Update, Feb. 3, 12:02 p.m.: Real estate heir Robert Durst pleaded guilty to federal gun charges in Louisiana on Wednesday, setting in motion his extradition to California on murder charges.
A suspect in numerous murders, Durst was arrested in March 2015 at a hotel in New Orleans. Federal authorities, believing Durst was planning to flee the country, found a .38-caliber revolver during a search of his hotel room. As a convicted felon, he was not permitted to possess firearms.
Under a plea bargain agreement, Durst will serve 85 months in federal prison before heading west to California, the New York Times reported.
Durst, with an estimated worth approaching $100 million, was arrested one day before the finale of the HBO docu-series “The Jinx.”
The 72-year-old is expected to be eventually be extradited to Los Angeles, where prosecutors want Durst to face first-degree murder charges for the 2000 killing of writer and friend Susan Berman, the New York Times reported. On those charges, his attorney Dick DeGuerin told Reuters his client was eager to prove his innocence.
The family of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Durst was also suspected in McCormack’s 1982 disappearance. A Manhattan judge recently said McCormack must be officially declared dead for the $100 million civil lawsuit to go forward. [Reuters, New York Times] — Dusica Sue Malesevic