“The Jinx” subject and real estate heir Robert Durst is due to appear in A California Court room today to face murder charges over the killing of his friend and confidante Susan Berman.
Durst, brother to Durst Organization CEO Douglas Durst, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for a federal weapons charge in Louisiana. He was arrested last March, and since then Los Angeles County prosecutors have been trying to bring him to California to face murder charges, the Associated Press reported. They believe Durst killed Berman in 2000 to prevent her from speaking about the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack.
Durst was flown to L.A. on Friday. His attorney Dick DeGuerin has said Durst is eager to prove he didn’t kill Berman, according to the paper.
The real estate scion — who achieved international infamy through the HBO docu-drama “The Jinx” — was acquitted of the murder of a neighbor, Morris Black, in 2003. Black was dismembered and found in pieces along the Galveston Bay in Texas. He is suspected, but has never been convicted, of killing his first wife Kathleen, who disappeared 35 years ago. The Lifetime network is developing a made-for-television movie centered around the story. [AP via NYP] — Miriam Hall