NEW ORLEANS -- A Louisiana State Police trooper says millionaire Robert Durst has been booked on weapons charges in that state - on top of a first-degree murder charge lodged Monday by Los Angeles authorities.
The two Louisiana charges include: convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of a weapon with a controlled dangerous substance. The trooper said the controlled substance was a small amount of marijuana.
Durst also faces a murder charge in Los Angeles for the 2000 death of a friend who acted as his spokeswoman.
Prosecutors say Durst would be eligible for execution under special circumstances alleging murder of a witness and lying in wait with use of a gun. They will make that decision later.
Durst appeared before a judge in New Orleans on Monday.
At the start of the hearing, Durst appeared to be sleeping or meditating with his eyes closed, according to KHOU 11 News reporter Rucks Russell.
New Orleans authorities said Monday they may keep Durst in Louisiana to face a weapons charge before he is turned over to California. Police say he had a 38-caliber gun and gave the fake name "Ward Everett" when he was arrested Saturday.
Durst's attorney wasn't happy about the possible delay and he accused Louisiana of holding his client captive.
"Bob Durst didn't kill Susan Berman. He's ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial," Dick DeGuerin said. "But we're frustrated because local authorities are considering filing charges on him here and holding him here. We're ready to go to California and have a trial."
Durst was the focal point of the six-part HBO documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. The final episode that aired Sunday evening wrapped up with a clip from more than two years ago in which Durst is heard in a bathroom mumbling to himself "What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course."
Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki told CBS This Morning on Monday that his team didn't notice Durst's bathroom ramblings for two years because the recording had no video and "you're making a film."
"It took a while to really understand the impact of it," Jarecki said. "It was so chilling to hear it."
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that "additional evidence that has come to light in the past year" resulted in Durst being charged.
Houstonian Karen Nimmons recognized Durst from the HBO show when she spotted him in the lobby of the JW Marriott.
"And I'm staring at him and I say, 'Oh my God, that is Robert Durst right there," Nimmons said. "He was just sitting there and he looked like he was comatosed, kind of just out of it. But now everything makes sense.."
Nimmons was about to introduce herself when Durst was suddenly swarmed by a group of FBI agents who ordered her to back away.
"My heart's still pounding," Nimmons said.
Authorities say Durst drove to New Orleans from Houston last week and they were worried he planned to head to Cuba.
Durst has been at odds with his own family for years. Durst's brother Douglas, president of the family's multibillion dollar real estate conglomerate Durst Organization, expressed "relief" at the arrest.
"We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done," Douglas Durst said.
In 1982, Robert Durst was the only named suspect in the disappearance of his first wife, medical student Kathleen McCormack, who vanished after Durst maintained he dropped her off at a train station near their home north of New York City in Westchester County.
Eighteen years later, investigators looking into the McCormack disappearance contacted Berman. She was later found murdered with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. No one had been charged in her death until now.
Last week's HBO episode hinted that Los Angeles detectives were closing in on Durst, showing an apparent match between a Dec. 23, 2000, anonymous letter alerting police to a body at Berman's address and the handwriting on a letter Durst sent Berman the previous year. Both letters misspelled Beverly Hills as "Beverley."
Months after Berman's death, Durst was arrested in the death of a Texas neighbor, Morris Black. Durst admitted cutting up Black's body and dumping the remains in Galveston Bay. Aided by a trio of famed Houston defense lawyers, Durst won an acquittal based on self-defense.
In December 2014, Durst was fined $500 after urinating on candy at a Houston CVS store.
In New York, state police investigator Joseph Becerra said he hoped the Los Angeles case could lead to a resolution in the McCormack case.
"We're going to monitor the Los Angeles case closely, and hopefully it will lead to some resolution of our case," Becerra said Sunday.
