Galveston, Texas ? Eccentric New York real estate heir Robert Durst said Thursday he feared his 71-year-old neighbor would shoot him moments before they struggled for a gun that accidentally fired into the man’s face.

During his second day testifying at his murder trial, Durst, 60, said he never had his finger on the trigger and that Morris Black was holding the gun “the way you hold a gun to shoot it.”

“He came towards me with the gun,” Durst said. “I was concerned that Morris was going to shoot the gun, most likely in my face.”

In four weeks of testimony, prosecutors have tried to show that Durst intentionally shot Black, then cut up the body and threw the parts in Galveston Bay to try to hide the crime. Nearly all of the body parts, except the head, were recovered.

Earlier Thursday, Durst said he and Black developed a friendship in March 2001 after the two watched television one night in the millionaire’s $300-a-month apartment. They shared an interest in guns and enjoyed whiskey. Durst even gave Black a key to his apartment, a decision he said he didn’t regret “at least for a long time.”

But Durst said Black wasn’t afraid of confrontation and grew increasingly reckless, twice firing a gun in Durst’s apartment. Durst said he retrieved his key, put the gun in his oven and told Black not to come back.

Then on the morning of Sept. 28, 2001, Durst found his neighbor illegally in his apartment with an “angry look,” he testified. “I went directly for the oven,” Durst said.

The gun was gone, he said, then he saw Black pulling it out from under a jacket. Durst testified that he lunged toward Black, placing one hand on the gun and the other hand on Black’s shoulder.

Then the two men fell. Durst said his elbow hit something, and “the gun went off.” He then saw blood coming from Black’s nose.

Durst moved to Galveston in November 2000 after the investigation into his first wife’s 1982 disappearance was reopened. He met Black disguised as a woman but later dropped the masquerade and struck up a friendship with the elderly man.