Millionaire Murder Suspect Robert Durst Denied Bond
NEW ORLEANS (CBSLA.com/AP) — Real estate heir and murder suspect Robert Durst, who has been charged with killing a woman in Benedict Canyon nearly 15 years ago, was ordered Monday to remain jailed without bail in New Orleans.
Magistrate Harry Cantrell said that based on what was presented in Monday's bond hearing and in court documents, the 71-year-old Durst is both a flight risk and a danger to others, the Associated Press reported.
Durst was seated in court beside his lawyers, his hands shackled to his sides in padded cuffs. He has been in a prison's mental health unit for nearly a week. Officials have deemed him a suicide risk.
His arrest earlier this month coincided with the final episode of the HBO true-crime series, "The Jinx," where Durst is heard saying, "There it is. You're caught...What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course" – allegedly forgetting he still was wearing a wireless microphone while speaking to himself in the bathroom.
He presumably was referring to the three murders authorities have tied him to over the past three decades: the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen, the death of his publicist and friend Susan Berman and the admitted slaying of his elderly neighbor in Galveston, Texas.
Berman was found dead at her Benedict Canyon home in 2000 after Beverly Hills police received a letter indicating they'd find a cadaver at her home. Whoever wrote the letter misspelled Beverly as "Beverley" in block letters – Berman's stepson revealed in "The Jinx" that he spotted the same mistake and block lettering in a note allegedly sent to Berman from Durst.
Authorities took him in to custody March 14 at a New Orleans hotel on a weapons charge and a warrant for Berman's death. He was checked in to the hotel under a pseudonym and officials say they found drugs and a revolver on him.
Durst is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles.
The millionaire's past may have played a role in his being denied bond; in 2001, after his neighbor's dismembered body was found floating in the Galveston Bay, Durst went on the lam. Authorities caught up to him in Pennsylvania. He eventually was acquitted of the neighbor's murder claiming it was an act of self defense.
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