Multimillionaire murder suspect Robert Durst was ordered held without bail Monday after a hearing in which his lawyers argued that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to hold him on a murder charge out of California or a drug and gun case in Louisiana. They also charged that police conducted an illegal search and grilled him even though he had a lawyer.
As a frail-looking Durst listened, prosecutors portrayed him as an extreme flight risk who talked about jumping bail in one episode of "The Jinx," the HBO documentary series about his bizarre history — including the disappearance of his first wife, the murder of his confidant, and the dismemberment of an elderly neighbor.
Investigators revealed during the hearing that authorities had been tracking Durst in connection with the 2000 slaying of Susan Berman in Beverly Hills when he left his Houston apartment with five pieces of luggage earlier his month. They kept track of his cellphone pings as he drove across Texas.
They asked the Louisiana state police to use license plate readers to track whether he crossed state lines, but cops never got any hits on his three cars. Instead, the LAPD discovered he was at the J.W. Marriott in New Orleans because he called his voicemail twice from there.
After he was arrested for the murder of Berman on a warrant from Los Angeles, Durst was hit with other charges by New Orleans authorities who say they found a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson and five ounces of pot in his room. The inventory also included "one flesh-toned mask with salt and pepper hair" and 446 $100 bills — and officials seized a parcel that had been shipped to him at the hotel with $117,000 in cash in it.
Durst says he's innocent. And in court papers, the real-estate heir's legal team argues his March 14 bust was orchestrated to coincide with the finale "The Jinx" — a charge the LAPD has denied.
One of the key characters in the HBO production is TV personality Jeanine Pirro, who investigated the disappearance of Durst's wife, Kathie, as the Westchester County, New York, district attorney.
Pirro was in the courtroom for the start of the hearing but was sent out after the defense objected that she is a potential witness. She later returned with her lawyer, Mary Ellen Roy, who said she was there as a journalist and should be allowed to stay.
"Frankly, I don't buy that, judge," Durst's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin said.
DA spokesman Chris Bowman countered that the defense "made Ms. Pirro into a bogeyman."
After a brief recess, the judge ruled that Pirro would not testify at the hearing and could return to the courtroom, and testimony resumed about the search of the hotel room.
Legal experts say felony charges stemming from the gun and drugs found there could prove to be a bigger headache than the harder-to-prove murder rap for the 71-year-old Durst.
"If Robert Durst is sentenced to 20 years clearly, 15 years, even 10 years, in his physical and mental condition and his age, it is essentially a life sentence," New Orleans criminal defense lawyer Chick Foret, who is not representing Durst, told NBC News.
First published March 23 2015, 7:29 AM
Hannah Rappleye
Rappleye is a reporter with the Investigative Unit at NBC News. Previously, her reporting has been supported by several foundations, including the Investigative Fund, and has appeared in various outlets, including The Nation, the Wall Street Journal and Salon.com.
She received her MA from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. She writes extensively on immigration, criminal justice and human rights issues.
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