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| Robert Durst indicted in Louisiana on weapons and drug charges | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Robert Durst, the New York real estate millionaire, was indicted in New Orleans on gun and marijuana charges on Wednesday and is expected to remain in Louisiana for several months pending trial before being considered for extradition to California to face the first-degree murder charge that prompted his arrest last month. | |
| Related: Robert Durst of The Jinx: 'What did I do? Killed them all, of course' | Related: Robert Durst of The Jinx: 'What did I do? Killed them all, of course' |
| The indictment, handed down by a grand jury and confirmed by the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office, was a blow to Durst’s high-powered legal team, who had hoped to get him to California as soon as possible because they see their chances of acquittal there as much higher. They even offered, as a last-ditch effort, to cover his extradition costs. | |
| Durst, who won a murder trial in Texas in 2003 and had been a free man despite suspicions that he was involved in at least two more killings, now faces the very real prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. He traveled to New Orleans from his principal home in Houston as the television documentary serious about him, The Jinx, was reaching its dramatic climax and may have been preparing to flee the country, according to police investigators. | |
| The Louisiana case centres on a pistol and a personal stash of weed that authorities found in Durst’s French Quarter hotel room shortly after arresting him on 14 March. As a convicted felon – Durst skipped bail at the beginning of the Texas case – possession of a firearm is a serious offense that can carry a penalty of multiple decades in prison, depending on the judge’s view of his “repeat offender” status. He is being held without bail this time. | |
| He also faces as second charge of possession of marijuana in association with a firearm, which provides his defence team with a little more room for manoeuvre since the weed appears to have been for personal use only. Typically, the charge arises when dealers are caught selling and the gun is used for protection or enforcement. | |
| Legal observers see very little that Durst’s lawyers can do on the felony firearm charge and predict, if convicted, he will receive what is effectively a life sentence even before prosecutors in Los Angeles consider trying him for the murder of his friend Susan Berman, who was shot in the back of the head at her Beverly Hills home in 2000. | |
| Durst is 71 and according to his lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has recently gone through throat cancer and brain surgery. | |
| Before the indictment, DeGuerin had sought to undermine the legality of his client’s arrest and questioned the behaviour of the two arresting FBI agents. That process is now on hold as the case moves from magistrate’s court to the criminal courts and is unlikely to yield much beyond courtroom theatre, according to Craig Mordock, a former prosecutor turned criminal defence attorney who is following the case closely. | |
| “Everything the FBI agents did was by the book and will hold up in court,” Mordock said. “There are a bunch of avenues for DeGuerin to explore, but most of them are just rabbit holes.” |