US Tycoon Accused Of Murder Transferred To California

LOS ANGELES, Nov 5, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 05th Nov, 2016 ) : New York real-estate tycoon Robert Durst, accused of killing a friend 16 years ago, was transferred to Los Angeles on Friday to face charges in the case, authorities said.

Durst, who is to be arraigned on a capital murder charge on Monday, was transferred from Louisiana, where he was sentenced in April to seven years in Federal prison on a weapons charge, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

The real-estate heir had sought his transfer to Los Angeles, where he has said he plans to enter a not-guilty plea for the 2000 murder of his close friend Susan Berman, who was a mobster's daughter.

Berman was shot in the back of the head at her home in Beverly Hills a day before she was due to be questioned by police who had reopened an investigation into the 1982 disappearance of the tycoon's wife, Kathie Durst, in New York.

Durst appeared to make an unwitting confession to a number of killings during filming of the acclaimed six-part HBO television documentary "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst." In the final episode Durst was heard muttering to himself, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course," apparently unaware that a wireless microphone remained switched on while he used the bathroom.

It was not clear if Durst was sincerely confessing, but authorities in Los Angeles said the documentary had played a role in their decision to seek the multimillionaire's arrest for Berman's murder.

He was arrested in March 2015 when police found a .38 caliber revolver and marijuana in his New Orleans hotel room. Durst's lawyers have said they want to go to trial as soon as possible to clear their client of the murder charge, which they said was driven by tv ratings.