prospective juror, a psychiatric nurse, if she knew anything about autism or a similar disorder that sometimes goes undiagnosed.

It was unclear whether the question related to Durst's courtroom demeanor or what he might say or do if he takes the witness stand. But if anyone was thinking that Durst might switch defense strategies at the last minute, DeGuerin laid that notion to rest.

"There is nothing in this case about insanity or competency," DeGuerin assured the woman. "That's not what this case is about."

At the end of a long day, both sides exercised their peremptory challenges. It was almost like choosing teams. In the end, three men and nine women were appointed to the jury panel.

The trial is expected to last four weeks to six weeks.