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| Robert Durst’s Transfer to a Los Angeles-Area Prison Is Approved | Robert Durst’s Transfer to a Los Angeles-Area Prison Is Approved |
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| Robert A. Durst, the real estate scion charged with shooting a confidante in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home 16 years ago, is headed to the same federal prison that once held the crime boss Al Capone, the former Harvard professor and LSD advocate Timothy Leary and the mass murderer Charles Manson. | Robert A. Durst, the real estate scion charged with shooting a confidante in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home 16 years ago, is headed to the same federal prison that once held the crime boss Al Capone, the former Harvard professor and LSD advocate Timothy Leary and the mass murderer Charles Manson. |
| Mr. Durst, 73, who has been held in New Orleans on unrelated gun charges for more than a year, will be transferred to the minimum-security federal prison at Terminal Island, outside Los Angeles, where he will await formal arraignment by Aug. 18 on murder charges in the killing of his confidante, Susan Berman. | Mr. Durst, 73, who has been held in New Orleans on unrelated gun charges for more than a year, will be transferred to the minimum-security federal prison at Terminal Island, outside Los Angeles, where he will await formal arraignment by Aug. 18 on murder charges in the killing of his confidante, Susan Berman. |
| Prosecutors in Los Angeles contend that Mr. Durst killed Ms. Berman shortly before Christmas 2000 so that she would not reveal what she knew about his role in the sudden disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen, 18 years earlier. | |
| At the time, the authorities in New York had reopened the investigation into Ms. Durst’s disappearance, prompting Mr. Durst to flee New York. | |
| During a 16-minute hearing on Wednesday in United States District Court in New Orleans, Mr. Durst, appearing frail and shrunken in an orange jump suit, told Judge Kirk D. Engelhardt that he had been “wanting to get to Los Angeles for almost a year to enter my not-guilty plea.” | |
| Judge Engelhardt approved a defense motion that Mr. Durst be sent to Terminal Island. The judge also approved a prior plea bargain arrangement, in which Mr. Durst was sentenced to 85 months in prison for illegally possessing a .38-caliber revolver. Mr. Durst was assessed a $5,000 fine. | Judge Engelhardt approved a defense motion that Mr. Durst be sent to Terminal Island. The judge also approved a prior plea bargain arrangement, in which Mr. Durst was sentenced to 85 months in prison for illegally possessing a .38-caliber revolver. Mr. Durst was assessed a $5,000 fine. |
| Mr. Durst’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said Terminal Island “has the facilities to take care of a 73-year-old man” with various health issues. | |
| “He didn’t kill Susan Berman,” said Mr. DeGuerin, the lead lawyer in what has become a formidable defense team of lawyers from Houston, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. | |
| For more than two years, John Lewin, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County, has been building a circumstantial case against Mr. Durst that ties together Ms. Berman’s unsolved murder and Ms. Durst’s disappearance. | For more than two years, John Lewin, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County, has been building a circumstantial case against Mr. Durst that ties together Ms. Berman’s unsolved murder and Ms. Durst’s disappearance. |
| After the arraignment in August, Mr. Durst will for the first time get a look at the prosecution’s case, through discovery. That will almost certainly lead to a protracted period of wrangling over the evidence, which includes handwriting analysis, filmed interviews with Mr. Durst and testimony from friends and relatives. | |
| Mr. Durst had been active in New York in the family real estate business until 1994, when his father and his uncle turned the reins of the empire over to his younger brother, Douglas Durst. | Mr. Durst had been active in New York in the family real estate business until 1994, when his father and his uncle turned the reins of the empire over to his younger brother, Douglas Durst. |
| In 2003, Robert Durst, who had moved to Houston, was acquitted of murder charges in Galveston, Tex., in spite of admitting in court that he had carved up the body of a neighbor and threw the body parts into Galveston Bay. | In 2003, Robert Durst, who had moved to Houston, was acquitted of murder charges in Galveston, Tex., in spite of admitting in court that he had carved up the body of a neighbor and threw the body parts into Galveston Bay. |
| Mr. Durst has been fodder for books, television specials, and dramatic and documentary movies, including the HBO documentary mini-series, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” He has even been parodied on comedy shows: The actor Fred Armisen, who first played Mr. Durst in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, is reprising the role in the Netflix series “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” where he appears as an old flame of one of the characters. | Mr. Durst has been fodder for books, television specials, and dramatic and documentary movies, including the HBO documentary mini-series, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” He has even been parodied on comedy shows: The actor Fred Armisen, who first played Mr. Durst in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, is reprising the role in the Netflix series “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” where he appears as an old flame of one of the characters. |