Robert Durst Back In Court For 2nd Straight Day
NEW ORLEANS (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A judge has scheduled a hearing next week for New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who faces weapons and drug charges in Louisiana and a murder charge in Los Angeles.
Durst was in court Tuesday, his second appearance before a judge in as many days.
Police on Tuesday also searched Durst's Houston home, although authorities there would not comment and directed questions to Los Angeles police. Tuesday afternoon, a marked Houston police car and several unmarked cars were in front of a 17-story building where Durst has three condominiums.
Durst was charged Monday in Los Angeles with first-degree murder in the shooting of Susan Berman, the daughter of a prominent Las Vegas mobster. He could face the death penalty under special circumstances that allege he ambushed her and murdered a witness to a crime.
He waived extradition in New Orleans, but authorities there charged him late Monday with being a felon in possession of a gun because he had a revolver when he was arrested there Saturday. It was not clear how soon he would be returned to California.
Attorney Dick DeGuerin said outside court Monday that Durst didn't kill Berman, and is "ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial.''
Presented with the two letters in the finale of "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst'' that aired Sunday on HBO, the eccentric heir blinked, burped oddly, pulled his ear and briefly put his head in his hands before denying he was the killer.
Then he stepped away from the tense interview and went to the bathroom, still wearing the live microphone that recorded what he said next.
"There it is. You're caught!'' Durst whispered before the sound of running water is heard. "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.''
Robert Durst Faces New Charges As He Awaits Extradition To Calif.
Durst, still worth millions despite his estrangement from his family, whose New York real estate empire is worth about $4 billion, has maintained his innocence in three killings in as many states.
When Durst approached the filmmakers and agreed to go on camera, against the advice of his lawyers, he had already weathered one murder case, winning an acquittal in a gory Galveston, Texas, dismemberment case by claiming he shot his neighbor in self-defense.
He was still suspected in the killing of Berman, whose father was a Las Vegas mobster associated with Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen, who was declared dead long after she vanished in New York in 1982.
Berman, 55, was shot once in the back of the head at her home near Beverly Hills shortly before New York investigators planned to question her about Kathleen Durst's disappearance.
Retired NYPD detective Michael Struk met Durst in 1982 when he filed a missing persons report on his wife, claiming he dropped her off at a train station by their home in Westchester County, a claim many questioned.
"In my mind, looking back, he lacked emotion," he said.
The documentary showed filmmaker Andrew Jarecki confronting Durst with a copy of an anonymous letter that alerted Beverly Hills police to look for a "cadaver'' at Berman's address.
Durst offered that whoever sent it was "taking a big risk. You're sending a letter to police that only the killer could have written.''
Then, in the final episode, Jarecki revealed another envelope, which Durst acknowledged mailing to Berman, that has similar writing in block letters and also misspelled the address as "Beverley.''
"I wrote this one but I did not write the cadaver one,'' Durst said. But when shown an enlargement of both copies, Durst couldn't distinguish them.
High-profile defense attorney Ben Brafman, who is not involved in the case, said Durst could be dismissed by some as out of touch and unstable.
"Most people think he's not playing with a full deck, and to the extent that this could be viewed as the ramblings of an old, tired man who's been pursued for 10 or 20 or 30 years, it might be dismissed as something that is musings as opposed to an actual statement," he said.
He also questioned whether the audio confession will even be admissible in court.
"That tape has been around a long time and it just appeared. There are going to be questions as to whether that tape was tampered with, whether it's taken out of context; what does it relate to?" Brafman said. "I think the tape is alive and in play."
The oldest son of the late real estate mogul Seymour Durst, Robert Durst became estranged from his family when his brother Douglas was chosen instead of him to run the family business.
Douglas Durst released a statement, saying, "We are relieved and also grateful to everyone who assisted in the arrest of Robert Durst. We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done."
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