Robert Durst, the wealthy New York City real estate heir and murder suspect who was the subject of last year’s HBO documentary miniseries The Jinx, pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession in New Orleans on Wednesday, the New York Times reports.
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First a plea deal, that said Durst agreed to 85 months – roughly seven years – in federal prison plus a $100 fine and a maximum of supervision release of three years.
Los Angeles County reached an agreement in December with US attorneys in Louisiana, where Durst will be transferred to Los Angeles by August to be arraigned on those murder charges.
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.
Assistant U.S. attorney Michael McMahon said the plea bargain will be nullified if the judge gives Durst a different sentence. Durst later pleaded guilty to charges of bond jumping and evidence tampering in connection with the case.
He was taken into custody in New Orleans on the eve of the finale of The Jinx, a six-part HBO documentary. Durst is suspected of killing her because he feared Berman could connect him to the disappearance of his first wife in 1982. “Kill them all of course”.
Durst admitted that he illegally carried a.38-caliber revolver after being convicted of a felony. However, he won’t immediately be sent to California until at least the sentencing.
Previous filings show Durst, 72, had made a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in Louisiana.
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Prosecutors said even though he fled here to New Orleans, he was on his way to Cuba. He was formally arrested early on the day of the broadcast. In the final episode, which aired Sunday night, Durst was caught saying “What did I do?” Moreover, in 2003, he was acquitted of murder charges despite his account of cutting up his neighbor, Morris Black.
