Local News

Actions

Durst agrees to be extradited to California

Durst agrees to be extradited to California
Posted at 3:20 PM, Dec 22, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-22 18:20:48-05

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fugitive real estate heir Robert Durst has agreed to be extradited from Louisiana to Los Angeles by mid-August to face a murder charge, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office jointly filed an agreement with Durst and his lawyers for his return by Aug. 18. Durst had previously waived extradition.

Court filings have shown that Durst has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors on a weapons charge in New Orleans.

Durst, an estranged member of the family that runs 1 World Trade Center in New York, faces a murder trial in Los Angeles in the death of his friend and onetime spokeswoman Susan Berman.

The weapons charge has kept Durst jailed in Louisiana since March.

Durst's lawyers have said he is eager to prove he's innocent in Berman's death.

The weapons charge stems from a gun that was found when Durst was detained at a hotel room in March on the eve of a six-part HBO documentary about him, the disappearance of his first wife in 1982, Berman's death, and the death and dismemberment of a neighbor in Galveston, Texas, in 2001.

U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan in Louisiana postponed Durst's trial on the weapons charge earlier this month to give attorneys time to work out a date to sign a plea agreement. On Thursday, she scheduled a change of plea hearing for Feb. 3.