Robert Durst will go to prison for 7 years and 1 month for illegally carrying a firearm. The sentence was a part of a plea agreement that cleared him of multiple other charges.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt sentenced Durst, 72, on April 27 in New Orleans, as part of a plea agreement Durst had accepted in February. The sentence, once served, would be followed by 3 years of supervised release.
The agreement doesn’t include the murder charges Durst faces in Los Angeles for allegedly killing friend Susan Berman in 2000 to keep her from talking to New York prosecutors about the disappearance of Durst’s first wife in 1982.
Durst’s attorney said his client is innocent, does not know who killed Berman, and wants to prove it.
“I have been waiting to get to California about a year so I can state my not guilty plea,” Durst told Engelhardt. “I truly, truly want to express my statement that I am not guilty in the death of Susan Berman.”
Various charges brought by U.S. attorneys in Houston and Manhattan, and the Orleans Parish District Attorney have been dropped as part of the plea deal.
Accepting the sentence “cleared the decks—at a cost,” defense attorney Richard DeGuerin said. “It’s a great cost, but he’s not facing any other prosecutions, except what’s in California.”
Durst will also forfeit more than $44,000 found in his hotel room when he was arrested and $117,000 in a package sent to Everette Ward, the name under which Durst had registered, and intercepted by the FBI after his arrest.
Durst’s brother Douglas is a New York investor and developer, who is involved in the development of the One World Trade Center and other large Manhattan projects.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
