3/15/2015

Robert Durst, Subject of The Jinx on HBO, Is Arrested on Murder Charge - NYTimes.com

http://nyti.ms/1G899tI

N.Y. / REGION

Roert Durt, Suject of The Jinx on HO, I

Arreted on Murder Charge
ASHLY SOUTHALL and CHARLS V. AGLI

MARCH 15, 2015

Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate family, was arraigned on
Sunday morning in New Orleans after being arrested on first-degree murder
charges in a killing 15 years ago in Los Angeles, law enforcement officials said.
For years, questions have swirled around Mr. Durst about the unsolved
killing of a close friend in Los Angeles in 2000, and about his first wifes
disappearance in 1982, and the shooting and dismemberment of a Texas
neighbor in 2001.
Mr. Durst is the subject of an HBO documentary series examining the
unsolved killings of the friend, Susan Berman, and the ex-wife, Kathleen
Durst. The sixth and final episode of the documentary, The Jinx: The Life and
Deaths of Robert Durst, was scheduled to air on Sunday night.
Mr. Dursts lawyer, Chip B. Lewis, said in a telephone interview that the
arrest of his client on Saturday, in the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in New
Orleans, was on murder charges in the death of Ms. Berman.
The Los Angeles district attorney recently reopened an investigation into
Ms. Bermans death, and is tying it to the case of Mr. Dursts missing wife in
New York. Mr. Durst went on trial in 2001 for the murder of the Texas
neighbor, Morris Black. A jury found him not guilty, though Mr. Durst
admitted having dismembered Mr. Blacks body.
The case of Ms. Bermans death was reopened after the producers of the
documentary contacted the Los Angeles district attorney more than a year ago
to discuss new evidence they had turned up in the course of working on their

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3/15/2015

Robert Durst, Subject of The Jinx on HBO, Is Arrested on Murder Charge - NYTimes.com

series.
In Episode 5 of the series, Ms. Bermans stepson, Sareb Kaufman, was
shown giving the producers a 1999 note from Mr. Durst to Ms. Berman, in
which the lettering was similar to an anonymous note sent to the Beverly Hills
Police Department alerting them to a cadaver at Ms. Bermans home.
Ms. Berman was found dead in December 2000 at her home in Benedict
Canyon. Investigators said she had been shot execution-style and there were
no signs of a forced entry.
Mr. Durst, in a telephone interview last week after Episode 5, said he felt
increasingly bitter toward the producers Marc Smerling and Andrew Jarecki
and Mr. Kaufman.
Mr. Durst said that he did not have the faintest idea who killed Ms.
Berman, nor did he know what happened to his first wife, who has been
declared legally dead. Speaking in a gravelly monotone, he did say that he felt
complicit in the disintegration of their marriage and the violent episodes
that accompanied it.
On Sunday morning, in an appearance at the Orleans Parish Criminal
District Court, Mr. Durst was arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder. He
appeared in a nearly empty courtroom wearing an orange jumpsuit. He was
accompanied by two lawyers; four F.B.I. agents were also present.
Judge Juana Lombard ordered him held without bond and an extradition
hearing was scheduled for Monday morning. Mr. Lewis said earlier on Sunday
that Mr. Durst would waive extradition.
Were waiving extradition so that we can get back to Los Angeles so that
we can get back and fight the charges, Mr. Lewis said.
The details of the warrant were not released on Sunday. A spokeswoman
for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said the warrant was issued
by the Los Angeles Police Department. Officials from that police agency did
not return calls or emails seeking comment.
Joseph Becerra, the New York State Police investigator who reopened
Mrs. Dursts case in 2000, said his office and the Westchester County district
attorneys office were monitoring the developments in the Berman case.

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3/15/2015

Robert Durst, Subject of The Jinx on HBO, Is Arrested on Murder Charge - NYTimes.com

Well proceed from there, he said, adding, Ours is a separate

investigation.
Mr. Durst, 71, was arrested on Saturday by F.B.I. agents and state police
officers as he walked into the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel. He was booked
into the Orleans Parish jail just before 11 p.m., according to an online record of
his arrest.
Craig Betbeze, a spokesman for the F.B.I. in New Orleans, confirmed the
arrest, but would not comment further.
News of the arrest surprised guests at the hotel on Sunday, who told a
reporter they had not seen it take place and did not know who Mr. Durst was.
The 487-room hotel sits on the busiest stretch of Canal Street, right across
from the French Quarter, and is bustling with tourists day and night. The first
floor includes restaurants, bars and a barber shop.
John Lewin, the lead prosecutor in Mr. Dursts case, declined to comment
on Sunday. Mr. Lewin, who was not involved in the earlier investigation, has
made a reputation for getting convictions in cold cases, some of them decades
old and whose victims bodies were never found.
In 2004, he used DNA evidence to charge Chester Turner, a convicted
rapist, with the unsolved murders of 10 women, including one who was
pregnant, in south and downtown Los Angeles. The evidence was also used to
free a man who had been wrongly convicted of three of those murders.
Mr. Turner was convicted of those murders in 2007 and of four more in
2014. He was sentenced to death twice, and is currently awaiting execution.
Mr. Dursts brother, Douglas, the chairman of the Durst Organization,
said in a statement on Sunday that the family was 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.
Joseph Goldstein, Katy Reckdahl and Campbell Robertson contributed reporting.

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Robert Durst, Subject of The Jinx on HBO, Is Arrested on Murder Charge - NYTimes.com

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