Robert Durst pleads guilty to gun charge, murder trial looms

The defense team and prosecution will grapple over similarities between Durst’s two handwritten letters that incriminated his involvement with Berman’s murder, as well as his murder confession on tape, when they get to Los Angeles.

The agreement – signed by Durst, four of his attorneys and Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorneys John Lewin and Habib Balian – was only binding if a plea agreement was reached in the federal case against Durst, in which he was indicted for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Robert Durst, the estranged son of real estate mogul Seymour Durst, creeped out a large swath of HBO’s subscriber base in 2015 when they saw him discuss investigations into his behavior on The Jinx.

He’s expected to serve his sentence in California. Filmmakers questioned him over Berman’s death and the disappearance of his ex-wife in 1982, and it appeared Durst didn’t realize his microphone was still on between shots. Federal prosecutors and investigators from Los Angeles disputed that account and countered that a second, independent search, conducted hours later by Los Angeles detectives, was unquestionably legal.

DeGuerin said Durst’s sentencing will be six to eight weeks later. But law enforcement officials recovered a handgun from Durst’s hotel room while executing an arrest warrant on March 14.

Durst is scheduled to arrive in California no later than August 18 to be arraigned for Berman’s killing. Durst’s lawyers have rejected this. Durst was arrested at a Marriott in Louisiana in April with a bag full of fascinating carry-ons, including a latex mask, a map of Florida and Cuba, some marijuana, a passport, a fake Texas ID, and $45,000, with a package slip that showed he was expecting $117,000 more.

He went on trial for Black’s death in 2003 – after a nationwide manhunt located him in Pennsylvania – but was acquitted by a jury that deemed Black’s killing was an act of self-defense.

The previous felony that is part of Durst’s plea was a 2004 plea in Pennsylvania to possessing a weapon both while under indictment for Black’s death and doing so while a fugitive on the murder charge.