Robert Durst, the subject of HBO documentary "The Jinx," has been arrested on first-degree murder charges stemming from the death of his close friend, Susan Berman, in Los Angeles, 15 years ago.
The FBI and Louisiana state police made the arrest in the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in New Orleans on Saturday night, according to The New York Times. Durst was arraigned on Sunday morning at the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court where Judge Juana Lombard ordered he be held without bond.
Durst's lawyer Chip B. Lewis waived the extradition scheduled. He and his client will head back to Los Angeles to "fight the charges," Lewis told the Times. The Los Angeles Police Department issued the arrest warrant.
The Los Angeles district attorney reopened the investigation into Berman's death more than a year ago when producers for the HBO special, Marc Smerling and Andrew Jarecki, found new evidence and contacted the office. Berman was found shot execution-style at her home in Benedict Canyon in December 2000.
Berman's stepson, Sareb Kaufman, discovered a letter written from Durst to Berman in 1999 written in a style similar to an anonymous note the Beverly Hills Police Department received "alerting them to a 'cadaver' at Berman's home," according to the Times. Kaufman turned over the letter to Smerling and Jarecki, which was shown in the March 8 episode of "The Jinx."
HBO released a statement applauding the work by "The Jinx" producers and their contribution to the investigation.
"We simply cannot say enough about the brilliant job that Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling did in producing The Jinx," the statement reads. "Years in the making, their thorough research and dogged reporting reignited interest in Robert Durst's story with the public and law enforcement."
"The Jinx" aired its final episode on March 15. The show made no mention of the arrest, but when director Jarecki confronted Durst with the two letters, Durst only admitted to writing the letter to Berman. He also made strange statements in the closing moments of the episode when he asked to use the restroom but remained miked as he went off-camera.
"There is it. You're caught. You're right, of course. But, you can't imagine. Arrest him," he said, as running water can be heard. "I don't know what's in the house. Oh, I want this. What a disaster." (Pause.) "He was right. I was wrong. And the burping. I'm having difficulty with the question. What the hell did I do?" (Pause.) "Killed them all, of course," he said (via The Hollywood Reporter).
In 2000, New York State Police and the Westchester County district attorney's office also reopened their investigation into Durst's involvement in the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen Durst, in 1982.
A jury in Texas found Durst not guilty of the murder of his neighbor Morris Black in 2001, although he did admit to dismembering Black's body.
