Real estate heir Robert Durst is in jail in New Orleans after his arrest late Saturday night on a warrant from Los Angeles County, California, related to a cold case homicide.
The eccentric 71-year-old New Yorker from a millionaire Manhattan family is awaiting an extradition hearing scheduled for Monday morning.
Durst’s lawyer Chip Lewis confirmed to CNN the warrant and arrest are related to the 2000 slaying of longtime Durst friend and crime writer Susan Berman. Berman was found shot to death in her home in Beverly Hills in December 2000. It was not clear what Durst was charged with.
‘We will waive extradition and get to Los Angeles as soon as possible to answer the charges,” Lewis said on Sunday.
The Los Angeles County district attorney reopened the Berman homicide investigation last week. Police have never filed charges in the case, but have long suspected Durst was connected to the execution-style killing, according to a new HBO documentary called “The Jinx.”
“The Jinx,” a six-part series produced and directed by Andrew Jarecki, explores whether Durst was connected to the disappearance of his young wife, Kathie Durst, in 1982 or the killing of Berman. The documentary explores investigators’ suspicions that Berman was killed because she knew what happened to Kathie Durst.
The New York real estate mogul was charged in 2003 in the murder and dismemberment of a 71-year-old neighbor in Galveston, Texas, but was found not guilty of the charges. Durst claimed self-defense in the killing of Morris Black and a Texas jury believed him.