Robert Durst pleads guilty to gun charge, faces murder trial

Multimillionaire Robert Durst, long suspected of murdering multiple people, has pleaded guilty to gun charges and gotten a seven-year prison sentence.

Robert Durst, the estranged son of real estate mogul Seymour Durst, creeped out a large swath of HBO’s subscriber base in 2015 when they saw him discuss investigations into his behavior on The Jinx. In the course of his life, Durst has been accused of killing his first wife, Kathleen Durst, his neighbor, Morris Black, and his friend, Susan Berman. He was convicted of killing Black, was acquitted, so none of the charges stuck, so when viewers heard him say, at a time when he thought his microphone was off, that he “killed them all, of course,” it was a little unsettling.

Now, The New York Times reports that Durst has been given an 85-month federal prison sentence, although it doesn’t have anything to do with his alleged murders. Fearing that Durst was going to leave the country, authorities arrested him while he was staying at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in New Orleans under an assumed name. During a search, they found a .38 caliber revolver. As a convicted felon, Durst isn’t allowed to own a gun, which led to a plea deal and the seven-year sentence. According to the Times, Durst could have secured himself a 27-month sentence, but his defense team was so certain that the judge would throw out certain evidence that it didn’t bother to put together a proper plea deal.

This could set the stage for another murder trial, as under the terms of the agreement Durst will be moved to a federal prison in Los Angeles to face charges relating to Berman’s death. Durst’s utterance about “killing them all” is expected to play a part in any new trial, as will a note the police received alerting them to Berman’s death—apparently, the handwriting on the note matches that on a letter Durst once wrote to Berman, so expect handwriting experts to come into play.

How will this all go down? Check out The Jinx 2 whenever HBO gets around to making it to find out.