Fugitive real estate heir to have change-of-plea hearing

In a 2003 trial, he admitted killing and dismembering a neighbor, but Durst was acquitted after arguing he acted in self-defense.

A real estate heir from NY, who has been called a celebrity criminal, appeared before a federal judge in New Orleans Wednesday morning, now admitting he was in illegal possession of a gun at the Canal Street Marriott past year. But The New York Times reports that more than two years have passed between when the filmmakers interviewed Durst and when they realized Durst’s private muttering was caught on tape, and that it’s unclear whether it will be admissible in court. The Bureau of Prisons must then decide where he will serve the sentence, and he will have to be transported to that prison.

Durst, who is being held without bail, also faces murder charges in Los Angeles, where he is accused in the unsolved slaying of Susan Berman, his longtime friend.

Durst’s plea bargain stipulates that he will be sentenced to 85 months in federal prison.

Prosecutors believe Robert Durst killed Susan Berman because she had critical information about Kathleen Durst’s disappearance. But he says Durst wants to get to California so he can prove he didn’t kill Susan Berman.

The acceptance of the deal is another step toward Durst’s extradition to California, where he is wanted in the death of a friend in 2000.

Despite the damning evidence presented in The Jinx, Durst’s defense team, led by Dick De Guerin, is confident in his client’s innocence. Investigators said Durst was staying at the hotel under an assumed name, as authorities tracked him down after a first-degree murder warrant was issued in California. Durst denied the accusation, but a live microphone later captured whispering that he had “killed them all”. Durst was arrested in New Orleans last March.

He will forfeit some $117,000 that authorities found on him, along with the gun and marijuana.

If Engelhardt accepts the plea, prosecutors in Los Angeles have agreed to arraign Durst by August 18, McMahon told the judge.

Berman was shot in the back of the head at her home in Beverly Hills, a day before she was due to be questioned by police who had reopened an investigation into the 1982 disappearance of the tycoon’s wife, Kathie Durst, in NY.