Real estate heir Durst in California to face murder charge

LOS ANGELES – New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who became a nationally known name with last year’s HBO documentary “The Jinx,” made his long-awaited arrival in California to face charges of killing a friend 16 years ago, authorities said.

Durst was being held in a Los Angeles County jail Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in the case on Monday afternoon, district attorney’s spokeswoman Jane Robison said.

Local prosecutors have been eager to bring Durst to California and try him in the killing of his friend Susan Berman in 2000, but prosecutors in New Orleans held him there on federal weapons charges until he pleaded guilty in April. He had already waived extradition to California.

Durst’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has said Durst is just as eager to come to Los Angeles County and prove his innocence.

“We’ve been begging to get to California since two days after he was arrested,” DeGuerin told The Associated Press in September.

Durst, already well-known in New York, became far more famous when HBO aired “The Jinx,” which cast serious suspicion on him for several alleged crimes, including the Berman killing. Durst was arrested the morning the last of the documentary’s six parts was aired in March 2015.

Durst was sentenced to seven years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to the New Orleans weapons charge. He had been serving time in an Indiana federal prison since September.