Once-fugitive real estate heir Robert Durst's plea deal approved

FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2014 file photo, New York City real estate heir Robert Durst leaves a Houston courtroom. New Orleans Federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, approved a plea agreement for Durst to serve 7 years, 1 month in prison on a weapons charge. Durst still faces a separate murder charge in California. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 15, 2014 file photo, New York City real estate heir Robert Durst leaves a Houston courtroom. New Orleans Federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, approved a plea agreement for Durst to serve 7 years, 1 month in prison on a weapons charge. Durst still faces a separate murder charge in California. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge on Wednesday approved a plea agreement for real estate heir Robert Durst to serve 7 years, 1 month in prison on a weapons charge.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt approved the sentence during a hearing in New Orleans on Wednesday. The 72-year-old Durst had accepted the sentence as part of his guilty plea in February and was waiting for judicial approval. Engelhardt also fined Durst $5,000 and said that his sentence, once served, would be followed by three years of supervised release.

Ten years and a $250,000 fine would have been the maximum sentence that Durst could have faced for illegally carrying a .38-caliber revolver after being convicted of a felony.

Durst still faces a separate murder charge in California. Durst is charged in Los Angeles with killing a female friend, Susan Berman, in 2000 to keep her from talking to New York prosecutors about the disappearance of Durst's first wife in 1982.

His attorneys have said repeatedly that he 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 the court. "I truly, truly want to express my statement that I am not guilty in the death of Susan Berman."

While federal guidelines recommended a sentence of between 12 and 18 months, Engelhardt said the sentence was "reasonable" since it included agreements in three jurisdictions. Under the deal, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York; the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Texas; and the Orleans Parish agreed not to prosecute Durst on a variety of offenses.

Durst's attorneys and prosecutors in Los Angeles have agreed that he will be in Los Angeles by mid-August.

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