N.Y. / REGION

Robert Durst, Subject of ‘The Jinx’ on HBO, Is Arrested on Murder Charge

By ASHLEY SOUTHALL
Robert Durst in court in Galveston, Tex., in 2003.David J. Phillip/Associated Press 
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 wife’s 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 final episode of the documentary, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” was scheduled to air on Sunday night.
Mr. Durst’s 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.
Last week, Mr. Durst said in a telephone interview 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.
The Los Angeles district attorney recently reopened an investigation into Ms. Berman’s death, and is tying it to the case of Mr. Durst’s 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. Black’s body.
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 was scheduled for Monday morning. Mr. Lewis said earlier on Sunday that Mr. Durst would waive extradition.
“We’re 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 morning. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the warrant was issued by the Los Angeles Police Department. Officials from that police agency did not immediately return calls for comment.
Mr. Durst, 71, was arrested by deputies from the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and booked just before 11 p.m. on Saturday, according to an online record of his arrest. He was being held without bond.
A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that F.B.I. agents participated in the arrest.
Reporting was contributed by Charles V. Bagli and Joseph Goldstein. Katy Reckdahl contributed reporting from New Orleans.